I don’t know exactly who coined fronting, but I know it was being used enough that people didn’t see the need to define it by 1990! It’s one of my goofiest citations: Michael A. Rosen’s “Sexual Portraits”, and it’s being used to discuss kink personas: https://lb-lee.dreamwidth.org/1373992.html
I SUSPECT it came from the Troops for Truddi Chase’s “the Front Runner” from When Rabbit Howls in 1987, but haven’t proven it and still need to go through S4OS and early Many Voices. It’s clear Bill and Sybil from Sexual Portraits didn’t coin the term! And I’ve been wrong before—for example, “system” seems to come from IFS, but “parts has been proven to predate it!
EDIT: Okay, I dug into S4OS and MV, and though I saw no reference in S4OS (though it's just one issue, and at times the scan quality is bad, so I should go through manually just to make sure), it was being used in Many Voices by the time of April 1989: at the bottom of page 6, someone going by SD says, "We are taking turns, sharing some experiences, and having patience with whoever is 'up front' at the time. We are a family now, so no one is alone."
It wasn't COMMONLY used, though; the next use of it isn't until June 1990, page 8, from Lynn D.: "We don't 'switch' radically in public, though someone may come to the front to say something once in a while." Those are the only uses I can find that could be before Sexual Portraits, and it's always "front" as a noun, not a verb, which is how Sybil and Bill use it: "She hardly ever appears in public, preferring to let Holiday, Sybil Holiday, and Mistress Sybil front for her."
Unfortunately, it turns out my ebook of When Rabbit Howls is corrupted, and the replacement I got keeps crashing my machine. So that's just going to have to wait for checking til another time. (God, what a pain.)
EDIT AGAIN: Okay, I finally got When Rabbit Howls up and running (that took way longer and was more obnoxious than expected) and yes, the front terms seem to come from them. This would explain why the term isn't used in S4OS; my issue predates When Rabbit Howls.
Besides the Front Runner herself, "Front Runner" seems to be a term for anyone we now call a fronter. (Chapter Seven: "Any Troop member who wanted to be a part-time Front Runner first had to travel with the Outrider...") There's also this line from chapter 5: "Nails, a Troop member who dealt with rejection, charged up front. Nails was now 'sitting forward' in the mind of the woman who could still hear and operate, and therefore believed that the actions and words were her own." The term "up front" is used multiple times, and in Chapter Eighteen, there's "Certain informed Troop minds surged to the forefront, intent on a single act—to protect that which was now in grave danger." The Troops also refer to "the front lines" in Chapter Twenty, which gives context for their terminology: armies have fronts they battle on.
How the term "broke containment" and made it to the kinksters by 1990, I don't know, but I'd LOVE to find out!
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2025-04-07 03:22 pm (UTC)I SUSPECT it came from the Troops for Truddi Chase’s “the Front Runner” from When Rabbit Howls in 1987, but haven’t proven it and still need to go through S4OS and early Many Voices. It’s clear Bill and Sybil from Sexual Portraits didn’t coin the term! And I’ve been wrong before—for example, “system” seems to come from IFS, but “parts has been proven to predate it!
EDIT: Okay, I dug into S4OS and MV, and though I saw no reference in S4OS (though it's just one issue, and at times the scan quality is bad, so I should go through manually just to make sure), it was being used in Many Voices by the time of April 1989: at the bottom of page 6, someone going by SD says, "We are taking turns, sharing some experiences, and having patience with whoever is 'up front' at the time. We are a family now, so no one is alone."
It wasn't COMMONLY used, though; the next use of it isn't until June 1990, page 8, from Lynn D.: "We don't 'switch' radically in public, though someone may come to the front to say something once in a while." Those are the only uses I can find that could be before Sexual Portraits, and it's always "front" as a noun, not a verb, which is how Sybil and Bill use it: "She hardly ever appears in public, preferring to let Holiday, Sybil Holiday, and Mistress Sybil front for her."
Unfortunately, it turns out my ebook of When Rabbit Howls is corrupted, and the replacement I got keeps crashing my machine. So that's just going to have to wait for checking til another time. (God, what a pain.)
EDIT AGAIN: Okay, I finally got When Rabbit Howls up and running (that took way longer and was more obnoxious than expected) and yes, the front terms seem to come from them. This would explain why the term isn't used in S4OS; my issue predates When Rabbit Howls.
Besides the Front Runner herself, "Front Runner" seems to be a term for anyone we now call a fronter. (Chapter Seven: "Any Troop member who wanted to be a part-time Front Runner first had to travel with the Outrider...") There's also this line from chapter 5: "Nails, a Troop member who dealt with rejection, charged up front. Nails was now 'sitting forward' in the mind of the woman who could still hear and operate, and therefore believed that the actions and words were her own." The term "up front" is used multiple times, and in Chapter Eighteen, there's "Certain informed Troop minds surged to the forefront, intent on a single act—to protect that which was now in grave danger." The Troops also refer to "the front lines" in Chapter Twenty, which gives context for their terminology: armies have fronts they battle on.
How the term "broke containment" and made it to the kinksters by 1990, I don't know, but I'd LOVE to find out!