Maid to Order: Commercial Fetishism and Gender Power

Author(s): Anne McClintock

Source: Social Text, No. 37, A Special Section Edited by Anne McClintock Explores the Sex
Trade (Winter, 1993), pp. 87-116
Published by: Duke University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/466262 .
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 Maid to Order
COMMERCIALFETISHISMAND GENDER POWER

In Sex, Madonna has her wits,ifnot her clothes,about her.The scandal Anne McClintock
of Sex is the scandal of S/M: theprovocativeconfessionthattheedictsof
powerare reversible.So thecriticsbay forherblood: a womanwho takes
sex and moneyintoherownhandsmust-sooner or later-bare herbreast
to the knife.But withthe utmostartificeand levity,Madonna refusesto
imitatetragedy.Takingsex intothe street,and moneyintothe bedroom,
she flagrantly violatesthe sacramentaledicts of privateand public, and
stagessexual commerceas a theaterof transformation.
Madonna's eroticphoto album is filledwiththe theatricalparapher-
nalia of S/M: boots,chains,leather,whips,masks,costumes,and scripts.
AndrewNeil, editorof the Sunday Times,warnsominouslythatit thus
runs the riskof unleashing"the darkside" of human nature,"withpar-
ticulardangerforwomen."'1But theoutrageof Sex is itsinsightintocon-
sensual S/M as hightheater.2Demonizing S/M confusesthe distinction
between unbridled sadism and the social subculture of consensual
fetishism.3 To argue thatin consensualS/M the "dominant"has power,
and the slave has not,is to read theaterforreality;it is to play the world
forward.The economyof S/M is the economyof conversion:slave to
master,adult to baby,pain to pleasure,man to woman,and back again.
S/M, as Foucault puts it, "is not a name given to a practiceas old as
Eros; it is a massiveculturalfactwhichappeared preciselyat the end of
the eighteenth century,and whichconstitutesone of thegreatestconver-
sions of Westernimagination:unreasontransformed intodeliriumof the
heart."4Consensual S/M "playstheworldbackwards."5
In Sex, as in S/M,rolesare swiftly swapped.At theVault,New York's
amiableS/M dungeon,thedominaMadonna archlyflicksherwhipacross
the glisteningleatherhips of a female"slave." The domina'sbreastsare
bare; the slave is armored.Contraryto popular stigma,S/M theatrically
floutsthe edict thatmanhood is synonymouswithmastery,and submis-
sion a femalefate.Furtherintothealbum,a man genuflects at Madonna's
feet,neckbound in a collar,thelash at his back. But the domina'sfootis
also bound,and theleash strapsherhand to his neck.The bondage fetish
performsidentity and poweras twinedin interdependence, and rebutsthe
Enlightenment vision of the solitaryand self-generatingindividual.The
lesbian withthe knifeis also the lover;scenes of bondage are stapledto
scenes of abandon,and Sex makesno pretenseat romanticprofundity but
flauntsS/M as a theaterof scene and surface.

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 Hence theparadox of consensualS/M. On the one hand,it seems to
parade a servileobedienceto conventionsof power.In its clich~d rever-
ence forformalritual,it is themostceremonialand decorousof practices.
S/M is "beautifullysuited to symbolism."6As theater,S/M borrowsits
decor, props, and costumery(bonds, chains,ropes, blindfolds)and its
scenes (bedrooms,kitchens,dungeons,convents,prisons,empires)from
theeverydayculturesof power.At firstglance,then,S/M seems a servant
to orthodoxpower.Yet,on thecontrary, withitsexaggeratedemphasison
costumeand scene, S/M performssocial poweras scripted, and hence as
permanently subjectto change.As a theaterof conversion,S/M reverses
and transmutesthe social meaningsit borrows,withoutfinallystepping
outsidethe enchantment of its magic circle.In S/M,paradox is paraded,
not resolved.This essayis pitchedat thebordersof contradiction.

Against Nature: S/M and Sexology

In 1885, thesexologistRichardvon Krafft-Ebing coinedthetermssadism

and masochism, and medicalizedboth as individualpsychopathologies of
the flesh.7Sadism, forKrafft-Ebing, was an aberrantand atavisticmani-
festationof the "innatedesireto humiliate,hurt,wound,or even destroy
othersin ordertherebyto createsexual pleasure in one's self."8Nature
was the overlordof power,but had, in its wisdom,seen fitto ordainthe
aggressiveimpulse in men, not women. "Under normalcircumstances
man meets obstacles which it is his part to overcome,and for which
naturehas givenhim an aggressivecharacter."9"Normal" sexualitythus
merelyenacts the male's "natural" sexual aggressionand the female's
"natural"sexual passivity:"In the intercourseof the sexes, the activeor
aggressiverole belongs to man; woman remains passive, defensive.It
affordsman great pleasure to win a woman, to conquer her."'1 Yet
women, for Krafft-Ebing, are indirectlyto blame for male sadism, for
theirveryshynessprovokesmale aggression:"It seems probablethatthis
sadisticforceis developedby the naturalshynessand modestyof women
towardstheaggressivemannersof themale.""11 Happily,however,Nature
designed woman to take a refinedpleasure in man's rough victory:
"Woman no doubt derivespleasurefromherinnatecoynessand thefinal
victoryof man affordsherintensegratification."12
The task for medical sexology was to police a double boundary:
betweenthe "normal" cultureof male aggressionand the "abnormal"
cultureof S/M, and between"normal" femalemasochismand "abnor-
mal" male masochism.The firstcontradiction-between "natural"hetero-
sexualityand the "unnaturalperversions"-was primarilymanaged by
projectingthe "perversions"onto the inventedzone of race. Sexologists

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Since S/M is the likeKrafft-Ebing demonizedS/M as thepsychopathology of the atavistic
individual,as a blood-flawand stigma of the flesh. S/M, like other
theatricalexercise fetishisms,was figuredas a regressionbackwardin timeto the "prehis-
tory" of racial "degeneration,"existingominouslyin the heart of the
of social contra-
imperialmetropolis-thedegenerationof the race writas an individual
pathologyof the soul.
diction,itisself-
Thus, forKrafft-Ebing, decent doses of male aggressionare a fait
accompliof nature.Genuine sadism,however,existsin "civilizedman"
consciously
onlyto a "weak and ratherrudimentary degree."13 Whilesadismis a nat-
against nature, ural traitof "primitive"peoples, atavistictraces of sadism in "civilized
man" stem,not fromenvironment or social accident,but are awakened
not in the sense froma primordialpast: "Sadism must . .. be countedamongthe primi-
tive anomaliesof the sexual life.It is a disturbance(a deviation)in the
thatitviolates evolutionof psychosexualprocessessproutingfromthe soil of psychical
degeneration."14
naturallaw, but Like Krafft-Ebing, Freud agreesthattheaggressiveimpulseis "read-
ilydemonstrablein thenormalindividual."'5Again,the"normalindivid-
in the sense that
ual" is male: "The sexualityof mostmen showsan admixtureof aggres-
itdenies the exis- sion, of a desire to subdue."16 But for Freud, the differencebetween
aggressionand sadismis one of degree,not of kind:"Sadism wouldthen
tence of natural correspondto an aggressivecomponent of the sexual instinctwhich
has become independentand exaggeratedand has been broughtto the
law in the first foregroundby displacement.""7Masochism, however,presentsa more
subtleriddle.For Krafft-Ebing, since masochismis simplyNature'sway
place. of sayingthatwomen are destinedfor a passive role in society,maso-
chism is naturalto women, but not to men. Freud, however,sees the
"most striking peculiarity"of sadomasochismas the factthat"its active
and passive forms are regularlyencounteredtogetherin the same per-
son."18 Male masochism, moreover,is by no means an uncommon
phenomenon.Freud,however,managesthiscontradiction by identifying
male masochismas, more properlyspeaking,"feminine."'19 The hetero-
sexual distribution of "male" aggressionand "female" passivityis sus-
tained,ifprecariously.
By contrastwithunbridledsadism,however,consensual and com-
mercialS/M is less a biologicalflawor pathologicalvariantof "natural"
male aggressionand "natural"femalepassivity, thanit is a historicalsub-
culturethat emergedin Europe alongsidethe imperialEnlightenment.
Far frombeinga primordialmanifestation of racial "degeneracy,"S/M is
a subcultureorganizedprimarilyaround the symbolicexerciseof social
risk.Indeed, the outrageof S/M is preciselyits hostilityto the idea of
natureas thecustodianof social power:S/M refusesto read poweras fate
or destiny.Since S/Mis thetheatricalexerciseof social contradiction, it is

90 Anne McClintock

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self-consciously againstnature,not in the sense thatit violatesnatural

law,but in the sense thatit deniesthe existenceof naturallaw in thefirst
place. S/M performs social poweras both contingentand constitutive, as
sanctionedneitherby fate nor by God, but by social conventionand
invention,and thusas open to historicalchange.
Consensual S/M insistson exhibitingthe "primitive"(slave, baby,
woman) as a character in thehistoricaltimeof modernity.S/M stagesthe
"primitiveirrational"as a dramaticscript,a communalperformance in the
heartof Westernreason.The paraphernalia of S/M (boots,whips,chains,
uniforms)are the paraphernaliaof statepower,public punishmentcon-
vertedto privatepleasure.S/Mplayssocialpowerbackward,visiblystaging
hierarchy,difference and power,theirrational, ecstasy,and thealienation
of the body as being at the centerof Westernreason,thusrevealingthe
imperiallogicofindividualism, butalso irreverently
refusingit as fate.S/M
manipulatesthesignsof powerin orderto refusetheirlegitimacy as nature.
Hence theunstinting severityofthelaw in policingcommercialS/M.

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 Nothingto Use
butYourChains:
Fetishesin the Land
of Fem-Dom

Some feminists demonizehet-

erosexualS/Mas thesanctioned
exerciseof male tyranny: "Pa-
and
triarchy heterosexuality at-
temptto freezepower,to make
one side always passive ...
It is the originof masochistic
and sadisticpositions."20For
other feminists,even lesbian
S/M is "self-abasementon all
levels that renders wimmin
byGraceLau, 1993
Photograph
unable to executetrulyfemi-
nistgoals."21KathleenBarryin Sexual SlaverydenouncesS/M as "a dis-
guisefortheact of sexuallyforcinga womanagainstherwill.. ."22
It is also commonlythoughtthatmen who pay forcommercialS/M
pay to indulgein thesadisticabuse of women.Yetthetestimony of dom-
inatrixesrevealspreciselythe opposite.By farthe mostcommonservice
paid forby men in heterosexualS/M is the extravagant displayof sub-
mission.In mostcommercialB&D (bondageand discipline),men are the
"slaves,"notthewomen.As thedominatrix Lindi St. Clair says,farfrom
being the vicious unleashingof male dominance,S/M is typically"the
otherwayround."23AllegraTayloragrees:

Ambercan callon theservicesofa coupleof"submissive"girlswhothem-

selvesenjoybeingbeaten,to servicetheneedsofthefew"dominant" men
whowantto dishit outrather thantakeit,butthemajority of herclients
comeandpaya lotofmoneyinordertosubmit, torelinquish
themselves,to
suffer.24

Who are these men? "Proper gentlemenwho know how to behave."

Amber'sregularsinclude"solicitors,HarleyStreetdoctors,seniorpolice
businessexecutivesand churchmen.They come to be punished,
officers,
humiliated,frightened and tormentedto thelimitsof theirendurance."'25
Kelly, an AustralianB&D specialist,claims her clientsare "mostly
businessmen,middle-age upwards. They were all well dressed, you
wouldn'tpick themin the street,theycould be yourboss at work.B&D
seems to attractthatkindof clientele,as thoughpeople in authority
want
thattakenawayfromthem."26 As Lindi St. Clair testifies:

92 AnneMcClintock

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 LOCAL
,TOTAL
637
2496
antalising
Mistress
- Charlotte
An awfullot of men . . . want to dress up in whatwe call rubber-wear,or
leather,or theywant to be tied up, and put into bondage, or spanked,or
caned, or theywant to dress in ladies clothing,or theywantto be urinated
on, or theywant to be abused by a dominantfemale. .. and none of this
involves straightsex. . . . All these men are married,with families...
They'd neveradmitit to anyone.27

Far from male sadism being the norm, she says: "There's a few of what
are called 'masters,' who want submissive girls,but I've never come across
that. It's very, very small. It's the other way round."28 Bonnie, an Aus-
tralian prostitute,writes, "In New Zealand and here it's much the same,
usually they're guys who want to get a beating."29 Says Kelly: "There are
those who are just happy grovellingaround the floorbegging formercy."'3
This verdict is confirmed again and again: "in the world of the sado-
masochist, there is nothing 'abnormal' about a male being passive and
submissive."31 Indeed, male passivity is by far the most common phe-
nomenon. What is the meaning of this conversion?

The Domestic Slave

Prostitutestestifythat men frequentlyenact scripts framed by the "degra-

dation" of domesticity: paying large sums of money to sweep, clean,
launder, and tidy, under a female regime of verbal taunts and abuse:
"'Domestic' slaves want to be drudges and set to work cleaning, shopping,
ironing, etc .... One elderly gentleman of seventy does the best domestic

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 GENTLEMAN
MAID TO
SERVE
2637
LOCAL t2496
work I have ever seen. Another slave tried to get rid of him, and they
would bicker over who would wash up, peel the potatoes, or sweep the
floor."32Some dominas keep "pets," who pay regularlyto do theirhouse-
work for them. During her trial in 1987, Madame Cyn Payne calmly con-
fessed to the court: "Well, I've had one or two slaves," she said. "It's
someone who does all the housework and painting and decorating, and in
returnhe likes a littlebit of caning, insults, and humiliation."33
Similar testimoniesabound. Lisa, an Australian prostitute,remembers
a domestic "slave" who liked nothing so much as to "crawl around the
floor doing the vacuum with a cucumber up his bum."34 Kelly remembers,
"Another guy came around each week and paid to do our laundry."35
Another paid to empty the bins of condoms and tissues. The eighteenth-
century prostitute,Ann Sheldon, records in her memoirs "a person of
very gentleman-likebehaviour" who had a fancy for being roundly beaten
with dishcloths while doing the washing up:

lookingover the kitchen-door, I saw the good man, disrobedof his clothes
and wig,and dressedin a mob cap, a tatteredbedgown,and an old pettycoat
belongingto the cook, as busy in washingthe dishes as if thisemployment
had been thesourceof his dailybread-but thiswas not all; forwhilehe was
thus occupied, the mantua-makeron one side, and the cook on the other,
were belabouringhim withdish-clouts;he continuingto make a thousand
excuses forhis awkwardnessand promisingto do the businessbetteron a
futureoccasion.36

94 Anne McClintock

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 BE MY
CHAIR
IF YOU
DARE
496
3290
What are we to makeof theserituals,belongingas theydo in therealmof
thefetish?
In theirsecretsocietyof thespectacle,male "slaves" enactwithcom-
pulsive repetitionthe forbiddenknowledgeof the power of women. In
cultureswherewomenare thechildraisers, an infant'sfirstidentification
is
withthe cultureof femininity, whichentersthe child'sidentityas its first
structuring principle.But in these same societies,boys are taskedwith
identifying away fromwomen,thatis, away froma foundingdimension
of theirown identity, towardan oftenabstractedand remotemasculin-
ity-identity,thatis, not throughrecognition, but throughnegation.Mas-
culinitythus comes into being through the ritualizeddisavowal of the
feminine,predicatedon a host of male rites of negation.Nonetheless,
withthecultureofwomensurvivesin secretrites,taboo and
identification
fullof shame.
By cross-dressing as womenor as maids,by payingto do "women's
work,"or by rituallyworshipingdominas as sociallypowerful,the male
"slave" relishes the forbiddenfeminineaspects of his own identity,
furtivelyrecallingthe childhoodimage of femalepowerand the memory
of maternity,banishedby social shameto themuseumof masturbation.
In Freudianpsychoanalysis, as in Westerncultureat large,male iden-
tificationwiththe motherfigureis seen as pathological,perverse,the
source of arrest,fixation,and hysteria,ratherthanas an inevitableaspect
of any child's identity.For Freud, the motheris seen as an object the
childmusttryto possess and control,ratherthana socialideal withwhom

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 [
THRUTHE
LOOKING
GLASS
ATV
EXPERIENCE

637
LOCAL 2496
to identify.For boys,activeidentificationis allowedonlywithmen,thus
complex,dynamicpatterns identity splitintotwodistinctgendered
of are
categories.For men, the disjunctionbetweenwomen as object-choice,
and women as desirableto identifywith,is splitand unresolved,policed
by social shameand stigma.
It is not surprising,then,thatcleaningritualsfigureso oftenin the
land ofFem-Dom (Female Domination).Male floorwashing, laundering,
footlicking, and bootscrubbingritualsfillthe fantasycolumns of Fem-
Dom magazines such as Mistress,F-D Xtra, and Madame in a Worldof
Fantasy.Perhapstheseexpiationritualssymbolicallyabsolvethe "slave" of
sexual and gendershame,in elaborateabsolutionscenes thatare replete
withChristianovertones.Sex can be indulgedif guiltcan be atonedfor,
throughthe ritualwashingof floors,feet,and lingerie-"masochismas
expiationforthe sin of sexuality."'37
The domesticfetishalso bringsinto crisisthe historicseparationof
the"male" sphereofthemarket,and the"female"sphereofthehome.By
payinghandsomelyto performhouseholdservicesthatwivesare expected
to performforfree,male "slaves" stage,as outrageousdisplay,the social
contradiction betweenwomen'spaid workand women'sunpaid workin
thehome. If themiddle-classcultof domesticitydisavowedtheeconomic
value of housework,and exaltedthe home as the space forthe elaborate
displayof leisureand consumption,domesticS/M does the opposite.In
the ritualexchange of cash and the reversalof gender roles, domestic
S/M stageswomen'sworkas havingboth exhibitionand economic value.
The social disavowaland undervaluationof domesticworkare reversedin
the extravagantovervaluation of women'sdirtywork,and the remunera-
tionof womenforthe supervisionof men's labor.

96 Anne McClintock

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 The domestic-slave fetish-inhabiting as it does the threshold
betweenprivateand public, marriageand market-embodies the trace
of both historicaland personal memory,exhibiting,withoutresolution,
the social contradictionbetween the historicaldisavowal of women's
labor,and the personalmemoryof women'spower.Male "slaves" throw
into question the liberal separationof privateand public, insistingon
exhibitingwomen's work,women's value in the home: thatspace puta-
tivelybeyondboth slave labor and the marketeconomy.Exhibitingtheir
"filth"as value,theygive the lie to the disavowalof women'sworkand
the middle-class denunciation of sexual and domestic "dirt." At the
same time,however,the slave-bandbringsintothe bourgeoishome the
memoryof empire: the clankingof chains and the crack of the whip.
The fetishslave-band-mimickingthe metalcollarswornby black slaves
in thehomes of theimperialbourgeoisie-enactsthehistoryof industrial
capital as haunted by the traumaticand ineradicablememoryof slave
imperialism.
Male TV (transvestite)"slavery" thus veers betweennostalgiafor
female power-embodied in the awful spectacle of the whip-wielding
domina; and the ritual negation of female power-embodied in the
feminizedmale "slave" as the nadir of self-abasement.In the process,
however,the spectacle of the male "slave" on his hands and knees,
naked as a newt and scrubbingthe kitchenfloor,throwsradicallyinto
question "Nature's" edict thatdifferences in genderentailnaturaldivi-
sions of labor.
Some men play the submissiverole only when dressed as women,
doing "women's work"costumedas housemaidsor nannies.A question
thenarises: Do men indulgein submissiononlywhen dressedas women
and slaves,dogs and babies? Would heterosexuality be flungintoconfu-
sion ifmen performeddomesticworkin Dacron suitsand Leonard from
Paris ties? Afterthe via dolorosaof the S/M session, the domina bears
witnessto the resurrectionof manhood. "Finally,it was all over.
Dennis got up and gingerlyput his pants on. He was instantlytrans-
formed into a normal, confident, assertive man. .. . We all stood around
chattingand having a cup of tea."38Is the heterosexualmale thus left
finallyunimpaired,to be reassembled again in boardroom and bed-
room?39
Yet not all "slaves" cross-dresswhen doing domesticwork.As one
writergrumbled in Madame in a WorldofFantasy: "Dear Candida, I know
you liketo give all tastesa sharein yourmagazine,but the portiongiven
to thoseinterestedin men thatare feminisedis wayoverthetop."40Many
"slaves" retaintheirmale personaand performdomesticworkas an elab-
oratereversalof genderagency,but not of genderidentity. It is therefore
importantto stressthatS/M does not constitutea singlesubculture,but

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 rathercomprisesa clusterof circulatinggenres,some of whichare dis-
tinct,some of whichoverlap.
In S/M, social identitiesshiftlibidinously.In her ground-breaking
book, Vested MarjorieGarberinvitesus to taketransvestites
Interests, on
theirown terms,not as one sex or gender,but as theenactmentof ambi-
guityitself:not even so much a "blurredsex," as the embodimentand
performanceof social contradiction.41 She contendsthatthe "specterof
transvestism" throwsinto questionthe verynotionof a fixedand stable
identity,challenginganyeasybinarityof "female"and "male." The cross-
dresserrepresentsthe "crisisof categoryitself."Garberthussets herself
againstthe"progressnarrative"theoryof cross-dressing, whichattempts
either"male" or "female"beneaththe
to uncovera "real" desiredidentity,
transvestitemask. Rather,the transvestiteis the figurethatinhabitsthe
borderlandwhereoppositionsare permanently disarranged.
Cross-dressingcelebratesthe peculiarfreedomsof ambiguity, rather
thanthefixityof one identity.For many,the allureof transvestism is not
of or
thetransformation man-to-woman, woman-to-man, but the subver-
sive parade of man-as-woman,woman-as-man.Cross-dressersoften
desire not the securityof a perfectimitation,but ratherthe delicious
impersonationthatbelies completedisguise:thehairyleg in thelace sus-
pender,the bald pate in the bonnet.In "tranny"(transvestite) publica-
tions such as The Worldof Transvestism, a man's hirsutecalf protrudes
beneaththesilkenskirt,theshadowof an erectionpressedagainstthelacy
lingerie.One TV writes:"I agree withwhatyou have said, Brian,about
contrast-malewithfemale.Long blackfishnetstockings, frilly
suspender
belts,prettyfrocksand finallysee-throughpantiesthatwhen one raises
one's frock,thebig erectpenisbulgingthesilkyflimsymaterialcan clearly
be seen."42

The Dirt Fetish

Domestic S/M is organizedin complex and repetitiveways around the

fetishof "dirt."Whydoes "dirt"exertsuch a compulsivefascinationover
the S/M imagination?
The dirtfetishembodies the traces of both personaland historical
memory.Dirt may recall,as personalmemory,punishmentduringtoilet
trainingforbeingout ofcontrol-of ones feces,one's urine,one's erection
and ejaculation,one's wandering,desirousfingers.Fecal dirtsmearedby
childrenon themselves, theirwalls,theircots,or theirsiblingscan embody
a varietyof inchoatepassions: rage, curiosity,an attemptto reach out
and influencetheworld,frustration, and loneliness.Ifunaccountably pun-

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ished forsuch acts,the emotionmaybe arrested,destinedto recurcom- S/M is
pulsivelyforritualisticreenactment.In the dirtfetish,the fetishist takes
controlof perilousmemory,playingmemorybackward,in an excess of haunted by
desire,and disarranging the social compactbetweensexual transgression
and dirt.If fetishists,as children,werepunishedforbeingoutofcontrol of memory.
their"dirt,"in therebelliouscircusof fetishism theyreenact,in reverse,an
excess ofcontrolover "dirt."If, as children,an obscure logic of parental
rebukeequated eroticpleasure with "filth"and "smut," meritingswift
retribution, then,as adults,theS/Mersinvertthelogic,equatingdirtwith
an exquisiteexcess of eroticpleasure,reenacting"toilettraining"in an
exhibitionist parodyof the domesticeconomyof pleasureand power.
S/M also embodies a historicalmemorytrace. Since the nineteenth
century,the subcultureof S/M has been denouncedby referenceto the
bestiaryand the iconographyof "filth."But nothingis inherently dirty;
dirtexpressesa relationto social value and social disorder.Dirt,as Mary
Douglas suggests,is thatwhichtransgresses social boundary.A broomin
a kitchenclosetis not "dirty,"whereaslyingon a bed it is. Sex withone's
spouse is not "dirty,"whereasthe same act witha prostitute is. Boxingis
not "dirty,"but S/M is.
During the nineteenthcentury,the iconographyof "dirt" became
deeplyintegratedintothe policingand transgression of social boundary.
In Victorianculture,thebodilyrelationto "dirt" expresseda social rela-
tion to labor. The male middle-class-seekingto dismantlethe aristo-
craticbody and thearistocratic regimeoflegitimacy-cameto distinguish
itselfas a class in two ways: it earned its living(unlikethe aristocracy),
and it owned property(unlike the workingclass). Unlike the working
class, however,its members,especiallyits female members,could not
bear on theirbodies thevisibleevidenceof manuallabor.Dirt was a Vic-
torianscandal, because it was the surplusevidenceof manual labor,the
visibleresidue that stubbornlyremainedafterthe process of industrial
rationality had done its work.Dirt is the counterpartof the commodity;
somethingis dirtypreciselybecause it is void of commercialvalue, or
because it transgressesthe "normal" commercialmarket.Dirt is whatis
leftoverafterexchangevalue has been extracted.Dirt is bydefinition use-
less, since it is thatwhichbelongsoutsidethe commoditymarket.
If, as Marx noted, commodityfetishismexhibitsthe overvaluation
of commercialexchangeas the fundamentalprincipleof social commu-
nity,thenthe Victorianobsessionwithdirtmarksa dialectic:the fetish-
ized undervaluationof humanlabor. Smeared on trousers,faces,hands,
and aprons, dirt was the memorytrace of working-classand female
labor,unseemlyevidencethatthe productionof industrialand imperial
wealthlay fundamentally in the hands and bodies of the workingclass,

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 women,and the colonized.In thisway,dirt,likeall fetishes,expressesa
crisis in value, forit contradictsthe liberaldictumthatsocial wealthis
created by the abstract,rationalprinciplesof the market,and not by
labor. For this reason, Victorian dirt entered the symbolic realm of
fetishism withgreatforce.
As thenineteenth centurydrewon, theiconographyof dirtbecame a
poetics of surveillance,deployed increasinglyto police the boundaries
between"normal" sexualityand "dirty"sexuality,"normal" work and
"dirty"work,"normal"moneyand "dirty"money."Dirty" sex-mastur-
bation,prostitution, lesbianand gay sexuality,S/M,thehost of Victorian
"perversions"-transgressedthe libidinaleconomyof male-controlled,
heterosexualreproductionwithinmonogamousmaritalrelations(clean
sex whichhas value). Likewise,"dirty"money-associated withprosti-
tutes,Jews,gamblers,thieves-transgressedthe fiscal economy of the
male-dominated marketexchange(clean moneywhichhas value). Prosti-
tutesstoodon thedangerousthresholdofwork,money,and sexuality, and
came to be figuredincreasingly in theiconographyof "pollution,""disor-
der,""plagues,""moralcontagion,"and racial"filth."

Men Babies in the Land of Fem-Dom

S/M is hauntedbymemory.By reenactingloss of controlin a stagedsitu-

ation of excessivecontrol,the S/Mergains symbolicpoweroverperilous
memory.By reinventing the memoryof trauma,S/M affordsa delirious
triumphover the past,and fromthistriumphan orgasmicexcess of plea-
sure. But since the triumphovermemoryis symbolic,howeverintensely
feltin the flesh,resolutionis perpetuallydeferred.For this reason,the
fetish,the scene, will recurfor perpetualreenactment, and compulsive
repetitionemerges as a fundamentalstructuringprincipleof S/M.
By manyaccounts,babyismis a commonfetishin commercialS/M.
As AllegraTaylorsays,"There's a whole area of deviantbehaviorcalled
Babyismwheretheclientlikesto dressup in a nappy,sucka giantdummy
or one of herbreastsand justbe rocked."43In tradeparlance,a "babyist,"
or "infantilist,"
pays largesums of money be bathed,powdered,put in
to
nappies, sat in playpens,or wrapped tightlyin swaddlingclothes.The
Fem-Dom magazineFantasyexplains:"We oftenhaverequestsforstories
of poor (un)willingcreatureswho wishto returnto thebeginningoftheir
existence and be completely babyfied, dominated entirely.. . ."44 Anne
Sheldon's eighteenth-century gentlemanwho fanciedbeingbeatenwhile
doingthedisheslikedthetwowomenwho beat himafterward "to skewer
himup tightin a blanket,and rollhimbackwardsand forwardsupon the
carpet,in the parlor,tillhe was lulledto sleep."45

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 Enough men liketo be rockedand "nursed"to givedominasa steady
trade.As St. Clair attests,"'Babyists'need mummyLindi to dressthemin
nappies,bibs, bonnetsand booties,to powdertheirbottomsand breast-
feed them."46Anotherdomina runs a two-storybuilding:at lunchtime,
businessmenarrive,discretelytakeofftheirclothes,don giant-sizednap-
pies withgiant-sizednappypins,and spendlargesumsofmoneyto sitfor
an hour in giant-sizedplaypens,suckingbottles,beforeredressing,then
returningto thehurly-burly of highfinance.
Babyistscenes in F-D mags featuregrownmen in outsizefrilly baby
wear, strappedinto baby cots, or gazing wide-eyedat the camera from
behindtheirdummies.A typicalmagazinefantasyrunsas follows:

he beganto feel,notjusthismummy's child,buthistotaldependency on

her... . He sighedcontentedly.
Babbahad beenhis childhoodname ...
Now he was to be Babba again... . Fromthenextday,all babyhairwas
removed. Mummy bathedhim,driedhim,putbaby-oil between hislegs ...
Bobby,at home,hasbecomea babyagain.47

Male babyismholds up to societya scandalous,accusatoryhybrid:not so

much man-into-baby, but man-as-baby,baby-as-man.Contradictionsare
exhibited,but not resolved.In thesescenes,men surrenderdeliriouslyto
thememoryof femalepowerand theirown helplessnessin theirmother's
or nurse'sarms.If men are sociallytaskedwithupholdingthe burdenof
rationalself-containment,perhapsin thebabylandof Fem-Dom theycan
fleetinglyrelinquishtheirstolid control,surrendering and
responsibility
authorityin an ecstaticreleaseof power.
Babyism may also grant men retrospectivecontrol over perilous
memoriesof infancy:nightmares of restraint,
rubbersheets,helplessness,
inexplicablepunishments,isolation,and grief.The rubberfetishseems
associated,forsome,withinchoatememoriesofrubberdiapers,wetbeds,
and mortification.F-D magazinefantasiesrevealachingimagesof child-
hood as a bewilderinglimbo of denial, discomfort,parentalrage, and
neglect.One babyistmuses: "The problemprobablystemmedfrommy
early childhood. I was an only child and my mother left home. .. ..My
father was away fightingthe war . . . and I was thus brought up by an
aunt. . . . She would cuff me round the ear at the slightest excuse."48
Anotherfetishistrecalls: "But in the depthsof my mind therelurkeda
moresinisterside of myself,an obsessionto be dominatedand humiliated
as a child,forcedback to the cradleby beautiful,cruelwomen,normally
nursesor nannies."49This writer'smasochismbegan at boardingschool,
when he was ridiculedforbedwetting.When punishmentfailedto cure
him,the school nurse subjectedhim to a public circus of mortification:
"... she gathered the boys around . . . while she removed my shorts

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 and underpants.With a captive audience, she pinned me into a bulky
nappy. .... 'There,' she beamed, 'Baby has a nappy on at last.' . . . My
humiliationwas complete."50
Now, however,as an adult, in his F-D theaterof conversion,the
babyistconvertstheincapacityto controlbody functionsand the failure
to preservetheboundariesbetweenchildand adultintotheimperativeto
lose control, and to blur the boundaries between adult and child.
Throughthecontrolframeof cash and fantasy, perilousmemoriesof loss
of controlare reenactedunder circumstancesof a scrupulous excess of
control.
In theirsecretnurseryfor Goliaths,babyistsrituallyindulgein the
forbidden,nostalgicspectacleof thepowerof women.The land of Fem-
Dom is frequently describedby men as a "feminist"utopia, a futuristic
paradise in whichwomenare "fullyliberatedand universallyrecognized
as the SuperiorSex."51The voices of martinets,
scolds,and governesses
crackthroughthe pages of these magazines:"'This is exactlywhatyou
deserve,my boy. A good smackedbottom!'she said sternly,just like a
The AgonyAuntsof F-D columnsare similarly
strictgoverness."'52 vitu-
perative:"Disgustingcreaturethoughyou are,you havemypermissionto
write again," snaps one.53 "You sound a miserable worm to me . . . and
deserveall you get,"barksanother.54
in whichcallous
The "naughtyhusband" fantasyappears frequently,
men are punished for domestic infringements.A STRICT BOTTOM SMACK-
ING WIFE writes:"A littlewifelydisciplineis oftennecessary.I am sure
thatmanywiveshave oftenfeltliketurninga misbehaving younghusband
over a knee and smackinghis bottom!-the thingis to do it."ss"I am a
firmbeliever,"writesanother"wife,""in petticoating and nurserytreat-
mentas a means of remindinga troublesomehusbandthathe is stillsub-
ject to maternalrule."'56
Perhapsin theseexpiationrituals,menpay notonlyto surrender gen-
derresponsibility, or to gaincontroloverperilousmemories,but also to be
symbolically"absolved" of guiltforthe everydayabuse of women-only
to resumetheirauthorityonce more as theyreturnrestoredfrombaby-
land. As Gebhardsuggests,"The masochisthas a nice guiltrelievingsys-
tem-he gets his punishmentsimultaneously withhis sexual pleasureor
else is entitledto his pleasureby firstenduringthepunishment."57 More-
over,the "feminist"utopia exaltedby thesemen is a paradise arranged
and organizedformale pleasure.In the privatesecurityof fantasy,men
can indulgesecretlyand guiltilytheirknowledgeofwomen'spower,while
enclosingfemalepowerin a fantasyland thatlies farbeyondthecitiesand
townsof genuinefeministchange.

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 Criminal Justice: The Policing of S/M

On 28 January1987, at theheightof the celebratedtrialofMadame Cyn

Payne,SergeantDavid Broadwelldraggedintocourta large,clear,plastic
bag and exposed to the titillatedcourtroomthe taboo paraphernaliaof
S/M: whips,belts,chains, a dog collar, and assortedsticksand leather
items.58For days,police and witnessesdescribedthe "naughtinesses"at
Payne'sparty:spankings,lesbian shows,elderlygentlemencross-dressed
in women'seveningclothes,policemenin drag,and lawyers,businessmen,
and even a Peer of theRealm waitingin queues on the stairsforsex.
The sex trial,conductedin a blaze ofpublicity, exposes itsown struc-
turingparadox, stagingin public, as a vicariousspectacle,thatwhichit
renderscriminallydeviant outside the juridical domain. Orderingthe
unspeakableto be spokenin public,the sex trialtakesshape aroundthe
veryfetishism it setsitselfto isolateand punish.Throughtheprostitution
trial,transgressions in the distributionof money,pleasure,and powerare
isolated as crimes,and are then performedagain in the theatricalcere-
monyof thetrialas confession.The judiciaryis a systemof orderedpro-
ceduresfortheproductionof "Truth."It is also a systemfordisqualifying
alternative discourses:thedisenfranchised, feminists,prostitutes,fetishists.
to
By being obliged speak "forensically" in the courtroom about their
illicitactivities,prostitutesrehearse,as spectacle,the taboo body of the
womanwho receivesmoneyforsex. The moreshe speaks of her actions
in public,however,themoreshe incriminates herself.But in itsobsessive
of
display "dirty"pictures, filmed evidence, confessions,and exhibits,the
sex trialreveals itselfas deployed about the archivalexhibitionof the
fetish.Under his purplerobes,thejudge has an erection.
The sex trialand theflagellation scene mirroreach otherin a common
liturgy. There is, firstof all,the Chamber.In thetrial,thisis the Court;in
S/M it is the Vault,the Dungeon, or the Schoolroom.The firstriteis
exposure-in thetrial,theaccused is exposedbeforethecrowd;in thefla-
gellantscene,the "slave's" buttocksare bared. The Judge,liketheDomi-
natrix,is theatrically costumed,whilethe judge's wig,liketheprostitute's
wig, guarantees the separationbetweenself and body, and therebythe
"impartiality" of the trial.BothJudgeand Dominatrixare paid moneyto
exercisethe right-to-punish, while fetishelementsare commonto both:
theatricalcostumery,stage,gavels,whips,handcuffs.The second riteis
restraint-theaccused is penned in the dock, the "slave" is tied,or bent
overtheblock.The thirdelementis the charge,forwhichit is also neces-
sarythattherebe spectators,voyeurismbeingan indispensableelementin
both scenes. Next, it is crucialthatboth accused and "slave" participate
verballyin theirtrial,in theplea,theinterrogation, denials,and confession.

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 * LOCAL
:?

Judgement
Day
937 2499
Warningsare given,sentenceis pronounced,and executiontakesplace.
Only thenis the logic of pleasureand punishmentreversed:thetrialdis-
playsillicitpleasureand powerforpunishment;S/M displaysillicitpun-
ishmentforpleasureand power.The trialexiststo producethesentenceof
rationalTruth,while in S/M Truthbecomes orgasm,the word is made
flesh.S/Mthusemergesas a privateparodyofthepublictrial:publicpun-
ishmentconvertedto privatepleasure.
If the sex trial isolates "deviant" sexual pleasure for punishment,
commercialS/M is thedialecticaltwinof thetrial,organizingthepunish-
ment of sexual deviance forpleasure. If the sex trialredistributesillicit
femalemoneyback intomale circulationthroughfines,commercialS/M
enactsthereverse,stagingwomen'ssexualworkas havingeconomicvalue,
and insisting,strictly,on payment.
Consensual S/M bringsto its limitsthe liberaldiscourseon consent.
In 1990, the notoriousSpannerinvestigation became an estimated?2.5
millionshowcaseforthepolicingofgay S/M in Britain.On 19 December

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 G

T
T ]/
L
L

FORPUNISHMENT
REPORT

937 2499
1990, fifteen men were sentenced at the Old Bailey by Judge James
Rant forwillinglyand privatelyengagingin S/M acts witheach other
for sexual pleasure. Eight of the men were given custodial sentences
rangingup to fourand a half years. On 19 February 1992, fiveof the
men failed to have their conviction overturned by the Court of
Appeal.59The presidingLord ChiefJustice,Lord Lane, ruled thatthe
men's consent and the privacyof theiracts were no defense,and that
S/M libido did not constitutecausing bodily harm "for good reason."
By contrast,activitiessuch as boxing,football,rugby,or cosmetic
surgeryapparentlyconstitute, in theeyesofthelaw,well-recognizedcases
of licit,consensualbodilyharm,fortheyare conductedfor "good rea-
son," thatis, forthe profitablepublic consumptionof "natural"female
vanity,"natural"male aggression,and the law of male marketcompeti-
tion-for the propermaintenance,thatis, of heterosexualdifference. In
in
violentcontactsports,men toucheach other furiousand oftenwound-
ingintimacy, butthehomoeroticimplicationsare scrupulouslydisavowed.

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 Perhapsevenmorerevealingly, FeministsAgainstCensorship,thegay
rightsgroup Outrage,Liberty(formerlythe National Council of Civil
Liberties),and others,have pointedout thatthe sentencesmetedout by
JudgeRant forconsensualS/M exceed, in manycases, those metedout
forthe violent,nonconsensualrape or batteryof women,or forcases of
lesbianand gaybashing.As Alex Kershawnotes,"In 1988, forexample,
a man was fined ?100 at Carlisle Crown Court for sado-masochistic
assaultson women."'6Suzanne Moore sums it up: "In otherwordswhen
a heterosexualwomansays 'no' she reallymeans 'yes,'but whena homo-
sexual man says 'yes,'thelaw saysthatis notgood enough."61The Span-
nertrialthrowsradicallyintoquestionthelaw's putativeimpartiality in the
adjudication of consent.
The outrageof consensualS/M is multiple.It publiclyexposes the
possibilitythatmanhood is not naturallysynonymouswithmastery,nor
femininity withpassivity.Social identitybecomes commutable,and the
boundaries of gender and class open to inventionand transfiguration.
Men touch each other for pleasure and women wreak well-paid
vengeance.Perhapsmost subversively of all, eroticismis sunderedfrom
the rule of procreation:the eroticbody expands beyondthe genitalsto
includenonprocreational sites-anuses, ears,feet,nipples-of life-saving
potentialin the era of AIDS.62 At the same time,the powerdynamicsand
eroticimplicationsof social ritualare visiblyand flagrantly explored.As
Pat Califiasays,"In an S & M context,the uniformsand roles and dia-
logue become a parodyof authority, a challengeto it,a recognitionof its
secret, sexual nature."63In S/M's house of misrule,woman is judge and
jury,man is penitent,the masterdoes the slave'sbidding,and the sacred
is profane.
S/M is the most liturgicalof forms,sharingwithChristianity a the-
atrical iconography of punishmentand expiation: washing rituals,
bondage,flagellation, body-piercing, and symbolictorture.Like S/M,the
economyof Christianity is theeconomyof conversion:themeekexalted,
thehighmade low.Mortifying thefleshexaltsone in theeyesoftheMas-
ter.Throughhumilityon earth,one storesup a surplusstockof spiritual
value in heaven.Like Christianity, S/M performstheparadoxof redemp-
tivesuffering, and likeChristianity,it takesshape aroundthemasochistic
logic oftranscendence throughthemortification oftheflesh:throughself-
abasement,the spiritfindsreleasein an ecstasyof abandonment.In both
S/M and Christianity, earthlydesireexactsstrictpaymentin an economy
of penanceand pleasure.In S/M,washingritualsand thepouringof water
effecta baptismalcleansingand exonerationof guilt.These are purifica-
tion rituals,a staged appropriationof Christianpageantry,stealinga
delirious,fleshlyadvance on one's spiritualcredit-a forbiddentaste of
whatshouldproperlybe exaltationin thehereafter.

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 The Right to Punish

The historicsubcultureof S/M emergedwithintheEnlightenment, along-

side what Foucault has identifiedas a new technologyof the power-to-
punish.64During the Enlightenment, as Foucault argues,penal reform
shiftedthe right-to-punish fromthe whimsical,terriblevengeanceof the
sovereignto the contractual"defenseof society."'65 The spectacleof pun-
ishmentno longerlay in the sumptuousrage of the monarch,whichhad
takeneffectas a seriesof ostentatiousmutilations of thecriminal'sflesh-
floggings,brandings,beheadings,flayings,quarterings,and so on. Pun-
ishmentnow lay in thevisiblerepresentations of an abstract,bureaucratic
power,whichtookeffectas a seriesof ritualrestraints-detention, incar-
ceration,regulation,restraining, restrictions, fines,and, in some cases,
rationalizedand limitedcorporalpunishment.An arrayof techniqueswas
devised foradjustingpunishmentto the new social body,and a host of
new principleswerelaid down forrefining the art of punishing.66 In the
hands of an elite bureaucracy,punishmentbecame legitimated,not as
personalrevenge,but as civic prevention.Punishmentbecame the ratio-
nallycalculated,causal effectofthecrime,and theadministrators of pun-
ishmentwere figuredas no more than the dispassionateministrants of
rationallaw.
Penal reform,as Foucault sees it,had the centrifugal effectof multi-
plying and dispersingpunishment as an "art of affects":the penaltymust
haveitsmostintenseeffectson thosewho have notcommitted thecrime.67
The linkbetweencrimeand punishment mustbe publiclyseen to coincide
causallywiththeoperationof rationally administered Truth.The Enlight-
enmenttechnologyofpunishment thushad twoaimsin view:to getall cit-
izens to participatein the "contractual"punishmentof the social enemy,
and to renderthepowerto punish"entirely adequateand transparent to the
laws thatpubliclydefineit."68Punishmentsbecame less ritualmarksvio-
lentlygougedintothefleshthantableauxvivantsdesignedto be witnessed
by thegeneralpublicas representative of themechanicsof naturallaw.
Under thisregime,schools came to serveas miniaturepenal mecha-
nisms,withformsof disciplineborroweddirectly fromthejuridicalmodel:
solitaryconfinement, pettyhumiliations,
flagellation, and an extravagant
attentionto rule. Public mortificationwas metedout accordingto a the-
atricalliturgyof floggings, and deprivations,
restraints, withtheundeviat-
ing precisionof machinery.
The scandal of S/M, however,is thatit borrowsdirectlyfromthe
juridicalmodel,whileradicallydisarranging theright-to-punish. S/M stages
theright-to-punish, notforthecivicprevention of crime,butforpleasure,
parading a scrupulousfidelityto the sceneand costumeryof the penal
model,whileat thesame timeinterfering directlywiththerulesofagency.

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One of S/M's Hence the intolerableaffront embodiedin the dominatrixand her client.
How can punishment be establishedin themindsofthepublicas a logical
is
characteristics calculus of criminalcause and penal effect-therationalexecution of
Truth-if membersof thegeneralpubliccan takeup, on whim,thebirch,
the eroticizingof the rod,the handcuffs, the whippingblock,and declaresentencenot for
theprevention ofcrime,butforthedeliriousexcessofpleasure?For itis as
scenes, symbols, subversiveof the modernpenal economyto enjoya punishmentwithout
contexts,and havingfirstcommitteda crime,as it is to commitan unpunishedcrime.
Hence the unstinting severityof the law in policingconsensualS/M.
contradictions Penal reform,despite its egalitarian,civic-mindedcast, placed the
restrictedexerciseofthepenal rightin thehands ofa fewelectinstitutions
which society and a few elect actors: judges, prison wardens, schoolteachers,army
courts,and parents,as proxies of naturallaw. Whateverelse changed,
does not typically however,punishmentremained a male right:the judge, the jury,the
prison governor,and the executionerwere,untilveryrecently,all men.
recognize as Wivesofelitemenmightpunishslaves,servants,and children,butonlyas
proxiesof male law.
erotic.
By contrast,heterosexualcommercialS/M flagrantly subvertsthe
gendered economy of the right-to-punish, puttingthe whip and the
moneyin the woman'shand, and exhibitingthe man on his knees.With
evengreatereffrontery, lesbianand gayS/Mersparadepunishment notas
the dutifulexerciseof civic prevention,but as a recreationaltheaterof
power,denyingthe stateits penal monopolyand provocatively exposing
theright-to-punish not as Reason's immutabledecree,but as theirregular
productof social hierarchy.
The legal denunciationof consensual S/M fliesout, then,not as a
human cryfromthe heart,a refinedshrinking fromthe inflictionof pain
and thespectacleoftorment, but as thejealous wrathofthepenalbureau-
cracy challenged in its punitive monopoly. In sentencingS/Mers to
bondageand discipline,floggings and ritualhumiliation in Houses ofCor-
rection,the law, farfromexhibitingrefineddisgustat the exhibitionof
pain, is merelyassertingitsjealous rightoverthepenal regime.

S/M as a Theater of Social Risk

Most consensualS/M is less "the desireto inflictpain,"as Freud argued,

than it is what JohnAlan Lee calls "the social organizationof sexual
risk."69One could also call S/M the sexual organizationof socialrisk,for
one of S/M's characteristics is the eroticizingof scenes, symbols,con-
texts,and contradictionswhich societydoes not typicallyrecognizeas
erotic:domesticwork,infancy,boots,water,money,uniforms, and so on.
Contraryto Robert Stoller'snotionthat S/M sex is the "eroticformof

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 MAKENO MISTAKE,,,,
She's inControl

r -'"
-?

8419
071-387
hatred,"a greatdeal of S/M involvesneitherpain norhatred.70The ritual
violationsof S/M are less violationsto the flesh,thantheyare symbolic
reenactments of social violationsto selfhood,whichcan takea myriadof
shapes and emergefroma myriadof social situations.S/M publiclyper-
formsthefailureoftheEnlightenment idea of individualautonomy,stag-
ing the of
dynamics power and interdependency forpersonalpleasure.As
such, S/M ritualsmay be called ritualsofrecognition. In these ritualsof
recognition,participantsseek a witness-to trauma,pain, pleasure, or
power.As Lee puts it, "Each partnerservedas an audience to the other,
and in the process,containedthe other."71 The prevalenceof voyeurism
and spectatorscomes to representa transposeddesireforsocial recogni-
tion.In commercialS/M,the dominaacts as an official, ifforbidden,wit-
ness-to privateanguish,baffleddesires,and the obscure deliriumsof
theflesh.
In manyrespects,S/M is a theaterof signs,grantingtemporarycon-
troloversocial risk.By scriptingand controllingthe circus of signs,the
fetishiststagesthe deliriousloss of controlwithina situationof extreme

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In many respects, control.For many S/Mers,loss of controlas memory is mediatedby a
show of excess of controlas spectacle.As a result,S/Mersdepend deeply
S/M is a theater on whatGoffmancalls "controlframes,"bywhichto managethestaging
of socialrisk.72JohnAlan Lee exploresthewaysin whichgayS/M culture
of signs, granting attempts to limitthe "greatpotentialdangersinvolved"in S/M: through
the screeningof partners,the sharedunderstanding of costumesignals,
temporarycontrol color coding,the reciprocalnegotiationof scenariosand groundrules,
scripting,theuse ofsignalwordsor "keys"to indicatelimits,and thecon-
over social risk.
firming consentduringthe scenario.73Masteringthe controlframe-
of
thescene,thescript,thecostume,themagazine,thefantasy, theexchange
of money-is indispensableto the sensationof masteryoverwhatmight
otherwisebe terrifying ambiguities.
Indeed, it is oftennot so much the actualityof poweror submission
thatholds the S/Merin its thrall,but the signsof power:images,words,
costumes,uniforms, scripts.The self-styled
"hands-onhealer,"Sara Dale,
says her clientswantoftenonlyto hear the snap of herwhipthroughthe
air.74Lindi St. Clair writes:"Men wantinga fantasylikedto be in kinky
'themerooms' and 'pretend':forexampletheywould talkabout certain
propsor scenarios,althoughin realitytheywouldn'tbe interested in doing
such thingsat all."75Many clients are helplesslyfascinatedby fetish
images of authority-handcuffs, badges, uniforms-and most dominas
have racksfullof costumes:"'Uniformists'desireto wear or be serviced
by someonewearinga uniform-military, medical,police,traffic
warden,
or any otherpersuasion.The most popular are schoolgirl'sand French
maid's."76AllegraTaylor,visitinga Dungeon, recalls:

I was stillamazedbythesheervolumeofpropsandcostumes. It waslikea

theaterwarehouse or a filmset.Hangingon pegson all thewallsandcorri-
dorswerehundreds ofoutfits-nurse'sand policewomen's uniforms,gym-
slips,blackrubberknickers, dozensofpairsofboots. . . anythingyoucan
imaginehavinga fetish about.77

Otherclientsare enthralledby theverbalrepresentation

of desire,and like
nothingso much as to send their"literaryMistresses"letters,fantasies,
and scripts:"Dear Madame Candida, If you findyou have the space,
would you kindlyprintthe followinghumbleletter... . Madame, may
In one Fem-Dom magazine,largewhitespaces are left
long you reign."'"78
beneathphotographsofmale "slaves,"accompaniedby theschoolmarmly
"I am askingyou to writebeneatheach photowhatyou imag-
instruction:
Here, does thevoyeuriden-
ine Madame Sheena is sayingto herslave."'79
tifywithMadame Sheena, her slave,or both?Identityshiftslibidinously.
Hence the importanceof scriptsand initiationritualsin consensual
S/M. Far frombeing the tyrannicalexerciseof one will upon a helpless

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other,consensualS/M is typicallycollaborative,involvingcarefultraining,
initiationrites,a scrupulousdefinition
of limits,and a constantconfirma-
tion of reciprocity.s80As Paul Gebhard writes: "The average sado-
masochistic session is usually scripted. . . . Often the phenomenon
remindsone of a planned ritualor theatricalproduction."'81 Clientsand
dominastypicallyagree on keywords,whichthe "bottom"uses to inten-
sify,change,or stop the action.Many S/M fetishists claim thatit is thus
the "bottom"who is in control.
Havelock Ellis was the firstto pointout thatmuch S/M is motivated
by love. Since S/M involvesthenegotiation ofperilousboundaries,mutual
fidelityto the pledge of trustcan createintimacyof a veryintensekind.
The bond of collaborationbinds the playersin an ecstasyof interdepen-
dence: abandonmentat the verymomentof dependence.Far fromruth-
lesslywreakingone's sadisticwillupon another,"the sadistmustdevelop
an extraordinary perceptivenessto knowwhento continue,despitecries
and protests,and when to cease."82Here, "enslavement"is ceremonial
ratherthanreal,a symbolicgiftthatcan be retractedat anymoment.For
thisreason,Pat Califiacalls S/M "powerwithoutprivilege.""'83
Yet,at the same time,any violationof the scriptis fraughtwithrisk.
If, at any point, controlis lost, or the rules of the game transgressed,
eitheroftheplayerscan be plungedintopanic or rage.Dominas therefore
stressthe emotionaland physicalskill,as wellas the dangers,involvedin
commercialS/M: "[it] does take a special kind of person who can do
B&D properlybecause it can get rightout of control.You have to keep
yourcool all thetime.. ."84Untowardchangesin thescriptor collapseof
the controlframecan plunge clientsinto extremedistressor ferocious
rage.The magicspellcan be violently broken,and at such momentsdom-
inas face greatdanger.
For thisreason,I remainfinallyunconvincedby thelibertarianargu-
mentthatall S/M lies in a cloud-cuckooland safelybeyondanyreal abuse
of power. The libertarianview conflatesall too easily sexual repression
withpoliticaloppressionin a Reichiancelebrationof unlimit.But as Cal-
ifiasays,"I do notbelievethatsex has an inherentpowerto transform the
world.I do not believethatpleasureis alwaysan anarchicforceforgood.
I do not believethatwe can fuckour wayto freedom."85 S/M's theaterof
riskinhabitsthe perilousbordersof transgression, power,and pleasure,
whereemotionscan slip,identitiesshift,inchoatememoriessurfaceout of
control,or everydayinequitiesbe importedunexpectedlyintothe scene.
As Sophie, a prostitute, says:

Peopleneedto be pretty surewhatthey'redoing.I don'twantto makeit

soundlikean elitistpastime,butyou'redealingwithsuchdeepand potent
forcesthatthereis a riskofgetting
outofyourdepth.This happenedwith

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 my previouslover.The sex we had broughtup loads of stuffforher about
being abused as a childwhichwould have been a lot bettercomingthrough
slowlyand gentlyin therapy.I don'tbeginto have adequate resourcesto deal
withthatwitha lover.I thinkS/M sex is good and it can be great,but I'd
onlywantto do it withsomeonewho has extensiveself-knowledge.86

To recognize the theatrical aspect of S/M does not diminish the risks that
may be involved. S/M inhabits the anomalous, perilous border between
the Platonic theory of catharsis and the Aristotelian theory of mimesis,
neither replicating social power, nor finallysubvertingit, veering between
polarities, converting scenes of disempowerment into a staged excess of
pleasure, caricaturing social edicts in a sumptuous display of irreverence,
but without substantiallyinterruptingthe social order.
In my view, the extreme libertarianargument that S/M never involves
real anger or hate runs the risk of disavowing the intense emotional voltage
that can be S/M's appeal.87 Some dominas confess to potent expressions
of feministanger, outrage, and power when they work: "In bondage you
have the power and control," says Zoe, a parlor and escort woman, "and
it's quite refreshingto be in that position of total power getting a little
anger out and let[ting] your expression out, and it wasn't threateningto
the guy asking for it. .. . I gained a lot of confidence out of it."88 Kelly
explains that she became a bondage specialist because she "enjoyed beat-
ing up men." Some dominas, she said,

pain perhapsbecause theyhave been hurtin theirprivatelives,

likeinflicting
or wheretheyare suppressedin theirhome lifeit is a role reversal,just like
the guys the otherway around. It is a reversalof the patriarchalsystemin
which theyhave been suppressedall theirlives; theyare home doing the
washingand ironingwiththeirhusbands in the day and theygo out of a
nightand whip guys,and get paid forit.89

While such emotions may be unrepresentative, they cannot be wholly

dismissed.
An important theoretical distinction therefore needs to be made
between reciprocalS/M for mutual pleasure, and consensual S/M orga-
nized as a commercial exchange. Whatever else it is, commercial S/M is a
labor issue. While all S/M is deeply stigmatized and violentlypoliced, the
criminalizing of sex work places dominas under particular pressure. Sex
workers argue that the current laws punish rather than protect them. In
Britain, if a domina shares a flat with a friend, she can be convicted for
running a brothel. If she pays toward the rent or upkeep of her flat,her
friend can be convicted forliving offimmoral earnings. Yet workingalone
can be fatal. Moreover, where sex work is a crime, a domina cannot seek
police or legal aid if she is raped, battered, or robbed. Clients know this,

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so commercialS/M's theaterof riskcan, at times,become riskyindeed,
losingsome of thecollectivesafeguardsthatcharacterizemuchreciprocal
S/M. Nonetheless,sex workersinsistthatit is not S/M or theexchangeof
cash thatendangersthem,but the laws and the contextunderwhichthe
exchange is made. Whateverelse it does, commercialS/M throwsinto
questionthe mythof all sex workersas unambiguousvictims.Dominas,
likeall sex workers,are thuscallinginternationallyforthe decriminaliza-
tionof theirprofession,so thattheycan collectively organizeto transform
thetradeto meettheirown needs.90
On itsown,then,S/M does notescape itsparadoxes.Withinitsmagic
circle,social and personalcontradictions can be deployedor negotiated,
but need not be finallyresolved,forthe sources and ends of thesepara-
doxes lie beyond the individual,even though theymay be lived with
exquisiteintensity in theflesh.S/M thusbringsto itsconceptuallimitthe
libertarianpromisethat individualagency alone can sufficeto resolve
socialdilemmas.In orderto understandmorefullythemyriadmeaningsof
S/M, it is necessaryto understandthe social culturesfromwhichit takes
its multipleshapes, and againstwhich it sets itselfin stubbornrefusal.
The subcultureof collectivefetishismis an arenaof contestationand nego-
tiation,whichdoes not teachsimplelessonsin powerand domination.

Notes

1. AndrewNeil, Channel4, 16 October 1992.

2. In thispaper,I use thetermS/M in itsbroad sense,to referto thegeneral
subcultureof organizedfetishism. The termS/M thusincludesa wide varietyof
fetishes:B&D (bondage and discipline),CP (corporalpunishment),TV (trans-
vestism),babyism,scat, body piercing,footfetishism, and so on. These fetishes
shouldbe seen as sometimesoverlapping,sometimesdistinctsubgenresin a gen-
eral subcultureof collectivefetishritual.Moreover,withinthese genres there
maybe distinctforms:thereare different formsof transvestism,
forexample,and
different formsof B&D. Indeed, understandingand negotiatingthese distinc-
tions servesas a crucial source of the pleasure,intimacy,identity,
and commu-
nalitythatcan be engenderedby consensualS/M.
3. The subcultureof S/M is not synonymouswiththe nonconsensualinflic-
tionof violence,pain, abuse, or terror.A man does not usuallydon leathergear,
fetishcostumes,and makeup beforebatteringhis wife.At times,however,the
boundariesmayblurand distinctionsfalter.
4. Michel Foucault,Madnessand Civilization:A HistoryofInsanityin theAge
ofReason,trans.RichardHoward (London: Tavistock,1965), 97.
5. Erving Goffman,Frame Analysis (New York: Harper & Row, 1974);
quoted by Thomas S. Weinberg,in "Sadism and Masochism: Sociological Per-
spectives,"in S and M: Studiesin Masochism,ed. Thomas S. Weinbergand G. W.
Levi Kamel (Buffalo,N.Y.: PrometheusBooks, 1983), 106.
6. Paul H. Gebhard, "Sadomasochism," in S and M, ed. Weinbergand
Kamel, 39.

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 7. Richardvon Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis,trans.FranklinS. Klaf
(New York: Stein & Day, 1965). See Jeffrey Weeks,AgainstNature:Essays on
History,Sexuality,and Identity(London: Rivers Oram, 1991); also Jonathan
Dollimore, Sexual Dissidence:Augustineto Wilde,Freud to Foucault (Oxford:
Clarendon,1991), foranalysesof the discourseson "perversion."
8. Krafft-Ebing, PsychopathiaSexualis,53. Quoted in S and M, ed. Weinberg
and Kamel, 17.
9. Ibid., 27.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid., 25.
12. Ibid., 25-26.
13. Ibid., 26.
14. Ibid.
15. SigmundFreud, TheBasic Writings ofSigmundFreud,trans.and ed. A. A.
Brill (New York:Modern Library,1938), 569. Excerptedin S and M, ed. Wein-
bergand Kamel, 30.
16. SigmundFreud, quoted in S and M, ed. Weinbergand Kamel, 30.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid., 31.
19. "I have been led to recognize a primaryerotogenicmasochismfrom
whichtheredevelopstwo laterforms,a feminineand a moralmasochism."Sig-
mund Freud, CollectedWorks, vol. 2 (London: Hogarth, 1924), 255; quoted in
Weinbergand Kamel, S and M, 32.
20. JuicyLucy, "If I Ask You to Tie Me Up, Will You Still Want to Love
Me?" In Comingto Power:Writings and Graphicson LesbianS/M, ed. Katherine
Davis et al. (Boston: AlysonPublications,1983), 32.
21. VivienneWalker-Crawford, "The Saga of Sadie O. Massey," in Against
Sadomasochism: A Radical FeministAnalysis,ed. Robin Ruth Linden et al. (San
Francisco:Frog in theWell, 1982), 149.
22. KathleenBarry,FemaleSexual Slavery(New York:New YorkUniversity
Press, 1979), 209.
23. InterviewwithLindi St. Clair by the author,London, 3 July1991.
24. Allegra Taylor,Prostitution: What'sLove Got to Do withIt? (London:
Macdonald Optima, 1991), 42.
25. Ibid., 41.
26. RobertaPerkinsand GarryBennett,Beinga Prostitute: Prostitute
Women
and Prostitute Men (Sydney:Allen& Unwin, 1985), 127.
27. InterviewwithSt. Clair, 3 July1991.
28. Ibid.
29. Perkinsand Bennett,Beinga Prostitute, 142.
30. Ibid., 128.
31. Thomas S. Weinbergand G. W. Levi Kamel, "S/M: An Introductionto
the Studyof Sadomasochism,"in S and M, ed. Weinbergand Kamel, 21.
32. Lindi St. Clair withPamela Winfield,It's Onlya Game: TheAutobiogra-
phyofMiss Whiplash(London: PiatkusBooks, 1992), 65, 74.
33. Gloria Walkerand Lynn Daly, SexplicitlyYours:The Trial of Cynthia
Payne (London: Penguin, 1987), 66. One slave, Payne explained,came every
Monday and lethimselfin withhis own key,settingabout his housewifely chores
wearingonlya wristwatch.See ibid., 67.

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 34. Perkinsand Bennett,Beinga Prostitute, 87.
35. Ibid., 128.
36. Quoted in Neil Philip, Working Girls:An IllustratedHistoryoftheOldest
Profession (Bloomsbury:Albion, 1991), 112.
37. Gebhard,"Sadomasochism,"in S and M, ed. Weinbergand Kamel, 37.
38. Taylor,Prostitution, 45.
39. See Weinberg,"Sadism and Masochism," 109; see also LeyvoyJoensen,
"'Erotic Blasphemy':The Politicsof Sadomasochism,"unpublishedpaper.
40. Madame in a WorldofFantasy15, no. 8 (n.d.), 19.
41. Marjorie Garber, VestedInterests:Cross-Dressing and CulturalAnxiety
(New York:Routledge,1992), 11, 10. See myessay,"The Returnof the Female
Fetishand theFictionof thePhallus,"forthcoming in New Formations,
fora sym-
patheticcritiqueof Garber'stheoryof fetishism.
42. The Worldof Transvestism 1, no. 5 (n.d.), 10.
43. Taylor,Prostitution, 39.
44. Madame in a WorldofFantasy14, no. 10 (n.d.), 5.
45. Philip, Working Girls,112.
46. St. Clair,It's Onlya Game,64.
47. Madame in a WorldofFantasy15, no. 8 (n.d.), 49.
48. Ibid., 51.
49. Madame in a WorldofFantasy14, no. 10 (n.d.), 7.
50. Ibid., 9.
51. Mistress28 (n.d.), 48.
52. Madame in a WorldofFantasy15, no. 8 (n.d.), 61.
53. Mistress28 (n.d.), 47.
54. Ibid.
55. Madame in a WorldofFantasy15, no. 8 (n.d.), 17.
56. Ibid., 37.
57. Gebhard,"Sadomasochism,"in S and M, ed. Weinbergand Kamel, 37.
58. See Walkerand Daly, SexplicitlyYours,66.
59. See Clare Dyer, "Sado-Masochists Guilt Verdict Upheld," The
Guardian,20 February 1992. See also Alex Kershaw,"Spanner in the Works,"
The GuardianWeekend, 8-9 February1992, 12-13; Alex Kershaw,"Love Hurts,"
The GuardianWeekend, 28 November1992, 6-10.
60. Kershaw,"Spanner in the Works,"13. See also Helena Kennedy,Eve
WasFramed:Womenand BritishJustice(London: Chatto& Windus, 1992), fora
searingaccount of the miscarriagesof justice.
61. Suzanne Moore, "Deviant Laws," MarxismToday(February1991), 11.
62. AnthonyBrown,one of the men sentencedin the Spanner case, sug-
gests:"Perhaps there'sa tendencyforS & M activityto have increased,particu-
larlyamonghomosexualmen,as a resultof thethreatofAIDS. To a degreeit's a
displacementactivity."See Kershaw,"Spanner in theWorks,"13.
63. Pat Califia,quoted in Kershaw,"Love Hurts,"7.
64. Michel Foucault, Disciplineand Punish: The Birthof thePrison,trans.
Alan Sheridan(London: Penguin,1977).
65. Ibid., 91.
66. Ibid., 81.
67. Ibid., 93, 95.
68. Ibid., 129.

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 69. JohnAlan Lee, "The Social Organizationof Sexual Risk,"in S and M,
ed. Weinbergand Kamel, 175-93; Freud, ThreeEssayson theTheoryofSexuality
(New York:Basic Books, 1962), 23.
70. Robert Stoller,Perversion:The EroticFormofHatred (New York:Dell,
1975).
71. Lee, "The Social Organizationof Sexual Risk,"in S and M, ed. Wein-
bergand Kamel, 189. See also Goffman,FrameAnalysis,135.
72. Goffman,FrameAnalysis(Cambridge,Mass.: HarvardUniversity Press,
1974).
73. Lee, "The Social Organizationof Sexual Risk,"in S and M, ed. Wein-
bergand Kamel, 178.
74. InterviewwithSara Dale by theauthor,London, October 1992.
75. St. Clair,It's Onlya Game,64.
76. Ibid.
77. Taylor,Prostitution, 38.
78. Madame in a WorldofFantasy15, no. 8 (n.d.), 18.
79. Ibid., 42, 43.
80. As Weinbergand Kamel argue: "S&M scenariosare willinglyand coop-
erativelyproduced; more oftenthan not it is the masochist'sfantasiesthatare
acted out." See "S/M: An Introductionto the Study of Sadomasochism,"in S
and M, ed. Weinbergand Kamel, 21.
81. Gebhard,"Sadomasochism,"in S and M, ed. Weinbergand Kamel, 37.
82. Ibid.
83. Pat Califia,"Unravelingthe Sexual Fringe: A Secret Side of Lesbian
Sexuality,"TheAdvocate,27 December 1979, 22. Quoted inJeffrey Weeks,Sexu-
alityand Its Discontents:Meanings,Myths,and ModernSexualities(London: Rout-
ledge, 1985), 238.
84. Kelly,"It's Not a Rightor Wrong Issue, It's Up to the Individual,"in
Beinga Prostitute, ed. Perkinsand Bennett,130.
85. Pat Califia,Macho Sluts, EroticFiction (Boston: Alyson Publications,
1988), 15.
86. Quoted in Taylor,Prostitution,31.
87. See Donald McRae's brilliantaccount of the power strugglebetweena
domina and a clientin NothingPersonal:TheBusinessofSex (Edinburgh:Main-
stream,1992).
88. Zoe, "The Only Way I Can Be Independent,"in Beinga Prostitute, ed.
Perkinsand Bennett,108.
89. "I had by thisstagerecognisedmyselfas a lesbian.I was also on a male
hate tripand I thoughtall men wereuseless at thatstage of mylife."Kelly,"It's
Not a Rightor WrongIssue," in Beinga Prostitute, ed. Perkinsand Bennett,127,
130. For others,the imaginativedemands are fatiguing,and theypreferthe
greaterdetachmentthatcomes withgivingbrisksexual services.As Margaret,an
Australian prostitutesays, "I did bondage sometimes,but it was so damn
exhaustingI would preferto do sex thanbondage .... Some of themwantedto
be hithardand thattookit out of me physicallyand mentally."Margaret,in "It's
Not a Rightor WrongIssue," in ibid., 121.
90. See my expanded analysis of the legal issues facing sex workersin
"Screwingthe System:Sexwork,Race, and theLaw," boundary2 19, no. 2 (Sum-
mer 1992).

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