see also:
'the ecstasies of eros' |
(1) SADISM AND MASOCHISM
Pillow'd upon my fair love's
ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell
John Keats
The image does not always show the nude – or the metamorphosis of the
nude into the hermaphrodite or the animal with
the two backs. More often does it stage the maltreatment of the nude.
Already the eye of the little child transforms the loving interaction of
its parents into the enactment of rape, if not some ritual murder, since
the child wants to save the mother. But especially the image seems to be
fond of such transformation. It matters to understand why.
Pictures of nudity can be seen on the following pages.
Should you be under 18, or feel disturbed when watching pictures of the
naked body, please refrain from reading this page further.
Click on the name of the photographer or the thumbnail for a larger
view.
Click on the name of the artist below the larger view to be referred to
his website .
Sadomasochism is often understood in terms
of a sudden change of love in aggression - or of pain in pleasure. No
doubt, such sudden change is facilitated through to the morphological
proximity, if not the considerable overlap between sexual and aggressive
behaviour. In love as well as in aggression, the distance normally kept
between interacting organisms is given up to enable erotic or aggressive
entwining. Not for nothing does the child often confuse its parent’s
loving embrace with fighting.
There is also an undeniable affinity between the expressions
of love and aggression themselves. It is difficult to distinguish
panting
with anguish from heaving
with pleasure, to discern cries out of pleasure from cries
out of pain, and it might sometimes very difficult to tell orgasm
from death-anguish. That goes especially for the images of these
expressions: artistic conventions – or the inability to catch the
precise differences between nearly related
expressions such as crying and weeping – obscure the often nearly
discernable real differences:
Moreover, it is but a short leap from intensely kissing to biting, from
intensely stroking to pinching, scratching, slapping or spanking, from
eagerly embracing to strangling, from penetrating
to ramming:
And it is known all too well how the outer signs of sexual arousal may
be produced by non-sexual causes. Spanking makes the
skin 'blush':
and suffocation makes the
victim gasp for breath, which reminds of the voluptuous moaning and
heaving of orgasm. No wonder that Gilles de Rais timed
his orgasm with the last breath of his young victims.
Which also provided him with the orgasmic sight of the empty gaze or
rolling eyes:
Suffocation, just like hanging not only makes
palpable the enticing movement of exalted breathing, but also calls
forth a rampant erection: hence the desire of the
insatiable mistress in ‘The empire of the senses’ to strangle her lover.
The same effect is achieved through inspiring fear, exposure to cold,
and so on: j
Further, many a form of teasingly pretending to withdraw or resist,
naturally calls forth the corollary, equally
mock-aggressive coercion:
This only heightens the effect of the posture of
unconditional surrender. In the photo below the effect is further
enhanced through the reversal of the habitual scheme of denudation (see
Chapter V) and the exposure of the nude on a
table:
This does not suffice, however, to explain sadomasochism. The
similarities can only explain why love may suddenly change in
aggression, not why the ‘aggression’ is continued or is from the
beginning intended. It is not difficult to understand why many an
ardent lover suddenly feels compelled to bite, to pinch or to
spank, not why he continues to do so or why he is from the beginning out
at such maltreatment of his beloved.
Furthermore, it is rather inaccurate to understand sadomasochism in
terms of aggression: that would come down to a confusion of morphology
and function. Genuine aggression, in animals as well as in men, stops
short of mutilation or killing. It is merely a ‘symbolic’ threat that
subsides as soon the threatened adopts an -
equally symbolic - attitude of submission or really yields to the
demands. Sadomasochism, on the other hand, not only threatens without
obvious reason, it also deliberately carries out the threat. In that
sense, it may be considered as a ‘desymbolisation’ of aggression. It is
as if the animal that would like to deter a competitor, would proceed to
real biting instead of merely showing its threatening teeth. In
sadomasochism, things are put upside down. Aggression is elicited
through staging refusal, rather than prevented through showing
submission, let alone seducing! And since the ultimate goal is the
implementation of the threat, sadomasochism also distinguishes itself
from mock-rape, where the staged refusal is not an aim in itself, but
merely a means of heightening the erotic attractiveness. When the
arousal has reached its acme, feigning is replaced with unbridled sexual
surrender.
The morphological similarities, though, are the key to a genuine
understanding of sadomasochism: failing genuine and reciprocal sexual
arousal, at least the outer appearance of it – the expression – is
obtained through the infliction of pain. The sight of the expression
elicits the urge to heighten it, just like with a real expression. That
can only be realised through further infliction of pain. So, there is no
transformation of love in aggression. Rather do morphologic similarities
enable the integration of elements from the aggressive repertoire
(fight/flight) in a sexual context: the ‘subsumption under the sexual
primacy', to paraphrase Freud. During this
process, the aggressive components undergo the required changes: think
of the ‘de-symbolisation’ of threat.
This approach makes clear why the overlap comprises not only the
expressions, but the corollary actions as well. Precisely because the
expressions of love and aggression are not always
clearly discernable, kissing, stroking and embracing can be
replaced with biting, pinching, spanking or suffocating. Even when in
both cases the same organs are used, the
behaviour is totally different from a functional point of view. It is
possible that their appearance is motivated through aggressive feelings,
caused by the inability to produce the desired reaction. But once they
turn out to produce the desired effect, the motivation is no longer
aggressive, but sexual. Compare with the impatient baby that bites in
the nipple of his absent-minded mother, and
continues biting when it finds out that mama is finally looking and
talking at him.
The integration of elements borrowed from the
aggressive repertoire in an erotic context is provoked by the inability
to be aroused in a genuine sexual way or by the refusal to surrender
sexually. Such refusal or inability is found not only in many marriages,
where one ought to love but no longer does, but also in extra-marital
relations, where one is inclined to love, but ought not to surrender.
This situation is the rule under the regime of the exchange of beauty
for benefits and differential beauty, under which a majority has to
content itself with a second-hand partner. And these factor are in their
turn responsible for a more fundamental disturbance of the mechanism of
arousal: the falling apart of reciprocal seduction in one-sided
voyeurism and exhibitionism
(2) THE SACRIFICE OF LOVE THROUGH THE
DESTRUCTION OF BEAUTY
"Je n'ai pu aimer que là où la mort mêlait son souffle à celui de la
beauté."
Edgar Allan Poe.
Sadomasochism is not confined to natural behaviour like biting,
pinching, spanking and suffocating. It has a remarkable predilection for
instruments that enhance the effect of natural behaviour or that enable
the sadistic version in the first place. Pinching is relegated to
stickers, pincers or nipple clamps:
if not heightened to
piercing or pricking with pins:
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the effect of moulding
is obtained through the binding up of breasts
or buttocks:
slapping or spanking is
heightened to whipping or flogging:
keeping in check is
relegated ropes and belts:
embracing to corsets and
tight-fitting shoes:
heaving is enhanced through gasmasks, which have the
addtional charm of covering the face that could betray the reluctance to
surrender (see Chapter II) and accentuates the take over of the
impersonal drive, penetrating is heightened to stabbing
and the release of sperm substituted with the sprinkling with hot wax.
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Once the instruments have been introduced, their advent seems to have
become unstoppable. Ever more spectacular
versions are introduced:
In the last two examples,
even the penis is instrumentalised.
Instruments also allow for the combination of diverse sadistic
impulses in one and the same action: pinching and penetrating are
combined in pricking with needles or pins: cutting and containing are
joined in bonding with cutting wire.
The introduction of instruments paves the way for a further development
of sadomasochism. Piercing - as is already apparent in Proust’s piercing
live rats with hatpins until they died - is the mitigated form of
stabbing; the tamer’s whipping of the butcher’s cutting or chopping up;
and the handling of cigarettes and candles of the burning of the entire
body altogether (Die Flambierte Frau). This dormant or repressed
proclivity to mutilation is betrayed not only in the appearance of
knife, dagger and sword
and the suggestive bandages or trails of
blood,
but first and foremost in the pegging out
of the body on a metal or a cross in many a sadomasochistic setting
(see Hermann Nitsch)
The shift from merely
suggested to overt mutilation is fed by the displacement of the vagina
to the virginal surface of the skin or to the folds and axes of symmetry
on the body, that are readily read as cutting lines or seams. Or, to
phrase it with Angela Carter: even when the body has many openings where
the penis might penetrate, the relation of the knife with the flesh is
far more arbitrary: it can penetrate everywhere. Nude warriors fighting
with knives or swords – think of the Celts or gladiators – only fuel
such fantasies.
The transition to overt mutilation also lays
bare the deeper motives behind the smearing of the body, as is rendered
in the masterly photo of Lakomy:
But not always does it
get so bad. The majority of sadomasochistic procedures stop short of
genuine mutilation and content themselves with the mere flirting with
the anxiety-provoking idea of torture. Not surprisingly, these soon
subside to some form of forced intercourse (mock-rape), if they are not
reduced to some sophisticated form of foreplay to habitual intercourse
altogether. In the image, this is reflected in the presence of a kind of
aesthetic veil over the proceedings:
In completed sadomasochism, however, the ultimate release of both
pain and the tension caused by its alluring expression, is brought about
not so much by ‘la petite mort’ of the orgasm, but by genuine ‘grand
death’ - exemplified in Gilles de Rais' timing of his
orgasm with the death of his victims. The destruction of the
masochist at the same time releases the tension caused by the expression
of pain and the experience of pain that caused the expression. The
paradigm of such primeval sadism is Sade’s outburst on Easter Sunday
1768, when he tied up Rose Keller, whipped her, cut her with a knife and
dropped candle wax into her wounds. Such drama on Easter is surely an
echo of that other drama on Good Friday in 1759, when two women let
themselves crucify in public, in the wake of the Jansenist craze of
the flagellants (Zanker 58ff).
Thus, the transformation of pain in sexual arousal turns out to be a
mere foreplay for the sacrifice of love on the altar
of aggression.
The substitution of pain
for sexual arousal merely initiates the move toward the utter
destruction of the beautiful body - the fountainhead of love - by which
the sadomasochistic frenzy is appeased at last. We need only recall how,
in an effort to bring the voyeuristic endeavour to its acme, the arousal
of the skinner or ripper is released by being plunged into sheer
vaporous ugliness:
Sadomasochism is
essentially the sacrifice of love through the sacrifice of beauty. Such
sacrifice is far more effective than castration. Castration only
bereaves of the instrument of love and leaves the potential lover
hopelessly at the mercy of inexorable beauty, that continues stirring
the desire. It would be a mistake to consider the sadomasochistic
sacrifice as some derivative of castration: castration, on the contrary,
is a mitigated form of the sacrifice, of which it nevertheless may be an
adequate symbol. The sacrifice is the veritable mortification of the
‘will’, as propagated by Schopenhauer and depicted in Wagner’s Parsifal.
(3) THE DESTRUCTION OF BEAUTY AND CASTRATION
Ich will deinen Mund küssen, Jokanaan!
(Oscar Wilde, Richard Strauss)
Also the female can resort to the techniques described above to remedy
failing arousal. But we should not overlook the specific accents of
female sadism.
Under the regime of differential beauty and the exchange of beauty for
benefits, only the male is addicted to female beauty, while the female
remains rather indifferent. She is rather out at enjoying the male’s
arousal, while remaining cool herself. With her, no tension has to be
discharged. The problem is rather how to prevent the discharge of
tension in the male: orgasm temporarily suspends desire and breaks the
spell of female beauty.
This form of female sadism is rather out at keeping the male at a
distance – at fixating him in his status of a mere eye. As long as he
merely looks, she can enjoy his eager eye as well as his erect penis.
Ideally, she heightens the tension to the point when the man ejaculates
without touching himself or her body. Thus, Keyes lets his dominatrix
complain: “If I tease you enough, will your dick squirt without playing
with it?” (Money). And that explains why the behaviour of the genuine
‘femina dominatrix’: in the full possession of her beauty the spell of
her gaze dissuades from approaching. Noli me tangere! Don’t dare to
touch me! (Klimt, Salome).
Another version of the femina dominatrix stages rather the
economic foreplay to this sexual interaction: the female who lets the
male slave, while refusing to sexually gratify him accordingly: the
Venus Frigida, whose blessing we amply described in 'The
ecstasies of Eros'.
A variant of the dominating gaze is the
threatening gaze that looks up from an submitted face:
The femina dominatrix may endorse her dominating gaze with whips or
other attributes. However much this version might stir deep-rooted male
anxieties, it has somehting hilarious about it. Whereas
the beautiful woman naturally enslaves the male with her mere
beauty, an armed woman cannot but stir male aggression. The threat of an
armed woman may only be effective when beauty first
disarmed the poor male:
Far more convincing are teeth and claw: when the male throws himself in
the arms of the female, he is vulnerable by those weapons indeed.
Furthermore, they stir deep-rooted oral
anxieties (cat-woman, being devoured by a shark of a whale, the
swallowing black of the vagina):
The counterpart of the woman that reciprocates male dominance with a
whip of her claws is the tied up male: his eyes are allowed to see and
his penis can stand up, but he himself cannot move. A variant is the
male torso bereaved of the legs allowing him to approach the female and
of the arms that threaten to embrace her.
Female sadism could suffice with these variant. The erect penis,
however, contains a double danger. On the one hand, it threatens to
ignite the frigid beauty of the female, and it is all the more out at
releasing the tension, the more the beauty of the ‘femina dominatrix’
arouses it, on the other hand. To maintain her power – and to block the
unfolding of love with herself as well as with the male – the female might
feel tempted to castrate the man. The heightened beauty of the female
can only survive in destroying that of the male, as
with Kubin:
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As opposed to the male, who with the destruction of female beauty also
annihilates his own desire, the female is utterly left in the cold after
having castrated with her beauty. Castration would have turned the male
in a mere gazing eye (Dahl), were it not for the pain, that would have
him lose all attention for female beauty. There is
nobody left, then, to admire female beauty. That is why female
sadism often comprises a final phase in which the femina
castratrix incorporates the penis. She is thereby transformed into a
female hermaphrodite. That is why the destruction of the penis is rather
a removal leaving the penis intact in view of its impending
incorporation, and not so much the release of the sadistic urge
(Klinger, Salome).:
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And that sheds a new light upon Salomé’s kisses.
While representations of male sadism preferably stage beauty destroyed,
representations of female sadism accentuate the castrating female rather
then the castrated male. Representations of castration itself are rather
scarce. The reason is that Salomé prefers to relegate the job to an
executioner. Already the use of weapons reduces the sovereignty of her
pure beauty. The most refined version of the castrating woman is
embodied in the Salomé of Oscar Wilde and Richard Strauss: as the price
for the denudation of her beauty, Salomé demands that the one man
castrates another. She is a mere onlooker on the proceedings: the
triumph of female beauty as the prime mover. Even stronger is the power
of beauty when the male is castrating himself for the sake of woman (Kybele)
That does not prevent that, over the course of
history, the figure of Salomé has gradually condensed with that of
Judith, who decapitates Holophernes with her own hands (Panowksy). Such
condensation allows the artist to depict Salomé with the sward in her
hand (Caravaggio).
There is also a form of ‘lesbian’ sadism that complies to the male
scenario: generally an older and mostly not so
beautiful, if not ugly, woman takes the place of the male and destroys
the beauty of her victim. She is driven by the revenge of a minor beauty
that feels eclipsed through the splendour of her victim. This variant of
female sadism perfectly fits in the conception of sadomasochism as the
sacrifice of beauty, although this time, the aim is the destruction of
the object of jealousy.
(4)
THE ELUSIVE SADIST
Sadomasochism originates not so much in some mysterious transformation
of pain in pleasure, but rather in the integration of elements of
aggressive behaviour in the repertoire of love: the expression of pain
as a substitute for the expression of erotic transport. In the ideal
case, it leads to the destruction of beauty as a means of releasing the
sexual tension or as a means of blocking the arousal as well as the
approach of the male.
The paradigm of sadomasochism is the infliction of physical pain and the
enactment of physical destruction. Nevertheless, it is not always
physical maltreatment that fuels the sadomasochistic enterprise. Not
seldom, the adepts of sadomasochism have a bad conscience about their
proceedings. Already the predilection of instruments betrays a
propensity to transfer the execution of the sadistic impulses to
instruments. But it is only when the sadist transfers the handling of
the instruments to an ‘instrumental sadist’, as Salomé to the
executioner, that he can have clean hands.
This truth is caught in the rather humorous photo of Bareta below:
Another way out is to switch to less painful substitutes, which are
expressions of love nevertheless. There are lots of possibilities:
Lovers not only are looking for sexual gratification with each other,
but also for reciprocal help. Thus, asking for help can be a way of
asking for love. Here originates the classic ‘masochistic’ attitude of
the helpless, poor or ill woman (‘La traviata’). That explains why,
paradoxically enough, a lover can feel driven to harm his beloved: in a
second phase, he can pose as the one who comes to the rescue. He thus
can regain the love of his beloved. Parents are using the same trick,
when they frighten their children by telling
fairy tales, to all the more enjoy the ensuing intensity with which
their children come to seek security in their arms.
Add to that the willingness to make sacrifices or to
suffer deprivation for the sake of each other’s gratification, which is
an unmistakable sign of love. Not for nothing do lovers endlessly repeat
that they would go through hell for each other. That is why they not
seldom are conjuring up the most diverse evils from Pandora’s box in the
name of love. Very efficient is threatening to withhold love or to give
it to a third party. The ultimate symbolic proof of love is the devotion
to the most repellent excrements of the beloved one (Last Tango in
Paris).
But these are merely extreme manifestations, even when the emphasis on
food and drink betrays that this behaviour is derived from loving
behaviour: lovers are supposed to feed, clothe
and shelter each other. That is obvious from the less drastic
performances where the partner has to behave like a dog
eating dog food:
That sheds a new light on some secondary aspects of the original
sadomasochistic procedure. The amount of pain inflicted or
endured can be a measure for reciprocal dedication. It can also
call forth the desire to come to the rescue. When the executioner
afterwards comes to take pity on his victim, he covers up the traces of
the initially sadistic enterprise.
Also the pleasure in act of submitting, inherent in
the infliction of pain, is only seemingly of an aggressive nature.
It only appears when the power of
sexual attractiveness is waning and leaves room for artificial forms of
domination or submission. There is also a non-sexual version of the
femina dominatrix, the most subtle version of
which is of a purely spiritual nature. The dominatrix then revels in seemingly aggressive,
non-sexual forms of exercising power, and she does so because she is not
or no longer able to exert real sexual power over her lovers.
Conversely, the non-sexual submission of the masochist can compensate
for the lack of real sexual slavery. In either case, we are dealing with
a sexual relationship, and not with an enactment of power relations in
society, as many an author – from Bloch, over Gebhardt and Fromm, to
Foucault and Carter – will have it. In their urge to fathom the darkness
of the sadomasochistic universe, they involuntarily are turned into the
accomplices of the elusive sadist, who is only interested in obfuscating
the sexual origin of his proceedings.
And, finally, the elusive sadist also summons up disobedience – or to
phrase it more philosophically: transgression – in the service of love.
(5) BEAUTY BORN OUT OF
PAIN
‘N’ajustez jamais la robe au corps, mais
disciplinez le corps pour qu’il s’accorde à la robe’.
Elsa Schiaparelli,’la grande dame de la couture surréaliste’
(Borel, 115)
Many interventions meant to heighten erotic attractiveness have an
unmistaken sadistic overtone: tattoos, bound feet, plastic surgery. That
the infliction of pain is only a means of heightening beauty, seems to
clear such sadistic intervention of any suspicion: beauty must suffer.
But things are more complicated. The question remains whether (carvings)
or tattoos really heighten the beauty of the skin. For they only come to
break the evenness, the smoothness and the extension of the skin, and
replace the sensuous appeal with its very
opposite: signs. Also the ‘horror vacui’ speaks volumes: in the end, the
skin is overgrown by tattoos: horror of the void as horror of sensuous
luxury. Also the continued use of make up can deteriorate the condition
of the skin, to the extent that only the disease can be the remedy. And
many an uplifted breast has lost its natural
suppleness, which makes already its mere sight to a painful experience. What
presents itself as heightened beauty, turns out to be its mere
negation:
Thus, it appears that the heightening of beauty has merely to avert the
attention from its destruction. The heightening of beauty is in many
cases a mere pretext to indulge in sadistic pleasures: the destruction
of beauty in the guise of its construction. For it cannot be denied that
tattoos are in essence marks. Where there is a mark, there has been a
wound.
The construction of seeming beauty is preceded by an overt
destruction. This time, the sadist eludes us in time: in the past that
has merely leaves its marks – not otherwise than the executioner that
afterwards come his victim to the rescue.
Carving the skin and tattooing are a gory
spectacle.
The screams are often shouted down with the beat of drums. Far more
refined is the sexual justification
of the screams, as when
the master has his disciple have intercourse in view of making the
skin even more sensitive to his sadistic intervention. At the same time,
this staging allows for letting the pain pass for a surplus of sexual
tension that has to be released in orgasm. Also the assistant can enjoy
the expression of pain that he at the same helps to mask as an
expression of sexual pleasure. A further stride is the so-called
tattooed without tattooing. These have their partner tattooed by an
‘instrumental sadist’ in order to be able to fully enjoy her suffering.
That also explains why the repressed resurfaces, again and again. Many a
(scarf) is re-opened and many tattoo is renewed (Kafka).
Tattooing is a form a sadism that wraps itself in honourable veils, just
like the ‘spiritual’ versions of sadism. The bad conscience about
tattooing is betrayed even in the contention that the marks would
heighten the pleasure when stroked (compare with the
justifications of circumcision). The unvarnished versions of tattooing
are the application of burning cigarettes or hot candle wax.
Piercing stems from the sm-scene and has
become
an innocent prop.
Its
sadistic origin is eloquently restored in the photo below:
Its sadistic origin is
further betrayed in that
its in essence abhorrent effect is heightened
through a kind of negative exhibitionism: making grimaces is obligatory
in the corollary magazines. Also frightening and deterring, just like
pain, have in common with the beauty they negate, that they exert an
irresistible effect on the onlooker.
This sheds a new light on the contemporary aesthetic surgery and the
fitness-culture. Not only fitness-centres, but also the operating table
of the aesthetic surgeon – not to mention the apparatus for deforming
skulls, elongating necks, lips, earlobes and labia minora – cannot but
remind of the torture chambers and sm-cabinets, the dark prototypes of
the white hospitals. Also the heavy efforts, the intense pains and
deprivations imposed to become beautiful, take an auto-sadistic
(’masochistic’) overtone in this context. Especially with fitness, the
heavy and often compulsive efforts are not seldom supposed to release
sexual tension. The same goes probably for the endless making oneself
up, combing, dressing and sunbathing. Auto-castration precedes the
destruction of beauty. Many endure the pain because it equally alleviates the feeling of guilt. By putting themselves in the
spotlights, the competitors are driven off the scene. Suffering for
beauty can thus come to function as a kind of self-punishment for the
seizure of power and as a kind of means of transferring the guilt to the
eclipsed: they should have been prepared to do some effort
for it.
This time, the real destructive nature of the undertaking becomes
only visible afterwards. Even when it cannot be denied that many an
effort pays in the short term, in the long rung high heels deform the
feet and corsets the chest, dieting degenerates into anorexia or bulimia and
excessive sun-bathing leads to premature ageing of the skin, if not to
cancers. And that goes equally for the danger of infection with
tattooing and piercing, in which seldom the secret appeal of the whole
proceedings resides.
(6) VOYEURISM/EXHIBITIONISM AND
SADISM/MASOCHISM
Only seemingly is sadism a question of muscle and instruments causing
pain. The kernel of sadistic pleasure is in essence voyeuristic: the
sovereign contemplation of the destruction of the fountainhead of love –
the beauty of woman reduced to her body or man reduced to his penis. And
only seemingly is masochism a question of
pain. From the sadist’s point of view it suffices that the masochist
provides the necessary expression. The real pain and the actions through
which it is inflicted, are of no further concern. Granted, to the
masochist the pain is all the more real. But we shall soon understand
how sadomasochism knows to eliminate also this last obstacle.
It begins to dawn on us that there might be a near relationship between
sadomasochism and voyeurism/exhibitionism. The crux of the sadistic
pleasure is the voyeuristic enjoyment of the exhibitionistic performance
of the masochist. The visual aspect is fundamental. Sexual interaction
can easily be performed in the dark. But a sadomasochistic
relation is unthinkable without the visual aspect – or, what amounts to
the same, the audible aspect. What is more: sadism can only come to its
apogee when the contemplation of the suffering of the masochist becomes
really sovereign. The elusive sadist already transferred the infliction
of pain, first to instruments, and then to the manipulator of the
instruments. That is not only a mechanism to obtain clean hands, but
foremost to free the hands of any activity that might disturb the
contemplation of suffering. Only as a pure voyeur can the sadist
contemplate the proceedings of the instrumental
sadist in all sovereignty. That leads to the sadomasochistic triangle: the master
commanding the executioner or the dominatrix having the castration of
her lover executed through a third admirer. That reminds us of the lover
that had his beloved make love to her lover, to be able to
contemplate undisturbed. In both cases, the greedy eye provokes the
transformation of a dual relation in a triangle: the animal with the two
backs or the sacrifice of beauty. Thus, sadism is unfolding to a variant
of voyeurism. To give account of this profound affinity between these
two perversions, it would be a good idea to coin the term ‘sadovyeurism’
and ‘maso-exhibitionism’.
On the other hand, voyeurism can only fully develop into a fully
gratifying – and no lo longer a castrating – experience through its
transformation in sadovoyeurism. In its most primitive form, voyeurism
came down to a de facto castration: the voyeur as well as the
exhibitionist resigned from every sexual gratification through confining
themselves to a pure visual relation. The sadist, on the other hand, can
fully be gratified, precisely because he visually witnesses the
destruction of the source of sexual arousal. Granted, he pays a heavy
price for such privilege: his gratification comes down to the ultimate
resignation from beauty, the sexual arousal it ignites, and the genital
release of it. The same goes for the sadomasochist. He no longer is
consumed by a desire that cannot be satisfied: in the end, it is dead
that releases him from the pain (Schopenhauer).
We have already seen how sadomasochism is fundamentally the sacrifice of
love through the destruction of beauty, the fountainhead of love. We now
can add that this is precisely the reason why voyeurism and
exhibitionism of necessity have to develop into completed sadovoyeurism
and maso-exhibitionism. By joining the already mentioned tendency to a
generalised visualisation of love and through completing it,
sadovoyeurism is fulfilling the real destiny of the perverse move: the
self-annihilation of love. While beauty initially was the spark that
made the fire of love ignite, the destruction of beauty is the black
hole that swallows the orgasmic expansion of love, not otherwise than
Kronos
devouring his children.
Not for nothing does sadism feast its triumph in the two cultures that
most resigned from real love through the development of a high culture
of the image: Europe and Japan.
(7) THE IMAGE AND SADOMASOCHISM’S COMING OF
AGE
The image is the main catalyst in sadomasochism’s coming of age.
The mere adoption of a voyeuristic stance as such already comes down to
a kind of destruction of the object: the reduction to a mere visual
appearance equals the obliteration of the tangible body. That is only
sealed in the image: since it merely renders the visual appearance of
the nude, it only enhances the exclusion contained in the primeval scene
depicted in it. This double frustration may be the main catalyst in the
transformation of the representation of intangible beauty (or the
primeval scene) in the staging of the sacrifice of beauty. Furthermore,
the image has an outspoken predilection of the literal sadism of pain
and wounds: the more concealed spiritual forms are invisible.
Therein, the image counteracts the elusive sadist’s endeavour to render
his undertakings more respectable.
But there is more. Reality exercises severe restraints on the
sadomasochistic enterprise. The sacrifice must not be seriously injured,
let alone be tortured to death. In every sadomasochistic setting, there
is set in place a whole system of signals indicating which thresholds
should not be crossed. Since this will not suffice, the aggressive
frenzy, triggered through erotic releasers, has to be additionally
contained through a compulsory ritualisation of the sadomasochistic
performance (cfr compulsory neurosis). Such restraints are imposed by
culture. In former times, nobody objected nearly related
phenomena: all kinds of torture, cruel punishments (crucifixion), ritual
cruelties (Azteks, Roman gladiators) and milder forms of cruelty like
bullfights. More and more, the destructive frenzy that otherwise would
culminate in a fully-fledged sacrifice, is mitigated to a ritually
contained sadomasochistic performance, that eventually culminates in the
sexual release it was meant to eradicate. ‘La petite mort’ triumph
over ‘la grande mort’.
Things are totally different in the image. Since, in the image, the
proceedings are merely staged and faked, nothing can prevent the
mitigated real performance from culminating in staged outright sacrifice
(Titian’s Martias). (Imaginary procedures) In the image of Ridgeway
below, the sadist is relegating his torture to the forces of nature,
which enables him to take the stance of a sovereign sadovoyeur.
Finally, the image disposes of purely intrinsic means of gratifying
sadistic impulses. Greek sculptures are often mutilated: arms or legs
are failing. Secret charms emanate from such mutilated sculptures. Ever
since Rodin was struck by the sight of his study for Saint John the
Baptist - a decapitated torso without arms and with deep marks – the
decapitated torso without arms and legs
has become a cherished subject in modern sculpture (Rodin’s ‘Iris
messagère des dieux’ as the counterpart of Courbet’s ‘L’origine du monde’).
Also in a two-dimensional image can the artist use the frame or digital
manipulation as a means of mutilating the body:
The destruction of the body often goes hand in hand with a destruction
of the image as such:
The obstacles to an unhindered development of
the sadomasochistic enterprise are only totally removed when an animal
replaces the human sacrifice, as in the Nitsch’ ‘Orgien-Mysterien-theater’,
where animals are cut open instead of naked women:
Rembrandt
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For the same reason, the image enables the full visualisation of sadism
to pure sado-voyeurism. The pleasure of torturing originates not so much
in the activity itself, as in the expressions it produces. The required
expression can directly be conjured up by the image, and at its highest
intensity at that: as the orgasmic frenzy of death-anguish. The sadist
can confine himself to a purely voyeuristic stance and dispense with
mere instrumental sadism:
The full sadomasochistic triangle can be replaced with the dyad of sadovoyeuristic
onlooker and his victim. Also the masochist is transformed into a pure
exhibitionist, a mere appearance. We already mentioned how the suffering
did not concern the sadist, but was all the more real to the masochist.
But since, for the sado-voyeur the victim has only to produce the
necessary expressions, the image can easily get rid of the feelings of
the masochist, as it did of the actions of the instrumental sadist.
While the sadist is transformed in the sovereign sado-voyeur, the
masochist evaporates into a mere apparition:
The same image, then, that forbids the orgasmic unfolding of the very
beauty it reveals, utterly gratifies the purified sadomasochistic greed
without any restraint. It is the natural habitat of the sadomasochistic
endeavour. Only in the image can the inbuilt trend of love to dissolve
itself in a pure visual experience come to its apogee. This is the truth
in Steiner’s contention that there is a secret affinity between the
total freedom on uncensored erotic imagination and the total freedom of
the sadist.
Not only exhibitionism and voyeurism, but foremost sadomasochism
completed to sadovoyeurism owe their completion to the image. Only the
image enables the full development of ‘la grande mort’ in making
abstraction of the merciless pain that will forever be felt because the
desire to be released by ‘la petite mort’ cannot be satisfied.
That does not prevent that – apart from snuff-movies and real murder –
the examples are rather scarce and foremost male. We soon will
understand why.
(8) MODES OF THE SADOMASOCHISTIC SACRIFICE
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters...
Auden.
Just as there is a voyeuristic triangle, there is also a sadomasochistic
triangle. The completed sadmasochistic sacrifice is enacted through the
sinister triad of the sovereign voyeur, the instrumental sadist(s) and
the masochist. Under the guise of a punishing torture, the triangle is
depicted in the flagellation of Piero della Franscesca.
The ordinary voyeuristic triangle is often obfuscated in an
attempt to mitigate the pain of having to relegate one's
role as a lover to a third party. Ideally, the sadomasochistic triangle
is shortened into the dyad of the sovereign sadovoyeur contemplating the
masochistic appearance,
as with the flagellation of Christ.
A bad conscience about the sadomasochistic
proceedings can be an additional motive to expel also the instrumental
sadist from the image, and staging merely beauty destroyed. This is a
cherished procedure, not only in male, but also in female masochism:
But the triangle is often emphatically restored. The staging of the
instrumental sadist allows the projection of the sadism of the sadovoyeur. The projection is masked in that the role of the
instrumental sadist is relegated to an animal or a monster,
as with Prometheus.The next step in the process of projection is
that the sadovoyeur poses as the one who comes to the rescue. Here, the
triangle unfolds to a quadrangle: the onlooker is split over two
protagonists in the image, as in Ingres' 'Angelica
salvata da Ruggiero'.
Just as the display of beauty can go hidden after some seemingly neutral
action, just so can the ritual sacrifice of beauty be disguised – and
justified - as the implementation of a punishment (to be distinguished
from the scenario where the sinner is punished for his real sexual
sins). The similarity of the techniques, should not make us overlook the
distinction between the sacrifice of beauty and the diverse forms of
punishment by political or parental authorities. With punishment, pain
is inflicted as retaliation for the real of symbolical pain inflicted by
the punished one. The punishment may range from an innocent smack in the
face to the sovereign contemplation of two prisoners killing each other,
as with the gladiators in Rome. All these forms of inflicting pain or killing
are intended to gratify the feeling of power and retaliation, not to
elicit sexual tension, as in the genuine sadomasochistic torture.
That is not to say that the more sophisticated forms or punishment
cannot stir sadistic impulses. All kinds of torture have been real
midwifes of sadomasochism and, conversely, sadomasochistic impulses have
undoubtedly stimulated the refinement of the methods used:
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The reverse is equally true: also erotic feelings can conjure up the
need for punishment. Under the regime of compulsory marriage a
passionate relation is always forbidden. Transgression cannot fail to
conjure up the corresponding fear for punishment. The transgressor can
try to get rid of his feelings of guilt through ascribing them to the
machinations of a seductress and then relieve his feelings of guilt by
punishing her. The sacrifice of beauty can then be justified as a
punishment for an indecent provocation. The punishment is a mere
justification, since it does not apply to the sexual arousal in the
punisher, but to the provocation of the punished(?). The executioner of
the punishment can only get rid of his arousal by destroying the beauty
that provoked it. Thus, the threat with punishment, that initiated the
displacement of sexuality to sadomasochism, comes to serve as the
justification of sadomasochism: the sadist as well as his victim do not
longer feel involved in a dark destructive undertaking. (This element
can add to the charms of transgression as described above). Guilt can
also be alleviated through transforming the desired woman in the
punishing – castrating – woman. The ‘femina castratrix’
has the castration performed by an executioner or the sinful man itself.
The disguise as punishment explains the introduction of many a form of
torture in the sadomasochistic universe. A speaking example is the
crucifixion of Christ. Although crucifixion has become obsolete as a
form of punishment, it remains a most cherished sadomasochistic
procedure, as well in male as in female sadism. This is reinforced by the fact that not only the
surrendering body, but also the raped body raped takes the form of an X,
the Andreas cross: on the cross, the nude is as defenceless as in the
image. The association of crucifixion and copulation is strengthened
through the fact that Jesus Christ has been
penetrated with a lance.
The same goes for the flagellation of Christ – imitated by many a monk
or nun castigating themselves for their sins of the flesh – a practice
that survived in many a brothel of the eighteenth century and the secret
sm-room in many a modern house.
The propensity of sadomasochism to disguise itself as the infliction of
punishment also facilitates the enjoyment of real punishments as a
displaced sacrifice of beauty. Here originate the secret charms of the torture
of Jesus Christ and the countless Christian martyrs like
Saint Agatha (Piombo), the Holy Sebastian,
and Saint Erasmus (Bouts and Poussin).
Victims of torture and punishment are even predestined to such
displacement, since they cannot but summon up
feelings of sympathy, which pave the way for a genuine sexual transport.
Especially the fact that the martyr sacrifices himself for a higher
cause and that he rejects the indecent proposals of his torturers, makes
martyrdom resemble the sadomasochistic triangle. Not for nothing are
religious, but also political martyrs a most cherished subject in
painting, and not only in Western art.
It comes as no surprise that many an image makes the
disguise undone.
The sacrifice of the nude can also go disguised in medical attire,
or in the depiction of suicide
(Cranach, Lucretia).
It begins to dawn on us why the open depiction
of the sadomasochistic primal scene is so scarce. It remains to be
understood why the beauty destroyed is predominantly male. The obvious
answer is that the same woman, that seems to have her problems with the
overt enjoyment of an erotic male nude, does not object to be aroused by
the sacrifice of a male under the guise of punishment or martyrdom,
exemplary in the crucifixion of Christ, or by the sight of man that have
been deformed or disfigured by blind fate.
The theme is the more cherished since it allows sadism to go hidden
behind the veils of motherly care. This is all too obvious with Maria
and the nude maltreated body of her son on her lap, as in Michelangelo’s
very suggestive Pietà. As soon as, under the auguries of feminism, women
begin to produce erotic images, they soon proceed to overt depictions of
the mutilated male body.
All this – apart from the fact that women are more interested in the
signs of wealth and power than in the nude
body - has to be taken into account when the female attitude towards
erotic imagery is compared with the male.
(9) THE TRIUMPH OF SADOMASOCHISM AND THE
END OF ART
At first glance, the completion of sadism is sadovoyeurism
saves the image. Merely contemplating the seductive nude is a castrating
experience, which evenutally makes the voyeur turn his back on the image. The sadovoyeuristic contemplation of the
sacrifice of beauty, on the other hand, is, especially for man, a
completely satisfying experience and its depiction in the image does
justice to the image as a purely visual medium. It comes as no surprise,
then, that the inherent logic of the image leads to the transformation
of the representation of the nude in that of the sacrifice of beauty
(with the hermaphrodite and the beast with two
backs as intermediary stages). The unfolding
of perversion thus comes to join the unfolding of the image. The image
is no longer the forbidding forbidden, but the gratifying gratification.
But the simultaneous unfolding of perversion and image is at the same
time their ultimate self-annihilation. The unfolding of love is reversed
and swallowed up in the pure visual experience of sadovoyeurism, the
negation of precisely beauty that is the spark that ignites the passion
of love. And the image turns out to be precisely the contrary of what it
intended to be: to reveal a heightened beauty. In a first phase it
revealed a heightened beauty, that it at the same time made inaccessible by
bereaving it of its tangibility. In a second phase it staged a fully
accessible perfection, but a perfection that only contains the
destruction of the initially promised ideal. Through enabling and
enacting the destruction of what it originally was meant to reveal, the
image comes to resemble what it represents: from a means of revelation
it is turned into a catalyst of destruction.
In that sense the shroud of Turin – Magdalene’s veil – may pose as the
paradigm of such development. The void of love in the image as a void:
truly, this is the veritable black hole, of which Malevich’s black
square on black background, meant to seal the end of figurative are and
to herald the advent of abstract art, is only the faint afterglow.
malewitsh
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Through such sinister a diabolic dialectics, the image speaks out a ban
against itself. In the end, it has become the forbidding forbidden
again, but now in a far more profound sense: by forbidding love, it
finally also forbids itself. Time has come to tackle the mimetic taboo.
©
Stefan Beyst,
june 2004
From the same author:
'the ecstasies of eros'
Your reaction (in English, French, German or Dutch):
beyst.stefan@gmail.com
Bibliography
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