Keeping in mind the sadomasochistic duality present ineverypatriarchal psyche, the identification of the male viewer is not solelywith the penetrating penis, although the conscious identification is usually centered on exactlyon that, as described by Root, sex a punishment to which the unwilling victimmust submit, acknowledging her master's superiority. Pictures of descriptions of whipping and sexual torture, tears and blood, are usedto give a sensationof overwhelming power, bordering onomnipotence. ( Jane Root, 'Sexualitypictures ofwomen' p48)
Dr. Freud draws our attention repeatedly to the influence
ofthe sexual act of the parents or other adults on the small child
whichinadvertly, or advertly, witnesses it, and
assumes that it has seen anact of sadism of the father
upon the mother (at the periodof Freud's activityit was unlikely for the
child to witness a bondage scene inwhich the mother dominates the father, and this scenario is still
statistically unlikely even today).
But when readingFreud,one is left with the impression that the child's opinionis wrong
- that it has interpreted what it has seen or heard wrongly, due to lack of information. However, as Freud
himself repeatedlystates, and otherpsychoanalysts also the standard male sexualityis sadistic, and the female
- masochistic - therefore the child is not at all wrong whenit draws it's conclusions on the
nature of the parental coitus. It is sadistic. It is domination. And, as we will later see,
painand anxietyare manifested in the act. Both the 'sadistic' and 'masochistic'
impulses are present in each human withinthe patriarchy- male and female.
But the visible symptoms of these impulses are controlledbysocial forces, and some symptoms may be
displayed by males but notbyfemales, and vice versa. For instance inchildhood, the
first levelsof self control acquired by the child are basedon restraining one
self -ofblocking the impulses which appear. Thus a child is conditionedby the environment to tighten up, to
freeze, when 'inappropriate' impulses well up as a reaction to outside stimulus
- there I think lies the root of the erotic scenario of taking punishment without reaction (as
well as panic reactions to danger inwhichanxiety facilitatesnot reactionbut paralysis). Arelevant
comment byErich Fromm is: "Frequently it is not the actual sufferingofpain that is sought
for, but the excitement and satisfactionaroused by being physically bound, made helpless and weak" ('The
Fear of Freedom, p127). But a 'normal' male, perceived as 'no longer a child', cannot ritualize
the situation of being the passive recipient of unpleasant things, the male is boundbythe
patriarchal code to accept withina ritual the roleof the authority which causesthe unpleasant
things - and toproject its passive experience uponthe female.
If a male is caught acting out the passive part in a domination/submission ritual, the patriarchy reacts with ridicule,
imprisonment, forced electrical or chemical psychotherapy or execution, depending onthe
place and time. The same was to a very severe extent also true for
females, soboth types of humans develop mechanisms of projection, whichallow them to symbolically experience
their hidden impulses and longings, by use of partnerof
the opposite sex. 'Excitement' "Pretend" activities are increasinglyused to channel
various impulses of contemporary humans. In the preChristian period humans killed
and maimed each other in the arena for the amusement of the crowd. in the preEnlightenment
period humans were choppedup, hung, burnt, torn apart as public punishment, but of course most witnesses on the street came for
'the rush'. to this dayfor some humans the highest pleasure is seeing dogs tear each other
apart, or other humans 'box', 'wrestle', etc., but increasingly the thrill from witnessing
violence and blood is catered for in the "pretend" category of "films".
Likewise male producedbattery, rape and murderdirected at females is being increasingly reenacted
in "pretend" fashion in Domination/Submission, Sado/Masochistic
bought, sold, and consensual activities. After all, this civilization
generated concepts like "virtual reality" and "literary
fiction", producing huge parallel realities in which
things otherwise "unacceptable" in one wayor another, are allowed to take place.