Maid to Order: Commercial Fetishism and Gender - source url

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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 theatricalparaphernalia 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,"withparticulardangerforwomen."'1But theoutrageof Sex is itsinsightintoconsensual S/M as hightheater.2Demonizing S/M confusesthe distinction
between unbridled sadism and the social subculture of consensual
To argue thatin consensualS/M the "dominant"has power,
fetishism.3
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 thegreatestconversions 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 submission 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
and rebutsthe
and poweras twinedin interdependence,
performsidentity
individual.The
vision of the solitaryand self-generating
Enlightenment
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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Photographsby Grace Lau, 1993
Hence theparadox of consensualS/M. On the one hand,it seems to
parade a servileobedienceto conventionsof power.In its clich~d reverence 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
withitsexaggeratedemphasison
to orthodoxpower.Yet,on thecontrary,
and hence as
costumeand scene, S/M performssocial poweras scripted,
subjectto change.As a theaterof conversion,S/M reverses
permanently
and transmutesthe social meaningsit borrows,withoutfinallystepping
of its magic circle.In S/M,paradox is paraded,
outsidethe enchantment
not resolved.This essayis pitchedat thebordersof contradiction.
Against Nature: S/M and Sexology
coinedthetermssadism
In 1885, thesexologistRichardvon Krafft-Ebing
and masochism,
of
and medicalizedboth as individualpsychopathologies
was an aberrantand atavisticmanithe flesh.7Sadism, forKrafft-Ebing,
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
are indirectlyto blame for male sadism, for
women, for Krafft-Ebing,
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"natural"heteromal" male masochism.The firstcontradiction-between
sexualityand the "unnaturalperversions"-was primarilymanaged by
projectingthe "perversions"onto the inventedzone of race. Sexologists
Maid to Order
89
Since S/M is the
theatricalexercise
of social contra-
diction,itisselfconsciously
against nature,
not in the sense
thatitviolates
naturallaw, but
in the sense that
itdenies the existence of natural
law in the first
place.
90
likeKrafft-Ebing
demonizedS/M as thepsychopathology
of the atavistic
individual,as a blood-flawand stigma of the flesh. S/M, like other
was figuredas a regressionbackwardin timeto the "prehisfetishisms,
tory" of racial "degeneration,"existingominouslyin the heart of the
imperialmetropolis-thedegenerationof the race writas an individual
pathologyof the soul.
decent doses of male aggressionare a fait
Thus, forKrafft-Ebing,
accompliof nature.Genuine sadism,however,existsin "civilizedman"
onlyto a "weak and ratherrudimentary
degree."13 Whilesadismis a natural traitof "primitive"peoples, atavistictraces of sadism in "civilized
man" stem,not fromenvironment
or social accident,but are awakened
froma primordialpast: "Sadism must . .. be countedamongthe primitive anomaliesof the sexual life.It is a disturbance(a deviation)in the
evolutionof psychosexualprocessessproutingfromthe soil of psychical
degeneration."14
Like Krafft-Ebing,
Freud agreesthattheaggressiveimpulseis "readilydemonstrablein thenormalindividual."'5Again,the"normalindividual" is male: "The sexualityof mostmen showsan admixtureof aggression, of a desire to subdue."16 But for Freud, the differencebetween
aggressionand sadismis one of degree,not of kind:"Sadism wouldthen
correspondto an aggressivecomponent of the sexual instinctwhich
has become independentand exaggeratedand has been broughtto the
foregroundby displacement.""7Masochism, however,presentsa more
subtleriddle.For Krafft-Ebing,
since masochismis simplyNature'sway
of sayingthatwomen are destinedfor a passive role in society,masochism is naturalto women, but not to men. Freud, however,sees the
"most striking
peculiarity"of sadomasochismas the factthat"its active
forms
are regularlyencounteredtogetherin the same perand passive
son."18 Male masochism, moreover,is by no means an uncommon
phenomenon.Freud,however,managesthiscontradiction
by identifying
male masochismas, more properlyspeaking,"feminine."'19
The heterosexual distribution
of "male" aggressionand "female" passivityis sustained,ifprecariously.
By contrastwithunbridledsadism,however,consensual and commercialS/M is less a biologicalflawor pathologicalvariantof "natural"
male aggressionand "natural"femalepassivity,
thanit is a historicalsubculturethat 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
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
as
social poweras both contingentand constitutive,
place. S/M performs
sanctionedneitherby fate nor by God, but by social conventionand
and thusas open to historicalchange.
invention,
Consensual S/M insistson exhibitingthe "primitive"(slave, baby,
in thehistoricaltimeof modernity.
S/M stagesthe
woman) as a character
in the
irrational"
as a dramaticscript,a communalperformance
"primitive
of S/M (boots,whips,chains,
heartof Westernreason.The paraphernalia
uniforms)are the paraphernaliaof statepower,public punishmentconvertedto privatepleasure.S/Mplayssocialpowerbackward,visiblystaging
difference
and power,theirrational,
hierarchy,
ecstasy,and thealienation
of the body as being at the centerof Westernreason,thusrevealingthe
it as fate.S/M
butalso irreverently
imperiallogicofindividualism,
refusing
as nature.
manipulatesthesignsof powerin orderto refusetheirlegitimacy
Hence theunstinting
severityofthelaw in policingcommercialS/M.
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91
Nothingto Use
butYourChains:
Fetishesin the Land
of Fem-Dom
Some feminists
demonizeheterosexualS/Mas thesanctioned
exerciseof male tyranny:
"Paand
attriarchy heterosexuality
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 executetrulyfeministgoals."21KathleenBarryin Sexual SlaverydenouncesS/M as "a disguisefortheact of sexuallyforcinga womanagainstherwill.. ."22
It is also commonlythoughtthatmen who pay forcommercialS/M
of dompay to indulgein thesadisticabuse of women.Yetthetestimony
inatrixesrevealspreciselythe opposite.By farthe mostcommonservice
displayof subpaid forby men in heterosexualS/M is the extravagant
mission.In mostcommercialB&D (bondageand discipline),men are the
Lindi St. Clair says,farfrom
"slaves,"notthewomen.As thedominatrix
being the vicious unleashingof male dominance,S/M is typically"the
otherwayround."23AllegraTayloragrees:
Ambercan callon theservicesofa coupleof"submissive"
girlswhothemmen
selvesenjoybeingbeaten,to servicetheneedsofthefew"dominant"
whowantto dishit outrather
of herclients
thantakeit,butthemajority
to
comeandpaya lotofmoneyinordertosubmit,
torelinquish
themselves,
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,
and tormentedto thelimitsof theirendurance."'25
humiliated,frightened
an
B&D specialist,claims her clientsare "mostly
Australian
Kelly,
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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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 Australian 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 sadomasochist, there is nothing 'abnormal' about a male being passive and
submissive."31 Indeed, male passivity is by far the most common phenomenon. What is the meaning of this conversion?
The Domestic Slave
Prostitutestestifythat men frequentlyenact scripts framed by the "degradation" 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
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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 theirhousework for them. During her trial in 1987, Madame Cyn Payne calmly confessed 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 eighteenthcentury 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:
I saw the good man, disrobedof his clothes
lookingover the kitchen-door,
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
BE MY
CHAIR
IF YOU
DARE
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What are we to makeof theserituals,belongingas theydo in therealmof
thefetish?
In theirsecretsocietyof thespectacle,male "slaves" enactwithcompulsive repetitionthe forbiddenknowledgeof the power of women. In
an infant'sfirstidentification
is
cultureswherewomenare thechildraisers,
whichentersthe child'sidentityas its first
withthe cultureof femininity,
structuring
principle.But in these same societies,boys are taskedwith
away fromwomen,thatis, away froma foundingdimension
identifying
towardan oftenabstractedand remotemasculinof theirown identity,
but throughnegation.Masity-identity,thatis, not throughrecognition,
the
thus
comes
into
ritualizeddisavowal of the
culinity
being through
feminine,predicatedon a host of male rites of negation.Nonetheless,
withthecultureofwomensurvivesin secretrites,taboo and
identification
fullof shame.
as womenor as maids,by payingto do "women's
By cross-dressing
work,"or by rituallyworshipingdominas as sociallypowerful,the male
"slave" relishes the forbiddenfeminineaspects of his own identity,
furtively
recallingthe childhoodimage of femalepowerand the memory
of maternity,
banishedby social shameto themuseumof masturbation.
In Freudianpsychoanalysis,
as in Westerncultureat large,male identificationwiththe motherfigureis seen as pathological,perverse,the
ratherthanas an inevitableaspect
source of arrest,fixation,and hysteria,
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
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ATV
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is allowedonlywithmen,thus
to identify.
For boys,activeidentification
of
are
complex,dynamicpatterns identity splitintotwodistinctgendered
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,
and bootscrubbingritualsfillthe fantasycolumns of Femfootlicking,
Dom magazines such as Mistress,F-D Xtra, and Madame in a Worldof
absolvethe "slave" of
Fantasy.Perhapstheseexpiationritualssymbolically
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 domesticity
disavowedtheeconomic
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
value.
S/M stageswomen'sworkas havingboth exhibitionand economic
The social disavowaland undervaluation
of domesticworkare reversedin
the extravagantovervaluation
of women'sdirtywork,and the remunerationof womenforthe supervisionof men's labor.
96
Anne McClintock
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 putativelybeyondboth 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
in genderentailnaturaldiviquestion "Nature's" edict thatdifferences
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 flungintoconfusion 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 instantlytransformed 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 bedroom?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 elaboratereversalof 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 distinct,some of whichoverlap.
In S/M, social identitiesshiftlibidinously.In her ground-breaking
on
book, Vested
Interests,
MarjorieGarberinvitesus to taketransvestites
theirown terms,not as one sex or gender,but as theenactmentof ambiguityitself:not even so much a "blurredsex," as the embodimentand
She contendsthatthe "specterof
performanceof social contradiction.41
transvestism"
throwsinto questionthe verynotionof a fixedand stable
identity,
challenginganyeasybinarityof "female"and "male." The crossdresserrepresentsthe "crisisof categoryitself."Garberthussets herself
whichattempts
againstthe"progressnarrative"theoryof cross-dressing,
to uncovera "real" desiredidentity,
either"male" or "female"beneaththe
transvestite
mask. Rather,the transvestite
is the figurethatinhabitsthe
borderlandwhereoppositionsare permanently
disarranged.
rather
Cross-dressingcelebratesthe peculiarfreedomsof ambiguity,
is not
For many,the allureof transvestism
thanthefixityof one identity.
subverof
or
but
the
thetransformation man-to-woman, woman-to-man,
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 suspublicapender,the bald pate in the bonnet.In "tranny"(transvestite)
a man's hirsutecalf protrudes
tions such as The Worldof Transvestism,
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
theirwalls,theircots,or theirsiblingscan embody
childrenon themselves,
a varietyof inchoatepassions: rage, curiosity,an attemptto reach out
and loneliness.Ifunaccountably
and influencetheworld,frustration,
pun-
98
Anne McClintock
ished forsuch acts,the emotionmaybe arrested,destinedto recurcomtakes
pulsivelyforritualisticreenactment.In the dirtfetish,the fetishist
controlof perilousmemory,playingmemorybackward,in an excess of
the social compactbetweensexual transgression
desire,and disarranging
of
as children,werepunishedforbeingoutofcontrol
and dirt.If fetishists,
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
then,as adults,theS/Mersinvertthelogic,equatingdirtwith
retribution,
an exquisiteexcess of eroticpleasure,reenacting"toilettraining"in an
exhibitionist
parodyof the domesticeconomyof pleasureand power.
embodies a historicalmemorytrace. Since the nineteenth
also
S/M
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
social boundary.A broomin
Douglas suggests,is thatwhichtransgresses
a kitchenclosetis not "dirty,"whereaslyingon a bed it is. Sex withone's
is. Boxingis
spouse is not "dirty,"whereasthe same act witha prostitute
not "dirty,"but S/M is.
During the nineteenthcentury,the iconographyof "dirt" became
of social boundary.
deeplyintegratedintothe policingand transgression
In Victorianculture,thebodilyrelationto "dirt" expresseda social relation to labor. The male middle-class-seekingto dismantlethe aristocraticbody 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 Victorianscandal, because it was the surplusevidenceof manual labor,the
visibleresidue that stubbornlyremainedafterthe process of industrial
had done its work.Dirt is the counterpartof the commodity;
rationality
somethingis dirtypreciselybecause it is void of commercialvalue, or
because it transgressesthe "normal" commercialmarket.Dirt is whatis
useleftoverafterexchangevalue has been extracted.Dirt is bydefinition
less, since it is thatwhichbelongsoutsidethe commoditymarket.
If, as Marx noted, commodityfetishismexhibitsthe overvaluation
of commercialexchangeas the fundamentalprincipleof social community,thenthe Victorianobsessionwithdirtmarksa dialectic:the fetishized undervaluationof humanlabor. Smeared on trousers,faces,hands,
and aprons, dirt was the memorytrace of working-classand female
labor,unseemlyevidencethatthe productionof industrialand imperial
in the hands and bodies of the workingclass,
wealthlay fundamentally
Maid to Order
S/M is
haunted by
memory.
99
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-masturlesbianand gay sexuality,S/M,thehost of Victorian
bation,prostitution,
"perversions"-transgressedthe libidinaleconomyof male-controlled,
heterosexualreproductionwithinmonogamousmaritalrelations(clean
sex whichhas value). Likewise,"dirty"money-associated withprostitutes,Jews,gamblers,thieves-transgressedthe fiscal economy of the
male-dominated
marketexchange(clean moneywhichhas value). Prostitutesstoodon thedangerousthresholdofwork,money,and sexuality,
and
in theiconographyof "pollution,""disorcame to be figuredincreasingly
der,""plagues,""moralcontagion,"and racial"filth."
Men Babies in the Land of Fem-Dom
S/M is hauntedbymemory.By reenactingloss of controlin a stagedsituation of excessivecontrol,the S/Mergains symbolicpoweroverperilous
the memoryof trauma,S/M affordsa delirious
memory.By reinventing
the
and
fromthistriumphan orgasmicexcess of pleatriumphover
past,
sure. But since the triumphovermemoryis symbolic,howeverintensely
feltin the flesh,resolutionis perpetuallydeferred.For this reason,the
and compulsive
fetish,the scene, will recurfor perpetualreenactment,
as
a
fundamental
repetitionemerges
structuring
principleof 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."43
In tradeparlance,a "babyist,"
or "infantilist,"
sums
of
to
money be bathed,powdered,put in
pays large
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
"to skewer
doingthedisheslikedthetwowomenwho beat himafterward
himup tightin a blanket,and rollhimbackwardsand forwardsupon the
carpet,in the parlor,tillhe was lulledto sleep."45
100
Anne McClintock
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 breastfeed them."46Anotherdomina runs a two-storybuilding:at lunchtime,
businessmenarrive,discretelytakeofftheirclothes,don giant-sizednappies withgiant-sizednappypins,and spendlargesumsofmoneyto sitfor
an hour in giant-sizedplaypens,suckingbottles,beforeredressing,then
to thehurly-burly
of highfinance.
returning
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
on
child,buthistotaldependency
Babbahad beenhis childhoodname ...
her... . He sighedcontentedly.
Now he was to be Babba again... . Fromthenextday,all babyhairwas
removed.
between
hislegs ...
bathedhim,driedhim,putbaby-oil
Mummy
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
and
responsibility
fleetingly
relinquishtheirstolid control,surrendering
in an ecstaticreleaseof power.
authority
Babyism may also grant men retrospectivecontrol over perilous
of restraint,
memoriesof infancy:nightmares
rubbersheets,helplessness,
inexplicablepunishments,isolation,and grief.The rubberfetishseems
associated,forsome,withinchoatememoriesofrubberdiapers,wetbeds,
F-D magazinefantasiesrevealachingimagesof childand mortification.
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
Maid to Order
101
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.
perilousmemoriesof loss
Throughthecontrolframeof cash and fantasy,
of controlare reenactedunder circumstancesof a scrupulous excess of
control.
In theirsecretnurseryfor Goliaths,babyistsrituallyindulgein the
forbidden,nostalgicspectacleof thepowerof women.The land of Femdescribedby men as a "feminist"utopia, a futuristic
Dom is frequently
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
vitustrictgoverness."'52
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 SMACKING 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 nurserytreatmentas a means of remindinga troublesomehusbandthathe is stillsubject to maternalrule."'56
genPerhapsin theseexpiationrituals,menpay notonlyto surrender
or to gaincontroloverperilousmemories,but also to be
derresponsibility,
symbolically"absolved" of guiltforthe everydayabuse of women-only
to resumetheirauthorityonce more as theyreturnrestoredfrombabyland. As Gebhardsuggests,"The masochisthas a nice guiltrelievingsyswithhis sexual pleasureor
tem-he gets his punishmentsimultaneously
Moreelse is entitledto his pleasureby firstenduringthepunishment."57
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.
102
Anne McClintock
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 structuringparadox, stagingin public, as a vicariousspectacle,thatwhichit
renderscriminallydeviant outside the juridical domain. Orderingthe
unspeakableto be spokenin public,the sex trialtakesshape aroundthe
it setsitselfto isolateand punish.Throughtheprostitution
veryfetishism
in the distribution
of money,pleasure,and powerare
trial,transgressions
isolated as crimes,and are then performedagain in the theatricalceremonyof thetrialas confession.The judiciaryis a systemof orderedproceduresfortheproductionof "Truth."It is also a systemfordisqualifying
alternative
discourses:thedisenfranchised,
fetishists.
feminists,
prostitutes,
to
in
the
courtroom
about
their
By being obliged speak "forensically"
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
filmed
of
and exhibits,the
confessions,
evidence,
display "dirty"pictures,
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
There is, firstof all,the Chamber.In thetrial,thisis the Court;in
liturgy.
S/M it is the Vault,the Dungeon, or the Schoolroom.The firstriteis
exposure-in thetrial,theaccused is exposedbeforethecrowd;in theflagellantscene,the "slave's" buttocksare bared. The Judge,liketheDominatrix,is theatrically
costumed,whilethe judge's wig,liketheprostitute's
the
separationbetweenself and body, and therebythe
wig, guarantees
of the trial.BothJudgeand Dominatrixare paid moneyto
"impartiality"
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 necessarythattherebe spectators,voyeurismbeingan indispensableelementin
both scenes. Next, it is crucialthatboth accused and "slave" participate
denials,and confession.
verballyin theirtrial,in theplea,theinterrogation,
Maid to Order
103
*
LOCAL
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Judgement
Day
937 2499
Warningsare given,sentenceis pronounced,and executiontakesplace.
Only thenis the logic of pleasureand punishmentreversed:thetrialdisplaysillicitpleasureand powerforpunishment;S/M displaysillicitpunishmentforpleasureand power.The trialexiststo producethesentenceof
rationalTruth,while in S/M Truthbecomes orgasm,the word is made
flesh.S/Mthusemergesas a privateparodyofthepublictrial:publicpunishmentconvertedto privatepleasure.
If the sex trial isolates "deviant" sexual pleasure for punishment,
commercialS/M is thedialecticaltwinof thetrial,organizingthepunishment of sexual deviance forpleasure. If the sex trialredistributes
illicit
femalemoneyback intomale circulationthroughfines,commercialS/M
enactsthereverse,stagingwomen'ssexualworkas havingeconomicvalue,
and insisting,
on payment.
strictly,
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
104
Anne McClintock
G
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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
in theeyesofthelaw,well-recognized
cases
surgeryapparentlyconstitute,
of licit,consensualbodilyharm,fortheyare conductedfor "good reason," thatis, forthe profitablepublic consumptionof "natural"female
vanity,"natural"male aggression,and the law of male marketcompetition-for the propermaintenance,thatis, of heterosexualdifference.
In
in
violentcontactsports,men toucheach other furiousand oftenwoundbutthehomoeroticimplicationsare scrupulouslydisavowed.
ingintimacy,
Maid to Order
105
FeministsAgainstCensorship,thegay
Perhapsevenmorerevealingly,
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 homosexual man says 'yes,'thelaw saysthatis notgood enough."61The Spannertrialthrowsradicallyintoquestionthelaw's putativeimpartiality
in the
of
consent.
adjudication
The outrageof consensualS/M is multiple.It publiclyexposes the
possibilitythatmanhood is not naturallysynonymouswithmastery,nor
withpassivity.Social identitybecomes commutable,and the
femininity
boundaries of gender and class open to inventionand transfiguration.
Men touch each other for pleasure and women wreak well-paid
of all, eroticismis sunderedfrom
vengeance.Perhapsmost subversively
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 diaa challengeto it,a recognitionof its
logue become a parodyof authority,
sexual
nature."63
of misrule,woman is judge and
In
house
S/M's
secret,
jury,man is penitent,the masterdoes the slave'sbidding,and the sacred
is profane.
a theS/M is the most liturgicalof forms,sharingwithChristianity
atrical iconography of punishmentand expiation: washing rituals,
and symbolictorture.Like S/M,the
bondage,flagellation,
body-piercing,
is theeconomyof conversion:themeekexalted,
economyof Christianity
thehighmade low.Mortifying
thefleshexaltsone in theeyesoftheMaster.Throughhumilityon earth,one storesup a surplusstockof spiritual
value in heaven.Like Christianity,
S/M performstheparadoxof redemptivesuffering,
and likeChristianity,
it takesshape aroundthemasochistic
oftheflesh:throughselflogic oftranscendence
throughthemortification
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 purification rituals,a staged appropriationof Christianpageantry,stealinga
delirious,fleshlyadvance on one's spiritualcredit-a forbiddentaste of
whatshouldproperlybe exaltationin thehereafter.
106
Anne McClintock
The Right to Punish
The historicsubcultureof S/M emergedwithintheEnlightenment,
alongside what Foucault has identifiedas a new technologyof the power-toas Foucault argues,penal reform
punish.64During the Enlightenment,
shiftedthe right-to-punish
fromthe whimsical,terriblevengeanceof the
The spectacleof punsovereignto the contractual"defenseof society."'65
ishmentno longerlay in the sumptuousrage of the monarch,whichhad
takeneffectas a seriesof ostentatiousmutilations
of thecriminal'sfleshfloggings,brandings,beheadings,flayings,quarterings,and so on. Punishmentnow lay in thevisiblerepresentations
of an abstract,bureaucratic
incarpower,whichtookeffectas a seriesof ritualrestraints-detention,
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 ratioof punnallycalculated,causal effectofthecrime,and theadministrators
ishmentwere figuredas no more than the dispassionateministrants
of
rationallaw.
Penal reform,as Foucault sees it,had the centrifugal
effectof multiand
as
an
"art
of
affects":
the
plying
dispersingpunishment
penaltymust
haveitsmostintenseeffectson thosewho have notcommitted
thecrime.67
The linkbetweencrimeand punishment
mustbe publiclyseen to coincide
administered
Truth.The Enlightcausallywiththeoperationof rationally
enmenttechnologyofpunishment
thushad twoaimsin view:to getall citizens to participatein the "contractual"punishmentof the social enemy,
and to renderthepowerto punish"entirely
to the
adequateand transparent
laws thatpubliclydefineit."68Punishmentsbecame less ritualmarksviolentlygougedintothefleshthantableauxvivantsdesignedto be witnessed
of themechanicsof naturallaw.
by thegeneralpublicas representative
Under thisregime,schools came to serveas miniaturepenal mechafromthejuridicalmodel:
nisms,withformsof disciplineborroweddirectly
and an extravagant
solitaryconfinement,
flagellation,
pettyhumiliations,
attentionto rule. Public mortification
was metedout accordingto a theatricalliturgyof floggings,
and deprivations,
withtheundeviatrestraints,
ing precisionof machinery.
The scandal of S/M, however,is thatit borrowsdirectlyfromthe
theright-to-punish.
S/M stages
juridicalmodel,whileradicallydisarranging
theright-to-punish,
notforthecivicprevention
of crime,butforpleasure,
parading a scrupulousfidelityto the sceneand costumeryof the penal
model,whileat thesame timeinterfering
directlywiththerulesofagency.
Maid to Order
107
One of S/M's
is
characteristics
the eroticizingof
scenes, symbols,
contexts,and
contradictions
which society
does not typically
recognize as
erotic.
Hence the intolerableaffront
embodiedin the dominatrixand her client.
How can punishment
be establishedin themindsofthepublicas a logical
calculus of criminalcause and penal effect-therationalexecution of
Truth-if membersof thegeneralpubliccan takeup, on whim,thebirch,
the rod,the handcuffs,
the whippingblock,and declaresentencenot for
theprevention
ofcrime,butforthedeliriousexcessofpleasure?For itis as
subversiveof the modernpenal economyto enjoya punishmentwithout
havingfirstcommitteda crime,as it is to commitan unpunishedcrime.
Hence the unstinting
severityof the law in policingconsensualS/M.
Penal reform,despite its egalitarian,civic-mindedcast, placed the
restricted
exerciseofthepenal rightin thehands ofa fewelectinstitutions
and a few elect actors: judges, prison wardens, schoolteachers,army
courts,and parents,as proxies of naturallaw. Whateverelse changed,
however,punishmentremained a male right:the judge, the jury,the
prison governor,and the executionerwere,untilveryrecently,all men.
Wivesofelitemenmightpunishslaves,servants,and children,butonlyas
proxiesof male law.
subvertsthe
By contrast,heterosexualcommercialS/M flagrantly
gendered economy of the right-to-punish,
puttingthe whip and the
moneyin the woman'shand, and exhibitingthe man on his knees.With
evengreatereffrontery,
notas
lesbianand gayS/Mersparadepunishment
the dutifulexerciseof civic prevention,but as a recreationaltheaterof
power,denyingthe stateits penal monopolyand provocatively
exposing
not as Reason's immutabledecree,but as theirregular
theright-to-punish
productof social hierarchy.
The legal denunciationof consensual S/M fliesout, then,not as a
human cryfromthe heart,a refinedshrinking
fromthe infliction
of pain
and thespectacleoftorment,
but as thejealous wrathofthepenalbureaucracy challenged in its punitive monopoly. In sentencingS/Mers to
and ritualhumiliation
in Houses ofCorbondageand discipline,floggings
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,contexts,and contradictionswhich societydoes not typicallyrecognizeas
and so on.
erotic:domesticwork,infancy,boots,water,money,uniforms,
Contraryto Robert Stoller'snotionthat S/M sex is the "eroticformof
108
Anne McClintock
MAKE
NO
MISTAKE,,,,
She's inControl
r
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8419
071-387
hatred,"a greatdeal of S/M involvesneitherpain norhatred.70The ritual
violationsof S/M are less violationsto the flesh,thantheyare symbolic
of social violationsto selfhood,whichcan takea myriadof
reenactments
shapes and emergefroma myriadof social situations.S/M publiclyperformsthefailureoftheEnlightenment
idea of individualautonomy,stagthe
forpersonalpleasure.As
of
and
dynamics power
interdependency
ing
In these ritualsof
such, S/M ritualsmay be called ritualsofrecognition.
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 recognition.In commercialS/M,the dominaacts as an official,
ifforbidden,witness-to privateanguish,baffleddesires,and the obscure deliriumsof
theflesh.
In manyrespects,S/M is a theaterof signs,grantingtemporarycontroloversocial risk.By scriptingand controllingthe circus of signs,the
fetishist
stagesthe deliriousloss of controlwithina situationof extreme
Maid to Order
109
In many respects,
S/M is a theater
of signs, granting
temporarycontrol
over social risk.
control.For many S/Mers,loss of controlas memory
is mediatedby a
As a result,S/Mersdepend deeply
show of excess of controlas spectacle.
on whatGoffmancalls "controlframes,"bywhichto managethestaging
of socialrisk.72
JohnAlan Lee exploresthewaysin whichgayS/M culture
to
limit
the "greatpotentialdangersinvolved"in S/M: through
attempts
the screeningof partners,the sharedunderstanding
of costumesignals,
color coding,the reciprocalnegotiationof scenariosand groundrules,
theuse ofsignalwordsor "keys"to indicatelimits,and theconscripting,
of
firming consentduringthe scenario.73Masteringthe controlframetheexchange
thescene,thescript,thecostume,themagazine,thefantasy,
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,
"hands-onhealer,"Sara Dale,
costumes,uniforms,
scripts.The self-styled
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
in doing
propsor scenarios,althoughin realitytheywouldn'tbe interested
such thingsat all."75Many clients are helplesslyfascinatedby fetish
badges, uniforms-and most dominas
images of authority-handcuffs,
have racksfullof costumes:"'Uniformists'desireto wear or be serviced
warden,
medical,police,traffic
by someonewearinga uniform-military,
or any otherpersuasion.The most popular are schoolgirl'sand French
maid's."76AllegraTaylor,visitinga Dungeon, recalls:
It waslikea
I was stillamazedbythesheervolumeofpropsandcostumes.
or a filmset.Hangingon pegson all thewallsandcorritheater
warehouse
and policewomen's
dorswerehundreds
ofoutfits-nurse's
uniforms,
gymdozensofpairsofboots. . . anything
youcan
slips,blackrubberknickers,
imaginehavinga fetish
about.77
of desire,and like
Otherclientsare enthralledby theverbalrepresentation
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 imaginstruction:
ine Madame Sheena is sayingto herslave."'79
Here, does thevoyeuridentifywithMadame Sheena, her slave,or both?Identityshiftslibidinously.
Hence the importanceof scriptsand initiationritualsin consensual
S/M. Far frombeing the tyrannicalexerciseof one will upon a helpless
110
Anne McClintock
other,consensualS/M is typicallycollaborative,
involvingcarefultraining,
initiationrites,a scrupulousdefinition
of limits,and a constantconfirmation of reciprocity.s80
As Paul Gebhard writes: "The average sadomasochistic session is usually scripted. .
.
. Often the phenomenon
remindsone of a planned ritualor theatricalproduction."'81
Clientsand
dominastypicallyagree on keywords,whichthe "bottom"uses to intenclaim thatit is thus
sify,change,or stop the action.Many S/M fetishists
the "bottom"who is in control.
Havelock Ellis was the firstto pointout thatmuch S/M is motivated
ofperilousboundaries,mutual
by love. Since S/M involvesthenegotiation
to the pledge of trustcan createintimacyof a veryintensekind.
fidelity
The bond of collaborationbinds the playersin an ecstasyof interdependence: abandonmentat the verymomentof dependence.Far fromruthlesslywreakingone'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
broken,and at such momentsdomrage.The magicspellcan be violently
inas face greatdanger.
For thisreason,I remainfinallyunconvincedby thelibertarianargumentthatall S/M lies in a cloud-cuckooland safelybeyondanyreal abuse
of power. The libertarianview conflatesall too easily sexual repression
withpoliticaloppressionin a Reichiancelebrationof unlimit.But as Califiasays,"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:
surewhatthey're
Peopleneedto be pretty
doing.I don'twantto makeit
soundlikean elitistpastime,
butyou'redealingwithsuchdeepand potent
forcesthatthereis a riskofgetting
outofyourdepth.This happenedwith
Maid to Order
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 beating up men." Some dominas, she said,
likeinflicting
pain perhapsbecause theyhave been hurtin theirprivatelives,
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 organized 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,
112
Anne McClintock
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 thuscallinginternationally
forthe decriminalizationof theirprofession,so thattheycan collectively
organizeto transform
thetradeto meettheirown needs.90
On itsown,then,S/M does notescape itsparadoxes.Withinitsmagic
can be deployedor negotiated,
circle,social and personalcontradictions
but need not be finallyresolved,forthe sources and ends of theseparadoxes lie beyond the individual,even though theymay be lived with
in theflesh.S/M thusbringsto itsconceptuallimitthe
exquisiteintensity
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 collectivefetishism
is an arenaof contestation
and negotiation,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
The termS/M thusincludesa wide varietyof
subcultureof organizedfetishism.
fetishes:B&D (bondage and discipline),CP (corporalpunishment),TV (transand so on. These fetishes
vestism),babyism,scat, body piercing,footfetishism,
shouldbe seen as sometimesoverlapping,sometimesdistinctsubgenresin a general subcultureof collectivefetishritual.Moreover,withinthese genres there
forexample,and
formsof transvestism,
maybe distinctforms:thereare different
different
formsof B&D. Indeed, understandingand negotiatingthese distinctions servesas a crucial source of the pleasure,intimacy,identity,
and communalitythatcan be engenderedby consensualS/M.
3. The subcultureof S/M is not synonymouswiththe nonconsensualinflictionof 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 Perspectives,"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.
Maid to Order
113
7. Richardvon Krafft-Ebing,
Sexualis,trans.FranklinS. Klaf
Psychopathia
(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,
Sexualis,53. Quoted in S and M, ed. Weinberg
Psychopathia
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. Weinbergand 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."Sigmund 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
A Radical FeministAnalysis,ed. Robin Ruth Linden et al. (San
Sadomasochism:
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: TheAutobiographyofMiss 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
chores
Monday and lethimselfin withhis own key,settingabout his housewifely
wearingonlya wristwatch.See ibid., 67.
114
Anne McClintock
34. Perkinsand Bennett,Beinga Prostitute,
87.
35. Ibid., 128.
36. Quoted in Neil Philip, Working
Girls:An Illustrated
HistoryoftheOldest
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 sympatheticcritiqueof Garber'stheoryof fetishism.
42. The Worldof Transvestism
1, no. 5 (n.d.), 10.
39.
45. Philip, Working
Girls,112.
46. St. Clair,It's Onlya Game,64.
48. Ibid., 51.
50. Ibid., 9.
51. Mistress28 (n.d.), 48.
53. Mistress28 (n.d.), 47.
54. Ibid.
56. Ibid., 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, suggests:"Perhaps there'sa tendencyforS & M activityto have increased,particularlyamonghomosexualmen,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.
Maid to Order
115
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. Weinbergand 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. Weinbergand Kamel, 178.
74. InterviewwithSara Dale by theauthor,London, October 1992.
75. St. Clair,It's Onlya Game,64.
76. Ibid.
38.
79. Ibid., 42, 43.
80. As Weinbergand Kamel argue: "S&M scenariosare willinglyand cooperativelyproduced; 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.
82. Ibid.
83. Pat Califia,"Unravelingthe Sexual Fringe: A Secret Side of Lesbian
Sexuality,"TheAdvocate,27 December 1979, 22. Quoted inJeffrey
Weeks,Sexualityand Its Discontents:
Meanings,Myths,and ModernSexualities(London: Routledge, 1985), 238.
84. Kelly,"It's Not a Rightor Wrong Issue, It's Up to the Individual,"in
ed. Perkinsand Bennett,130.
Beinga Prostitute,
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:Mainstream,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 (Summer 1992).
116
Anne McClintock

Maid to Order: Commercial Fetishism and Gender - source url

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