Q&A Forum - April 2011 (best of Elise)

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Q. Rather than the gender perspective, I wonder if the appeal of femdom女性支配 — female domination has more to do with class or wealth. I visited the Erotic Museum in Paris recently. An exhibit there said the most powerful men of the early 20th Century hired Dominatrixes女支配者 — a dominant woman and submitted to the worst beatings and humiliation羞辱 — shame given on purpose. Middle class men, in particular, hired prostitutes to whip them.

It made me think -- those who have too much control want to be the submissive顺从 — willing to obey as some sort of purge or relief. The day to day working stiff in comparison is demeaned and humiliated all the time. They want to do it to somebody else, even if they have to act it out in a fantasy.

Have you ever studied femdom女性支配 — female domination along class lines? I would appreciate your thoughts.

A. Yes I have but it is my opinion that neither economics, social class, personality nor temperament is what drives man’s desire for female domination. People are always trying to pin-point some psychological or sociological reason why a man would want to be dominated or, in extreme cases, be abused by a woman. The class analysis is another way of arguing that people engage in D&S in order to find balance for their lives. There are cases where this is true but it is neither the rule nor the exception. One cannot categorize man’s desire for female domination to such a limited scope, no more than one could categorize the motivation of any expression of sexuality. I wrote the following in my book, “Female Domination”: