Ooh! Tie me up…tight…I can take it. Blindfold me; gag me. Show me to your friends as I sink passively into my humiliation. Then you can rescue me; untie me. By indulging me in this secret ritual, you show me that you love me.
Check out Aubrey Beardsley’s dirty picture. The woman is stuffed -- literally. She is being whipped; tormented by her master. Beardsley draws a degrading image; yet the woman does not struggle. She acquiesces. She is passive.
The passivity of women, portrayed in bondage images, struck me, as I put this piece together. It’s the contrast to the piece I put together a few weeks ago, on male bondage that I find intriguing. The men struggle furiously; violently against their tormentors. Their desperate cries can be heard through the canvases; they echo in the marble sculptures. The women do not cry out; they just take it.
If the old Masters are deliberately intending to arouse, is the sight of a strong man struggling, a turn on? And the sight of a docile woman, meekly succumbing to her fate, erotic? Traditionally, the answer has to be ‘yes’. The themes of struggling man and helpless woman, are reflected in contemporary pornography and old stories. Look at Laocoon fighting his adversaries; those muscles! The Sleeping Beauty, the most passive woman in our fairy stories, isn’t just surrendering to her fate, she is sleeping through it; until, of course she is rescued -- by a strong man.
But to get back to bondage; what’s going on? Why do folk want to tie each other up? Are they sexually strange? Is there such a thing as sexually strange? Or are the web sites coming up on the search engine, just tapping into a fetish that’s been going on for centuries, in those very old stories and paintings?
The bondage of Andromeda is a topic that has fascinated artists for centuries.
Edward Poynter paints Andromeda in 1869. She bows her head. She submits. Her hands are tied behind her. Her blue, silken robe, restrains her further.
Here is Andromeda’s story.
In Greek mythology, Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, king and queen of the kingdom Ethiopia.
Her mother Cassiopeia bragged that she was more beautiful than the Nereids, the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus and often seen accompanying Poseidon. To punish the Queen for her arrogance, Poseidon, brother to Zeus and God of the Sea, sent the sea monster Cetus to ravage the coast of Ethiopia including the kingdom of the vain Queen. The desperate King consulted the Oracle of Zeus, who announced that no respite would be found until the king sacrificed his virgin daughter Andromeda to the monster. She was chained naked to a rock on the coast of Jaffa. Luckily, the hero, Perseus, was sailing by, fresh from slaying the Medusa. He fell in love with Andromeda and rescued her, just as she was about to be devoured by the sea monster.
Gustave Dore paints Andromeda, also, in 1869. Dore paints her delicately. You can count her tiny toes. Her skin is fragile; translucent. She is a helpless victim.
Rembrandt paints Andromeda in 1629. His Andromeda has a look of desperate fear on her face. Still, she does not struggle.
Tying up women is an ancient art, that is thriving today. You can read stories about it on the web; you can look at pictures. I got 715,000 hits just from typing in ‘female bondage’ to Google. Interestingly, I got twice as many hits for ‘male bondage.’ Why is that I wonder? But that’s maybe a topic for a different discussion. Although, any suggestions will be gratefully received!
Lovely Andromeda pictures - I'm going to snag them!
ReplyDeleteAnd I need to think about the passive v. active thing.
Argh. Every single response that came to my mind upon reading your post was contradicted by the next thought. I can't even generalise about my own bondage writing. Hmm. Mass of contradictions here, Ashbless...
Yes -- the passive/active idea got my head in a muddle too, Janine!
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't something I started out with -- the idea just occurred to me as I looked at the images.
The idea maybe nonsense -- but I certainly couldn't find any images in classical art, supporting the notion of passive men/active women.
Perhaps it's something buried deep in our psyche -- men do take an active role, and women are submissive.
It probably isn't as simple as that -- dunno! dunno!
Hi Billie,
ReplyDeleteI wondered at your comment that men struggle in bondage where women are more passive - in writing anyway. I believe it depends on who you are writing for. (and I'm liable to talk myself into a corner here...LOL)
It's like the femdom fetish you see online where women wear those tight corsets and heels so high they can hardly walk. That type of femdom is written more for men than women. Now, get the guy massaging my feet while I lay back naked or covered in something soft and I'll bet women will read it much more readily.
As for men struggling. Floundering here, but I'll take a stab at it.
Men are raised to be strong, not let anyone 'top' them or best them. So a woman who dominates them must be stronger. This is for the male reader, in my opinion. The woman has to be able to restrain him because he isn't able do do so himself, or let other men see it.
The femdom I write is much more subtle and written I guess for a female audience. My men don't struggle, or not much. They are told to do exactly what they want to be told to do. If the Domme knows her fella likes to be dressed in panties, she'll order him to do it. He may feel weird doing it, but he's turned on by it and that's what my femdom is all about.
Hmm, went from female subbie to male subbie real fast here, didn't I?
Women, even in this day and age, are still raised to be submissive to a great degree. Women are also wired differently, which is a good thing. Being submissive is something we've been doing for eons, so it's comfortable for many of us. We don't struggle, because we know it's useless. Being the weaker sex, maybe we know we have to outsmart our Dom's, rather than fight him physically. LOL
Okay, I've babbled enough. Great blog, lady!!
Hugs
In classical art men men are generally shown being active, women passive, whatever the situation, aren't they? Or at least, their response to danger/trouble is depicted differently: male response is externalised into obvious, active struggle.
ReplyDeleteI mean, look at the Pieta etc. There's nothing particularly passive about grief - we all know it's a tubulent emotional state of sickening power - but Mary is usually depicted as just sitting there looking unhappy, not raging or beating her breast or tearing her hair.
Interestingly, the big exception to the male=active rule is Jesus. He accepts his suffering, in art, with almost no externalised reaction. That's because he's Not Like Other Men.
So as to "images in classical art supporting the notion of passive men" - including bondage/whipping scenes - I would suggest most christian art regarding Christ's Passion does fall into this category. Plus some other other martyrdoms. Imagery of St Sebastian springs to mind.
Here's a gratuitous example which you may suspect gave the painter a bit of a stiffy:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.2artgallery.com/gallery/images/The-Flagellation-of-Our-Lord-Jesus-Christ-Flagellation-de.jpg
Here's what my friend "the Doc" had to say about the debate...
ReplyDeleteI’ve always had a bit of an issue with the
active male/passive female dynamic in the way that it is often described… my main issue is that it figures the passive position as negative, as somehow undesirable and wrong. This, in turn, then leads me to the thought that to be active is to be ‘good’ or ‘better’, and who wants that when being good and better means being pliant to the moralising of the age? In art I have less of this issue as passivity is often figured as aesthetic, beautiful and meaningful – yes it’s often erotic too. However the oft trotted out active gaze discussion is seriously flawed becuse it ignores the pleasures of passivity and only reinforces the idea that the right and proper position is to be in power, power over someone or something...
I love my blog and I love the clever, creative, challenging thinkers that come to it.
ReplyDeleteYou've all given me a lot to think about -- I am going to put together another post, in the next few days.
I shall probably call it CONTRADICTIONS!