What's the Purpose of Whipping?
What's the Purpose of Whipping? Just for punishment and submission? I wonder if it has anything to do with pleasure and sexual desires (for normal people I mean).
shareMasochists derive pleasure from pain, but I don't think we are meant to see O and the other girls as masochists; I see them as submissive slaves. In other words I don't think we are meant to see them as DIRECTLY deriving pleasure from being whipped. The trappings of all three branches of BDSM (B&D, D&S, S&M) are often similar and people often call this movie "S&M", but I don't see that at all. Too me it's more about dominance and submission, with the whippings as a tool of the masters' dominance rather than an end unto itself.
Woman is the Earth and Man is the Sky.
[deleted]
I completely agree with you; I hate that term. Take a look at the nonsense being spewed out by Asian Freak and Sandy whatshername on the thread the Freak entitled "Why doesn't he kill her?" if you want to see judmental ignorance in full swing.
Woman is the Earth and Man is the Sky.
Masochists derive pleasure from pain, but I don't think we are meant to see O and the other girls as masochists; I see them as submissive slaves. In other words I don't think we are meant to see them as DIRECTLY deriving pleasure from being whipped.
Too me it's more about dominance and submission, with the whippings as a tool of the masters' dominance rather than an end unto itself.
so is the whipping used to force the women to obey through Intimidation?
You did see the movie, didn't you Nolate? They obey because they are submissives and have agreed to be there of their own free will. Whippings are part of the training, then used to punish disobedience after training. "Intimidation" is not at all the right word; it has the connotation of force applied from without to frighten, and without the consent of the one to whom it is applied.
Woman is the Earth and Man is the Sky.
I personally disagree with all these fine distinctions between "masochist" and "submissive," etc. I don't think these categories are distinct at all and overlap all the time. Accepting pain is, itself, a form of submission and, it is the surrender to the experience that makes it exciting. I don't enjoy stubbing my toe but I enjoy my Domme making me submit to pain. It is the idea of submission plus the pain, itself. And letting down defenses against pain is a way of really being in the moment. It's a form of transcendence. O's submission is also transcendental. She is like someone on a spiritual path, like a monk or a nun. She lets herself become transformed by her submission.
Terry
Your soul and your body are your own, and yours to do with as you wish.
I agree; the only reason I made a distinction is because the OP seemed to believe that the slaves were there merely to experience direct stimulation from the pain itself, which I do not think is at all the case.
Woman is the Earth and Man is the Sky.
It is the idea of submission plus the pain, itself. And letting down defenses against pain is a way of really being in the moment. It's a form of transcendence. O's submission is also transcendental. She is like someone on a spiritual path.
thats a real good description, I keep thinking the whippings change O in the movie shes changed for the better, more self confidence, self aware.
" So in love is O, that at the Chateau Roissy she abandons all sense of self, stability and safety and commits utterly to her lovers desires, to a life of submission."
(quote from a book review)
Though she may be considered as a masochist at the beginning of the novel, it becomes clear while reading through the rest of the novel that this is not the case. This is not so much a story about masochism, as it is more a story about love, about how much a woman would sacrifice for it, and the length a woman will go to keep her lover, Rene, happy. O derives no pleasure from the physical, emotional, and psychological torture she endures. Rather, her pleasure is derived from the aftermath of those things: the lashes to her skin, the debasement and objectification of her body and the cruelty that she willingly chooses to endure makes O "happy" in the fact that she is doing all this to please her lover. O was happy that Rene had had her whipped, because her impassioned submission would furnish her lover with the proof that she belonged to him, but also because the pain and shame of the lash, and the outrage inflicted upon her by those who compelled to her pleasure when they took her, and at the same time delighted in their own without paying the slightest heed to hers. What is most curious about this part of the book, is not O's harsh punishments, but the fact that she endures all this debasement willingly, and was in fact proud of it.
a pretty good review I thought