Venus in Furs
Although I have elsewhere described myself as a masochist I really don't think that this is exactly so. I don't really enjoy being hurt or upset, I'm just generally not smart enough to get out of situations in which I am. So, specifically speaking, I'm not (at least I believe I'm not) a masochist. All the same, I am rather intrigued by it.
I'm interested in an essay called "Coldness and Cruelty" by Gilles Deleuze, in which he essentially argues that there really is no "sadomasochism" in exact terms. According to him the desires of the sadist and of the masochist are not just the inverse of each other, but are each independent behaviors. For example, the real sadist doesn't want for his subject to be enjoying his cruelty, and the masochist is oftentimes very exact about what he desires in terms of his "punishment," so that he is usually short of being entirely subject to another. Deleuze suggests that fetishism is necessary to masochism, and perhaps it is this fetishism that is a part of my fascination with the phenomenon.
Our term "masochism" comes from Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the writer of the seminal masochistic novel, "Venus in Furs." Being the model masochist himself, Sacher-Masoch has recorded in his novel certain desires which, according to the journals of his wife, were fantasies that he was actually trying to actualize in his relationships. Consistent with the observations already mentioned by Deleuze, it is Sacher-Masoch, and the fictitious Severin, who actually encourage their own subordination to their female confidants.
One highlight in the story of "Venus in Furs" is the commission of a painting of the couple, but engaged in their respective roles. Reclined on an ottoman, Wanda is pictured naked except for her furs, and holding a whip. Severin has become her happy footstool. My fascination with the novel, the phenomenon, and in the fetishism of it all, is what inspired this: my personal treatment of the literary painting.
(And need I add that one mutual fixation between Sacher-Masoch and myself is a fetishistic preference for redheads? Wanda here does approach a likeness of an old girlfriend.)