The punitive and the tragic
Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 12:07 pm
Representations of mortally wounded women, whether in texts, drawings, paintings, photos, movies, stagings, or even just in the imagination, arouse some people sexually. When this response is automatic and involuntary, it’s an instance of sexual fetishism. The representations that elicit the response are called the fetish, and the person who has the response is called the fetishist.
Fetishists who get sexually aroused by representations of mortally wounded women would not get aroused by a real woman who was really wounded. The actresses who play characters who are wounded in stage plays are real women, but their wounding is represented, not real. Fetishists who get sexually aroused by representations of wounded women are just as protective of real women as any nonfetishist is, and are just as unlikely to harm any real person.
No one knows how many people in the world have this fetish. The websites that serve them probably attract fewer than 100,000 repeat visitors a year. The fetishists’ demographics are also unclear. In their web posts they typically report having felt the first stirrings of the fetishism around the age of puberty, and even the oldest ones, some in their seventies, say they still have it. Most of them say they are men, but some say they are women. That’s about all we know.
Representations of mortally wounded women aren’t the only sexual fetishes that people can have. Many different objects or situations can be fetishes for different people. Some people have no fetishes, some have one, and some have more than one. Multiple fetishes in the same person can be distinct and independent. If so, the person is a multiple fetishist.
The mortally wounded woman fetish usually includes some context, some narrative or scenic setting. The woman, for example, might be figured as an Amazon, a cowgirl, or a spy, each with the pertinent costumes, habitats, and behaviors. Some fetishists find the Amazon more compelling than other types of mortally wounded women. Other fetishists find the cowgirl more compelling, and so on.
The context of the fetish usually includes some explicit or implicit explanation of why the woman is wounded. For many fetishists it’s because she deserves it. The reasons are explained in the scenario or assumed in the setting. If she’s figured as an assassin, for example, the fetishist can assume she has killed other people, and therefore deserves to be killed in retribution.
Since the context of the fetish for these fetishists includes the sense that the woman is being justly punished, the aesthetic of their fetish can be described as punitive. The punishment inflicted, however, often goes far beyond the crime. In some scenarios the guilty woman suffers agonizing pain before she dies. She may be tortured or degraded. She may be riddled with bullets or stabbed repeatedly. Her corpse may be sexually molested. She may be disemboweled, dismembered, even cooked and eaten.
Representations of such punishments, disproportionate and extreme though they be, arouse punitive fetishists more than representations of a woman simply getting wounded and dying. The woman represented in these extreme scenarios enrages them. They gloat at her degradation and exult in her agony.
These accompanying feelings, like the sexual arousal itself, are automatic and involutary. Punitive fetishists don’t hate women in real life. They’re as kindly toward real women as any nonfetishist is. The rage, gloating, and exultation come only in response to their fetish.
Punitive fetishists aren’t the only ones who get aroused by representations of mortally wounded women. There are also some who respond to a tragic aesthetic. These fetishists love or admire the woman represented because she’s beautiful or brave. When she gets mortally wounded they pity her, and when she suffers and dies they grieve.
Why does she get wounded in the first place? Maybe she’s an officer or agent fighting the bad guys. Maybe she’s an innocent civilian protecting someone. Maybe she’s just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe she has gotten mixed up with bad company but could atone in the future. Alas, now she has lost her future. And besides, she was a beautiful or admirable woman. Alas, now the world has lost her forever.
Tragic fetishists do not enjoy scenarios portraying humiliation, degradation, overkill, agony, torture, sexual molestation, or dismemberment.
Typically the woman in a tragic scenario lingers longer after being wounded than a woman in a punitive scenario. Instead of twitching or writhing, she dies peacefully, perhaps uttering some poignant last words. No blood dribbles from her mouth.
It’s a cliché of tragic scenarios that the woman dies in the arms of the hero. The hero models the fetishist’s grief and hears the woman’s last words. Of course, there are also tragic scenarios that provide other audiences for the woman’s last words.
When producers of representations of mortally wounded women hope to sell their products to fetishists, they improve their chances of success by pitching each product either to punitive fetishists or to tragic fetishists, and not to both. Each aesthetic has elements that bore or offend fetishists who prefer the other aesthetic, so when producers try to appeal to both aesthetics in the same product, they end up appealing to neither.
Fetishists who get sexually aroused by representations of mortally wounded women would not get aroused by a real woman who was really wounded. The actresses who play characters who are wounded in stage plays are real women, but their wounding is represented, not real. Fetishists who get sexually aroused by representations of wounded women are just as protective of real women as any nonfetishist is, and are just as unlikely to harm any real person.
No one knows how many people in the world have this fetish. The websites that serve them probably attract fewer than 100,000 repeat visitors a year. The fetishists’ demographics are also unclear. In their web posts they typically report having felt the first stirrings of the fetishism around the age of puberty, and even the oldest ones, some in their seventies, say they still have it. Most of them say they are men, but some say they are women. That’s about all we know.
Representations of mortally wounded women aren’t the only sexual fetishes that people can have. Many different objects or situations can be fetishes for different people. Some people have no fetishes, some have one, and some have more than one. Multiple fetishes in the same person can be distinct and independent. If so, the person is a multiple fetishist.
The mortally wounded woman fetish usually includes some context, some narrative or scenic setting. The woman, for example, might be figured as an Amazon, a cowgirl, or a spy, each with the pertinent costumes, habitats, and behaviors. Some fetishists find the Amazon more compelling than other types of mortally wounded women. Other fetishists find the cowgirl more compelling, and so on.
The context of the fetish usually includes some explicit or implicit explanation of why the woman is wounded. For many fetishists it’s because she deserves it. The reasons are explained in the scenario or assumed in the setting. If she’s figured as an assassin, for example, the fetishist can assume she has killed other people, and therefore deserves to be killed in retribution.
Since the context of the fetish for these fetishists includes the sense that the woman is being justly punished, the aesthetic of their fetish can be described as punitive. The punishment inflicted, however, often goes far beyond the crime. In some scenarios the guilty woman suffers agonizing pain before she dies. She may be tortured or degraded. She may be riddled with bullets or stabbed repeatedly. Her corpse may be sexually molested. She may be disemboweled, dismembered, even cooked and eaten.
Representations of such punishments, disproportionate and extreme though they be, arouse punitive fetishists more than representations of a woman simply getting wounded and dying. The woman represented in these extreme scenarios enrages them. They gloat at her degradation and exult in her agony.
These accompanying feelings, like the sexual arousal itself, are automatic and involutary. Punitive fetishists don’t hate women in real life. They’re as kindly toward real women as any nonfetishist is. The rage, gloating, and exultation come only in response to their fetish.
Punitive fetishists aren’t the only ones who get aroused by representations of mortally wounded women. There are also some who respond to a tragic aesthetic. These fetishists love or admire the woman represented because she’s beautiful or brave. When she gets mortally wounded they pity her, and when she suffers and dies they grieve.
Why does she get wounded in the first place? Maybe she’s an officer or agent fighting the bad guys. Maybe she’s an innocent civilian protecting someone. Maybe she’s just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe she has gotten mixed up with bad company but could atone in the future. Alas, now she has lost her future. And besides, she was a beautiful or admirable woman. Alas, now the world has lost her forever.
Tragic fetishists do not enjoy scenarios portraying humiliation, degradation, overkill, agony, torture, sexual molestation, or dismemberment.
Typically the woman in a tragic scenario lingers longer after being wounded than a woman in a punitive scenario. Instead of twitching or writhing, she dies peacefully, perhaps uttering some poignant last words. No blood dribbles from her mouth.
It’s a cliché of tragic scenarios that the woman dies in the arms of the hero. The hero models the fetishist’s grief and hears the woman’s last words. Of course, there are also tragic scenarios that provide other audiences for the woman’s last words.
When producers of representations of mortally wounded women hope to sell their products to fetishists, they improve their chances of success by pitching each product either to punitive fetishists or to tragic fetishists, and not to both. Each aesthetic has elements that bore or offend fetishists who prefer the other aesthetic, so when producers try to appeal to both aesthetics in the same product, they end up appealing to neither.
