ABSTRACT
The rituals of sadomasochism are by now familiar to any one who has read de Sade or The Story of O: the ‘bottom’ relinquishes all power and puts herself in the hands of a ‘top’, who slowly strives to heighten the sensation of pleasure through pain. The function of ritual is the pursuit of the absolute in pleasure. This entails rigorous discipline, a curriculum of tests. In Sade, the women keep journals and receive chastisements. The implicit attraction of the regimen is that it permits women to cast off the traditional roles of daughter, wife, mother. Bob turns the Sadean regime on its head, for by putting himself in the role of the woman, he tests not just the thresholds of pain and pleasure, but the taboos against violating prescribed masculine roles.
