ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author utilizes the analysis of the juridification of the male body and its desires to develop a critique of the law. Masochism provides a demonstration of the absurdity of law. The violence with which the English law has responded to sado-masochism (S/M) suggests that there is recognition that S/M embodies a very distinctive challenge to the law. A further manifestation of the theme of S/M as unruly, escalating violence appears in various references to the law. In producing the S/M body and its desires by way of the particular economy of law and violence, the judges paint a very specific picture about the nature of legal practice. S/M as victim is put to work as a substitute for the men and women of the community who are the actual possible objects of this homosocial and heterosocial violence.
