ABSTRACT
The secret every masochist knows is how difficult it is to find a ‘top’ who will indulge his fantasies. As Bob notes wryly, every masochist hates to confess that he is really the one in control. He cheerfully recounts how he enlisted Sheree’s participation in his fantasies. She ordered him to write daily about their sex acts: the result was Fuck Journal (Hanuman Books, 1987), composed in the course of one entire year of their relationship. Together, they created art in alternative performance spaces like LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) that highlighted the ritualistic aspects of s/m: the carefully choreographed interaction between dominator and dominated; the fetishistic use of leather, high heels, whips, and other props; the theatrical display of the body in scenarios borrowed from The Story of O. What made their acts unique was that Flanagan did not identify with Sir Stephen but with O herself: ‘How desperately I wanted to be her.’ S/m is a night-school for the senses; from de Sade forward, it has always had a pedagogic as well as a pornographic element. Eventually, Bob and Sheree were frequently invited to address the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex. They also collaborated with sexologist Robert Stoller, who substantially revised his views on perversion as a result of his discussions with them.
