This an essay from the 1982 anthology “Against Sadomasochism” titled “On the History of Cultural Sadism,” by Kathleen Barry. It is followed by excerpts from a book by Roy F. Baumeister called “Masochism and the Self”, which pertain to male masochism and gender identity. Kathleen Barry is an internationally recognized feminist and sociologist. She is the author of the landmark book Female Sexual Slavery (1979) which has been translated into six languages and launched an international movement against sexual exploitation. She is the founder of the United Nations Non-Governmental Organization, The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, and collaborated with UNESCO to develop new international law that makes sexual exploitation a violation of human rights which is the subject of her 1995 book, Prostitution of Sexuality: Global Exploitation of Women. It has been translated and published in Chinese and Korean. Professor Roy F. Baumeister is a social psychologist who is known for his work on the self, social rejection, belongingness, sexuality and sex differences, self-control, and free will. He earned degrees from Princeton University and Duke University. Baumeister has researched social psychology for over four decades and made a name for himself with his laboratory research. Baumeister’s 1989 book Masochism and the Self explains the phenomena of sexual masochism as a means of releasing the individual from the burden of self-awareness. In Chapter 7, “Femininity, Masculinity, and Masochism”, Baumeister discusses the aspect of gender in sexually masochistic practices. He found that in men, masochism presents differently than in women, with male masochists often eroticizing humiliation and the loss of status, including being “symbolically converted into women” and that “the desire for loss of status is a central feature of male masochism.” --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/womens-voices/message