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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Sometimes the whip ain't all it's cracked up to be. Just when you think it's going to bring you pleasure, there you are screaming... OUCH.
It's especially true when it comes to sadomasochism's messy relationship with pop culture. We've seen the theme explored numerous ways to various degrees of success, in literature, art, music and film.
The most recent example - the movie adaptation of E.L. James' best-selling novel "Fifty Shades of Grey" -- hits theaters Friday, Feb. 13.
Most highly-anticipated flicks come with merchandising tie-ins. You know, like the Taco Bell "Godzilla" cups. Or the Burger King "Star Wars" glasses. Or the "Pirates of the Caribbean" granola bars.
Don't expect McDonald's to start offering red rubber balls with the Big N' Tasty anytime soon. S&M often takes a beating when it reaches out to mainstream audiences and still remains an underground fetish. But it has been an alluring vehicle to explore countless themes.
Yes, there's the whole titillating, kinky fantasy thing, which has been rolled out in old pulp books, sleaze mags and in pop fiction, like "Fifty Shades." It's part of a tradition that goes back to the 18th century, with tales of flagellation and arousal, climaxing with S&M's original bad boy, the Marquis de Sade.
S&M has also been rolled out by pop divas such as Madonna and Rihanna, who liked to play dominatrix onstage as they no doubt imagined thousands of servile fans begging, "I need more, please, please, give it to me, my pop-star master."
Filmmakers have used it to explore doomed relationships and fascist politics. One of the great punk tunes of all-time, "Oh Bondage Up Yours" by X-Ray Spex, declared rebellion against the ultimate servitude: consumerism and materialism. Akron boys Devo got all zany with the whip when they cracked the charts with their 1980 parody of bouge norms, "Whip It."
In other words, there's more to the whip than the wound when it comes to sadomasochism and pop culture. Here are some of the more memorable episodes in the relationship.
"Marquis de Sade": He was a philosopher, a politician, a writer -- and boy, was he a sadist. Well, actually the term was derived from his name. His works featured violent erotic fantasies. No fantasy, actually, since he lived many of them out with a variety of prostitutes, which earned the aristocrat many uncomfortable years in the slammer.
The Velvet Underground: The VU took its name from a 1963 book that chronicles sexual taboos such as wife-swapping, orgies and -- voila! -- S&M. The Velvets' first album included another wink to literary kink, "Venus in Furs," named after the 1870 book about dominance and submission. OK, now, let's all sing along: "Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather / Whiplash girl-child in the dark / Comes in bells, you servant, don't forsake him / Strike dear mistress and cure his heart."
Movies: The damsel in distress has long been a popular conceit, going back 100 years ago to the serialized films of "Perils of Pauline" -- where the heroine is left bound and gagged and vulnerable. The conceit takes a darker, more violent turn in snuff and underground films of the '60s and '70s. It also made its way into international art cinema with Luis Bunuel's 1967 breakthrough "Belle de Jour," where a housewife indulges in sadomasochistic fantasies. Italian filmmakers proceeded to draw parallels between sadomasochism and fascism in films such as "The Damned," "The Night Porter" and "Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom." The last two films were bruised by critics who were repulsed by fascistic aphrodisiacs. Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" drew parallels between sexual violence and the state-sponsored experiments to control it. "Cruising" threw Al Pacino into the leather scene. "Crimes of Passion" followed Kathleen Turner as she transformed from professional-by-day to dominatrix-by-night. Spanish director Pedro Almodovar laced his 1990 dark comedy "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down" with S&M. "Pulp Fiction" rolled out a leatherman named The Gimp. The 2002 erotic romance "The Secretary" explored S&M as the bond that ties lovers together. Last year, Lars von Trier chronicled the bruised descent of a sex addict in "Nymphomaniac."
Bettie Page: Nothing from the S&M closet has gone as mainstream as the 1950s pin-up star. She was once an underground fetish and a bondage queen, dressed in leather and lace, stroking her submissive subject, red rubber ball in mouth and tied up, with a black whip. Now, they make Bettie lunch boxes. Kinky!
Tom of Finland: The Finnish artist produced thousands of illustrations that depict gay leather-and-denim boys' tightly-wrapped passions, in a highly stylized and very masculine manner. Fetish was his fetish, and the art world agreed in the 1970s when it proclaimed, "These bad boys are hot."
Pop-diva domination: Madonna came out dolled up like a whip-cracking dominatrix for her 1993 tour. She even asked David Letterman to smell her panties. (Thankfully, they were her extra pair.) In the end, she was the one that took the beating, from critics and fans who didn't find the kink all that titillating. Rihanna had more success with her 2011 Eurodance ditty "S&M" (which sampled the Depeche Mode ode to S&M, "Master and Servant"). Yes ma'am, the video is a ridiculous orgy of bobbing, dancing subjects with rubber balls in their mouths bowing before Rihanna.
Punk and fetish fashion: London designers Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren ran a London boutique called SEX that sold bondage and fetish apparel in the mid-1970s that defined the punk look by injecting fascistic kink into fashion. Regular customers included the Sex Pistols, Adam and the Ants, Siouxsie Sioux and Chrissie Hynde. Goth and industrial-rock fashionistas took the whip and ran with it by donning latex and rubber get-ups. The whole fetish thing got a high-end makeover with British lingerie line Agent Provocateur, which rolled out apparel and ads inspired by kinky pin-up queens.
Whipsmart pin-ups: In the 1950s, New York photographer and filmmaker Irving Klaw spawned an entire industry with Bettie Page and other garter-and-lingerie pinup queens by shooting them in campy scenes full of whips and spanking and high heels. In 1957, he was spanked by the U.S. government for distributing "obscene, lewd and fetish photographs." The pics and flicks remain popular among retrophiles and the look has lived on with neo-burlesque performers and ladies of the latter-day latex, like Dita von Teese.
Robert Mapplethorpe:The American photographer gained recognition and inspired controversy for his documentation of New York's 1960s and '70s underground sex scene, featuring stark depictions of bondage & discipline and sadomasochism.
"I Wanna Be Your Dog": The 1969 song by the Stooges remained a highlight of live shows, even when the re-formed band took the stage the last few years. It inspired sing-alongs by thousands of people who must have really loved doggies or, if they got the subtext, wanted to be smacked across the bottom with a newspaper.
Pulp sleaze: No, they never made it on the best-seller list, but "sleaze" books and mags enjoyed a vibrant run for most of the 20th century. The dirty secret got going at the beginning of the century with books such as "Birch in the Boudoir." It achieved a literary acceptance with French novelist and playwright Jean Genet. It reached a climax in the 1960s -- on the back shelves and under the counters of bookstores. Ever hear the campy tale about the sex slaves that helped win World War II?
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