Magazine: IPA REVIEW, SEPTEMBER 1993
 Section: Strange Times

                             TORTURED PROSE
                             --------------

Significant in understanding the growing interest in sado-masochism is
its endorsement by a figure of such eminence on the international Left
as the French social theorist Michel Foucault. As a recent sympathetic
biography by James Miler reveals, until his death from AIDS in 1984
Foucault has a passion for "gagging, piercing, cutting, electric-
shocking, stretching on racks, imprisoning, branding ..." He surprised
even his friends with the enthusiasm with which he embraced the sado-
masochism scene once he discovered it, quickly acquiring an array of
leather clothes, clamps, handcuffs, hoods, gags, whips and other `sex
toys'. This, remember, was the author of Discipline and Punish and The
History of Sexuality -- and many other works which sought to expose the
uses of power in society. Despite the difficulty of his books, Foucault
has had a profound influence on contemporary approaches to subjects as
different as English and Anthropology.

Miller, by the way, has done his homework in researching this biography.
In the discussion of Foucault's nether world he cites exemplars of the
sado-masochistic canon such as The Catacombs: A Temple of the Butthole,
Urban Aboriginals: A Celebration of Leathersexuality and The New
Leatherman's Workbook: A Photo Illustrated Guide to Sado-Masochist Sex
Devices.

~~~~~~~~
By Ken Baker
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Source: IPA Review, 1993, Vol. 46 Issue 3, p28, 2p.
Item Number: 9708104440