Visions of sadomasochism as a Nazi erotic

Abstract

This article examines claims about sadomasochism as a Fascist erotic, and argues that in all cases these rest upon a series of historically inaccurate assumptions about Fascism, and upon a perpetuation of pathologising approaches to sadomasochistic desire. The role of fantasies of Fascism in the activation of repressed desires of sexual domination should be recognised as a sign of the taboo that surrounds the broader historical memory of the Holocaust in the contemporary world. Moreover since Nazism is understood as the ultimate political perversion of the modern age, evoking it also functions as a rhetorical device in arguments aimed at pathologising both political and sexual enemies.