The iconic image of Sigmund Freud, cigar in hand, is repeated under transparencies of his writing that suggests that masochism is an expression of the feminine nature, inherent to female sexuality. Freud takes sexual difference for granted – male/active; female/passive. This feeds into the myth that women enjoy being sexually ‘taken’ by a man.

The plague on the work reads as follows:

“[Masochism is] a situation characteristic of womanhood, … the real condition sought is of being pinioned, bound, beaten painfully, whipped, in some way mishandled, forced to obey unconditionally, defiled, degraded …”

Freud, S (1924) in The Economic Problem in Masochism