The Marquis de Sade and (Ritter) von Sacher-Masoch (the namesake of masochism) were both aristos. Point of interest: Marianne Faithfull is a descendant of Sacher-Masoch. But Sade's sadism has nothing to do with modern BDSM, leaving out the voluntary element and escalating to real cruelty, and Sacher-Masoch (Venus in Furs) goes over the top (though voluntarily) with pain and humiliation. He quits, though, in Venus in Furs. There are both aristo and haute-bourgeois elements mixed up in the Story of O, though O herself is a worker/artist -- a fashion photographer. Aristo fantasies are important to a lot of people do are interested in this material, see Anne Rice's Beauty books (much inferior IMHO). One the other hand the Bondage/S&M Queen of America, Bettie Page, is resolutely middle/working class.
--- Charles Brown <cbrown at michiganlegal.org> wrote:
> Michael Pugliese
> CB, if BDSM'ists are petty-bourgeois and binary
> thinkers how can
> they be as Comrade Lenin says here, vacillating
>
http://www.marx.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/jun/29.htm
> , dreamy AND
> bombastic, sentimental, politically impotent (!)
> tail(ers) of the
> (S&M) bourgeoisie, submitting to the Cavaignacs and
> timid, .
>
> ^^^^^
> CB: Good question Michael. Marquis de Sade was an
> aristocrat, no ?
>
> ( For a minute there, I thought you meant Lenin was
> talking about BDSMers)
>
>
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