whipping or mutilating herself (“And yet it is usually the
men who introduce their mistresses to the joys o f being
chained and whipped, tortured and humiliated. . . ” 7),
or initiating other women, who serve as a substitute or
mirror image or other half. Men often insist that women
are self-serving, and indeed, Claire is Anne’s priestess.
Both execute their roles effectively. No male figure is
required mythologically unless Jean de Berg would play
the eunuch-priest, that traditional helpmate o f the
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Woman Hating
priestess, an honor no doubt not intended for him here.
Conversely, only men have been permitted to serve
male gods; eunuchs and women, synonymous here,
have been strictly excluded from those holy rites. The
proper conclusion therefore is that man, not woman, is
the divine object of
a male god in whose image he was created; he serves
himself. Were that not the case, woman, as the worshiped, would serve herself, instead of serving herself up like turkey or duck, garnished, stuffed, sharpened
knife ready for the ritual carving. That a man becomes
the master of the master means, despite Reage’s assertions to the contrary, that women should serve men, that women are properly slaves and men properly masters, that men have the only meaningful power (in our culture —that power allied to and defined by force and
violence), that men created in the image of the Almighty
are all mighty. Single-single think brings us closer to
the truth in this instance than double-double think.
the more memorable sequences in the book takes place
in a rose garden chosen by Claire as the proper proscenium for Anne’s humiliation. In the rose garden, Claire directs Jean de Berg’s attention to a specific
type of rose, special in its perfect beauty. Claire orders
Anne to step into the flowerbed and to fondle the rose,
which Anne handles as though it were a moist, ready
cunt. Claire orders Anne to pick the rose and to bring
it to her, which Anne does, though not before she feebly
protests that there is a prohibition against picking the
flowers and that she is afraid of the thorns. Anne’s
hesitation necessitates punishment. She is ordered to
Woman at Victim:
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lift her dress while Claire first strokes Anne’s cunt with
the rose, then jabs the thorn into her thigh and tears
the flesh very deliberately. Claire kisses Anne’s hands as
a poetic drop o f blood flows. Claire then pushes the
stem o f the rose into A nne’s garter belt. T h e thorn is
caught in the lace, and the flower is fastened, an adornment fraught with symbolic meaning. Even Jean de Berg finds the performance a bit overdone:
