Woman Hating: A Radical Look at Sexuality

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 The Image: he is the priest; he serves

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 Image is rife with Christian symbolism. One of

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

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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: