Sadism? Masochism? Isn't there a third way?

thanks to freud and the titilation of his theories - leading plenty of innocent film theorists to model spectators on castration fears, fetishism and voyeurism. and yes it is trap for the feminist film theorist. the femme is missing in a tree grown in the soil of the Marquis de Sade. she is nothing but an article to be discarded.

we forgot sacher-masoch in the penis-whirl around freud. sacher-masoch, the writer of venus in furs - an account if anything of a woman desired and using that power to enslave a man. she of course succumbs in the end to a man more dominant than her, but she does whip poor gregor into his love-frenzy and holds all the reins of power throughout their relationship. do we then have a female gaze, a female spectatorship?

 perhaps you will think me sick, but what if I throw the child into this mix. the post-genital discovery, but pre-freud penis-envying, castration-anxiety girl-boy. in those years when similarities are far greater than differences. in a time when the imagination molded reality. when women could be heroes and not just manipulative harlots.

hard to see but just visible is a little boy mannequin staring at these just unwrapped lingerie mannequins. who's dominating who?