Margaret Thatcher’s funeral was earlier this week. She was Britain’s first female Prime Minister and is widely considered to be its most influential leader since the Second World War. Regardless of what you think of her politics, she was undoubtedly hugely successful in her chosen field and a major world figure.
As soon as the obituaries started rolling in I knew there was one word that would inevitably turn up – dominatrix. Sure enough, like many articles written about her during her life, up it popped (for example in Der Spiegel, Slate, The Guardian, etc.). It’s a description that has always annoyed me. It has a very specific sexual connotation. Men can achieve positions of great authority and power without it being tied to their sexuality. A man reaching for authority is treated as normal. Yet if a woman proves to be the best political campaigner, her motives and reasoning are assessed differently. She’s defined not in her own terms, but in reference to the men she’s beaten politically and their feelings. She’s in charge either to satisfy her base sexual instincts for control or because others let her win to satisfy their desire for punishment.
In Margaret Thatcher’s case it strikes me as particularly inappropriate. I was only a young boy when she was in charge, but my kinky personality was already forming, and she never struck me as someone who sexualized power. A dominatrix works within a D/s dynamic that’s created in partnership with a submissive. They are interested in the reaction from their submissive and the interplay of power between them. That might fit some politicians, but Thatcher always came across to me as someone interested only in results. She cared nothing for the journey. She wanted the world a certain way and either you agreed (making you irrelevant) or you disagreed (making you an obstacle to be destroyed). Authoritarianism is not the same as domination.
As this blog shows, I’m a big fan of women who choose to express themselves via domination. But I hate to see women pushed into that group simply because they’re successful and natural leaders.
I originally picked the image for this post as the cricket bat struck me as quintessentially English. It turns out to be a shot from an Austrian fashion designer – Lena Hoshek. So not so English, but still a fun shot with a great 40’s retro feel to it.
Totally agree with you. She was a very powerful lady and very authoritarian. She was most definitely not a dominatrix! Love the image. Like you say, very English
Thanks! Glad you liked the post and image.
-paltego
Thank you for this, paltego. It is always refreshing and comforting to hear men take issue with sexism (and calling Thatcher a dominatrix is definitely sexist, among other things).
“She’s in charge either to satisfy her base sexual instincts for control or because others let her win to satisfy their desire for punishment.”
Pure projection from the men who see powerful women this way, and it’s pretty damn sad that these men experience sociopolitical relationships with women in this dynamic: if she “wins,” it must necessarily be at their own expense. This mindset creates a false and problematical “us-vs.-them” dynamic that impedes political efficiency, progress, and oppresses women.
Thanks again. Hope you are well!
Miss Margo
Thanks for stopping by and commenting Miss Margo. I’m not sure if this post was triggered by a dislike of sexism or my anal desire for correctness. It was certainly an excuse to vent on a commonly used description for successful women that drives me nuts. If nothing else it’s horribly lazy journalism.
-paltego
No, she wasn’t a dominatrix in the strict sense of the word, but it’s easy to see why the trope could be applied.
If you’ve ever read, or better still seen a performance of Jean Genet’s ‘Le Balcon’, you see the strange, disturbing commonalities between power and its trappings in D/s play, and in the real world.
In Genet’s mind, these commonalities are so powerful that the punters in Madame Irma’s ‘house of illusions’ finish the play standing on the eponymous balcony as avatars of the ruling elite who have been eliminated by revolutionaries. And the irony is that they are accepted by the dumb people as proof positive that the old order is still standing.
With regard to Thatcher, I well remember Dennis Healey referring to her economic ideology as ‘sado-monetarism’, and when you look at the suffering that has been imposed on the working class in the North of England and Wales, you’ve got to say that he had a point.
Interestingly, the same trope is now used by the cartoonist Steve Bell to refer to Angela Merkel and her brand of economic ‘discipline’ and ‘austerity’ in Europe.
And finally, wasn’t it Henry Kissinger who said, “Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac”?
The imposition of suffering (as undoubtedly happened) doesn’t qualify someone as a dominatrix. I don’t think it applied to Thatcher and it’s equally misapplied to Merkel. Her policies might be wrongheaded (and I strongly believe they are), but unless someone thinks she’s taking sexual pleasure from that suffering, it’s screwed up to describe her in that way. If a man had done exactly the same things that Thatcher did, nobody would consider it in that particular context. He’d simply be a controversial leader who did what he thought was ‘right’.
I get why people apply the description. But that doesn’t make it right. At best it’s lazy journalism and at worst it’s sexism that hinders women from achieving leadership positions.
I haven’t seen ‘Le Balcon’ but thanks for the pointer. I’ll look out for it.
-paltego
Hi Paltego:
A very thought provoking post! I remember the Thatcher era as it was accompanied by Reaganism on this side of the pond. They were very similar figures in certain respects; both representing a return to more conservative values. I don’t recall anyone putting up pictures of Reagan in a biker’s cap and leather chaps. I do however remember depictions of Hillary Clinton as a Dominatrix so your point is well taken!
It’s funny you mention the Hillary dominatrix image, because I spent some time trying to work that particular image into the post. In the end I cut it as I couldn’t figure out a good segue that didn’t bloat the text up. It was another great example of the phenomenon. Although to my shame I remember thinking that image was kind of hot when it came out. I don’t think I’d been exposed to a lot of fetish porn at that time of my life!
-paltego