102
STEVEN
MARCUS
widespread, as the enonnous literature devoted to the subject demon–
strates; and it is also true that a certain number of men acted out these
fantasies, resorting in the main to prostitutes who would beat them or
consent to be beaten. At this point, however, a shift in levels of reality
occurs, and the masculine sexual fantasy is projected onto women.
The elements of this fantasy are, very simply, that women instigate
this practice, that they perpetuate it, and that they experience, as do the
men concerned, a specific and directly-felt sexual pleasure from it.
There is no evidence in support of this contention, there never was any,
and if Ashbee had been able to disentangle himself from the material that
he reproduces in his pages he would have been able without much
effort to make this out. But if we look back at the sentences I have
quoted, we can see that the key term, logically and syntactically, is "the
tales"-its placement and ambiguity allow the shift in reality to take
place. Ashbee also accepts as fact the legend of "a female whipping
club," of a group or "society of ladies who meet together for the mutual
application of the birch." This fantasy has been, at least since the end
of the eighteenth century, a permanent presence in the literature of
flagellation. The club's place of venue may change, but all else remains
the same; and when one meets with it in the latest jazzed-up versions
put out by the Olympia Press it is like coming across an old if slightly
frayed and tattered friend.
The tendency I have been discussing is generalized still further,
and the most astonishing sections of Ashbee's ' work are the more than
three hundred pages which deal with anti-clerical literature. Ashbee
himself is an anti-cleric of the simplest description; "every system of
theology," he asserts, "has, sooner or later, become alloyed with
im·
moral doctrines, impure rites, or obscene practices and customs."
To
have any real force, naturally, his anti-clericalism must be directed
at the "Church of Rome"; and joined with these sentiments is
a
classic, uninflected rationalism. "Every reflecting mind must find it
difficult to understand how, in the present nineteenth century,
a
system so false, prurient, and polluted, can still be believed in, can find
devotees ready to lay down their lives in its support, and even make
converts of men of knowledge, experience, and bright parts. For,
whether we consider the absurd miracles which are even to-day being
palmed off upon the credulous; the blunders, crimes and follies of
the infallible popes; the vices and hypocrisy of many of the clergy,
both regular and secular; the duplicity, lax teaching, infamous doc·
trines, and dishonest commercial dealings of the jesuits; the scandalous
quarrels which have taken place between the different orders, and the
irregularities and licentiousness which have at all times distinguished
