An Essay on The Societal Dominatrix- Part 3. The Dominator (or What About Teh Dominant Menz?)

So, I discussed how the Dominatrix got her stiletto-heeled foot into the societal door.   I also mentioned the condition being set for her entry, but before I continue in that vein, I’d like to discuss some of the company she can expect to keep.

Her masculine contemporary is the Dominator, though his name is generally shortened to the asexual ‘Dom,’ because we have a sexist tendency to assign the masculine as typical.  Although he is prolific in the media, a valid archetype in his own right, he is much less of an icon than his sister the Dominatrix because his sexuality is considered little more than an extension of what is considered normal.  Apparently, a Dom is just a man only more brutal, honest, or cruel, take your pick.   For the Patriarchy, he’s an alpha; for Feminism, he’s a Patriarch.

His imagery is little more than a man affecting smugness, coldness, or outright hostility while wielding some instrument better suited for causing pain than damage, whips and crops are the most common because of their associative use against cattle (and chattel), but the variety is prolific.  He almost invariably wears some sort of formal (often even opulent) dated, periodic clothing.  Nothing too ancient mind you, the suggestion is supposed to be that this concept of man as de facto master with free reign to cruelty is behind us (but not too far behind us).  

The Dominator’s motivation is generally for more of what he already has- control and power.  Wealth, as an object representation of both, is also quite standard.  Sex may occasionally be his motive, but that’s quite rare.   Usually if there’s a woman involved the goal is more to overpower, own, or possibly even destroy her in some fashion.  The assumption is that the Dominator gets all the sex he wants, so why should it drive him?   Sex is the de facto result of his power; the Dominator will often be disinterested in sex or outright wallow in it to excess as a simple environmental fact of his prowess.  He only bothers to focus on people who challenge him, women included.

Some examples:

Ah, but you’d point out that Darth Vader's lightsaber is plenty lethal? Really? He never deals a lethal blow in the original series.   When he tries to wield the blade against his own morally just father-figure , Obi-Wan simply ascends.  He only uses it to torment his own son as he attempts to get Luke to follow Vader’s morally unjust father-figure, Palpatine.

Captain Hook is one of the most Freudian and honest Dominator’s I’ve ever seen.  Disney’s version even has the same voice as Wendy’s father.  He is the Patriarchy, trying to torture and murder Wendy’s inner child/fantasy boyfriend/Marty Stu author avatar to get her to grow up before Time (the Crocodile) devours him.

Lex Luthor started life as just another mad-scientist throw away villain for the anti-intellectuals to enjoy being defeated .  But put him in a snazzy suit and a kryptonite ring and suddenly he’s clawing himself to the top of the Man of Steel’s enemy roster.

‘What Jay?  Are you going to tell me the cigarette is his weapon?’ Oh, I could make a case for that.  But not with Don there.  The cigarette is just a prop to stand in for his implement because it’s not easily held.  If he were a more modern Dominator of his it’d probably be a cellphone in his hand.  See, Don there is sitting in his instrument of torture.   It’s his wealth, specifically his corporate wealth.  As this picture points out, he is swimming in it (and possibly drowning in it as well.)

Do I have to explain this one? 

But Jay, you may say, two of your examples are just wearing business suits.  So?  The suit was once a well worn and standard article of clothing for any man who could afford one.  Now we rent our tuxes as prom and wedding costumes.  NSWATM: Suits Part One - Suit as Costume I don’t even own a sports jacket anymore.    Half the business owners I know (including the one I work for) show up to their meetings in shorts to show how casual and approachable they are.   In other words, they’re out of uniform. NSWATM: Suits Part Two - Suit as Uniform  Suits may be a bit of boring Dominator costume, but it doesn’t disqualify a Dominator.

It’s when we need a different sort of antagonist from the Dominator that the costume begins to change.   Let’s take the Dominator and mix him with his same-sexed sexual-opposite the male submissive.   This new creation will be collared, ‘gimp’ masked, enlarged, cuffed and/or chained, muted, leather clad, and/or display various piercings or other forms of ‘self-mutilation’.  He is made creepy and monstrous; he’s no longer the ‘sane’ and ‘natural’ sadistic male, but the completely insane and unnatural sadomasochistic male.  The sadomasochistic Monster-Dom is used in media to invoke the male sex drive, rape, homophobia, sadism, masochism, ableism, and racism; often many or all of those at the same time.   It’s the horrible thought that something powerful would debase itself with willful submission (to pain, to lust, to poverty, to solitude) or that something powerless would be escalated to a position of power. 

Unlike the natural Dominator, the Monster Dom is very, very often motivated by sex, although that’s very likely to be clouded with metaphors.   He’s tainted the beauty of the natural Dominant and so physical force is often required.  

Some examples:

From Left to Right: Dracula, Freddy Krueger, Pinhead,
Pyramid Head, Frankenstein's Monster, Jason Voorhees

I’ve tried to arrange them from left to right, to reflect their progression on the Dominance vs Submission, or Sadism vs Masochism spectrum.   Dracula’s so close to the Dominator that it’s hard to include him here, and Jason Voorhees hits very many notes of the Submissive, with only a couple of exceptions.  Pinhead and Pyramid are very much the perfect archetypes of the Sadomasochist, or Monster Dom.  They dominate, but the mix of submission makes them horrifying, in contrast to the sexy natural Dominator.  For the Patriarchy, the men above would likely be beta wannabes, perverted and excessive men who don’t understand why they should have been content with their position in life.  Discipline is supposed to be for control, and only lightly enjoyed from time to time, but the Monster Dom doesn’t know how to deal with power and hurts others when he tries to use it, usually without even getting what he may have wanted from it.   For Feminism they’d likely be personified threats, agents of the Patriarchy to frighten women into controlling their own sexuality.    I rather agree with Feminism, but Feminism tends to dismiss the inherent slur the Patriarchy is making about men because, well, it’s about men.  They’ll concede that the Patriarchy hurts men too, but the idea that unpalatable men should know their place in the hierarchy is a message Feminism isn’t above making itself.

They have submissive monsters too, and I’ll talk more about them later, which will help explain why some of the sadomasochists made the grade.   But the dominant monsters show the sort of archetypes the Dominatrix can expect to rub elbows with when it comes to grabbing for a societal representation of sexual power.  Of course her acceptance to the club is contingent on certain conditions…