Pain and Pleasure

Marina Abramovic is performing art, assuming the definition of art as an expression or something that is appealing. However, art is also defined as something that is beautiful, which the makes the video all the more confusing; Marina definitely enjoys herself throughout the video, and she is naked which I took to mean that she is getting a sexual pleasure from the pain. This is definitely masochism. Yet, more importantly, it is masochism because she is gaining her pleasure from what seems to be a self-degradation. She repeatedly says “art must be beautiful and artists must be beautiful” while attacking her hair, which to me implied that she felt she was not beautiful. And therefore, the only way that she could reach any kind of pleasure sexually was to tear herself/her hair to pieces.

Unlike Marina, Ron Athey seems to employ a completely different kind of masochism, despite the fact that his involves hair as well. He seems to gain his “pleasure”, though you can’t really visibly see his pleasure apart from lying down, if that can even be considered pleasure. His pleasure, assuming he experiences any seems to come from his self-destruction, and humiliation. He literally paints himself and puts on a long blonde wig, while on a stage on his knees. It seems to not be a masochism that involves pain but rather one that involves self-degradation.

Masochism, to me, originally seemed to be on the same level as people who cut themselves in the sense that they are choosing to harm themselves to gain some kind of gratification. Yet, the clear distinction in this case lies in the definition of masochism as a type of sexual pleasure. Also, masochism seems largely to rely on the fact that it is shown to other people, whereas cutting seems to be mostly a personal effort to experience feeling. Masochism on the other hand, is this kind of pleasure gained when someone shows other people that he dislikes himself and is willing to express that.