harrie

There is a reason why the crucifixion of Jesus and the martyrdom of St. Sebastian are so erotic and arresting.

Some might say it’s about the feminisation of the male form due to the submission and penetration being seen as something “inherently feminine”, - worth nothing that the nails into to Jesus and the arrows into Sebastian are phallic objects, comparable in a modern sense to the weapons wielded by slasher movie killers into the bodies of young girls, and Jesus was left with gaping wounds that were later held open and fingered by Thomas - and therefore the taboo comes more from the scandal of a man being feminised, but I refute that. The maleness, and the masculinity being retained, in spite of the submission (whether forced or consensual) is exactly why it is so sexy and subversive.

Sexually, this why men being tied up, hit, marked, bruised, stepped on, etc., is such a big thing, and also so hot. There is the act of relinquishing dominance and giving over to an another power, (seen as a “weak” thing to do), yet the act of doing so is actually enshrining said male figure in his masculinity, because there is a level of desire/want/will that gives him equal, if just unspoken, power and control here. The action of letting it happen to you is just as big of a power move as the dominating force doing it to you.

“Stain” by Living Color