In Praise of the Whip A Cultural History of Arousal Niklaus LargierIntroduction \Whon the whip sated, when leather, scourge, ad cane ike dain covered or naked les, we stand belore a stage—a stage we thich a ital unfolds. Tishappens nat only with the chit or Tater whipped as examples before the crow, and not ony in the erotic displays that amuse the jaded libertine, but equally so for he solitary hermit in the desert who beat is ibe rae be: fore the eyes of Gad Wherever the fogge and his victim appear, they inhabit «space that Becomes the ste ofa drama by way of this ritual inflicted on the body «drama in which punishment and penance, canality and share, torment and desire, as wells ‘sce, eestey, and pain all colese in spec fashion and are ‘exposed to our gaze oan exemplary way. in thi respect, loging and the se ofthe whip canbe distin she from bramls and other outburst of rage. In these eases too, blows ar landed, but without any measured dosage an stl less with any precise sense of theatre staging. The eighteenth century English noblewoman, the French Ubetine, the monk in his cll the Rogger inthe late medieval marketplace dhe inter ‘ogzted prisoner and he tortarer, the sive standing before the master, the English governes nd her pup, the customers of 2 dominarix—all ofthese figures take shape in 3 real space Chat both exemplary and fantasti, pace determined through simple gestural action asthe site of some sort of etaging that on closer ‘examination prover to be quite obsore. Flogging is not merely a 8