The book depicts a man's slavish relationship with a woman ("Wanda")
who whips him while wearing a fur jacket, ultimately allowing her
lover ("the Greek") to whip him as well. According to Ellis Hanson,
associate English professor at Cornell University,
the latter scene means it can "be read as a gay novel about men who
use women to seduce men." Also, the main character dreams early on of
a statue of Venus, which is transformed into the image of the hands of
his Cossack servant shaking him awake, which Hanson says reinforces the
female-to-male erotic transition.
But Sabine Wilke, a German scholar at the University of Washington, suggests the book is really about male dominance over women. Although the masochist is a man, that doesn't mean his female tormenter is really enjoying herself. According to Wilke, "The functioning of the male masochist pleasure in this story rests upon the suspension of the woman's desire." Wilke contrasts Sacher-Masoch's story with those of his real-life wife, who named herself Wanda after his character and administered punishment to him before writing stories of her own. Her stories "seek the fulfillment of their own sexual desires and will not let the masochistic male paint them into a corner." One of Wanda's stories, she said, features "a beautiful aristocratic widow who buys beautiful male slaves, uses them for sexual gratification until she becomes tired of them and then kills them."
