Gender differences in masochistic scripts

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Abstract
This research was based on the assumption that there are both male and female masochists and that the two groups may show slightly different patterns. Statistical analyses of anonymous letters to sex‐oriented magazines were used to explore these patterns; these scripts should be regarded as expressions of desire and imagination, not necessarily corresponding to actual behavior. Results suggest that male masochistic scripts exceed female ones in severity of pain, in aggregate humiliation, in status‐loss humiliation, in oral humiliation, in partner infidelity, in active participation by third persons, and in transvestism. Female masochistic scripts surpassed male ones in relative frequency of pain, in con‐textualizing pain as punishment for misdeeds in an ongoing relationship, in humiliation involving exhibitionistic display, in genital intercourse with partner, and in the presence of nonparticipating spectators. These differences can be interpreted in the context of cultural stereotypes of femininity and masculinity and in terms of masochism as a means of escape from identity.