![A man wearing dirty clothes kneels in front of a stone wall, his wrists shackled above his head.
This lovely photograph was suggested by Trekker, who writes:
[T]his is probably one of my favorite images of male submission, because I have a massive, massive crush on the subject. This is a sort of playful photo taken on the set of Heroes. Adrian Pasdar’s character had been captured and chained up by some bad guys, but in this photo…well…he’s making the context seems very different. His eyes and his pose just kill me every time, seeming at once inviting and defensive—not least because he could, technically, be standing if he chose to be, but instead is kneeling.
Celebrity is a fascinating phenomenon. At its heart is the notion of status and at the heart of status is respect. While many men have achieved celebrity status for one reason or another, I can think of very few who’ve done so through nontraditional forms of masculinity, of which submission is perhaps the most threatening to contemporary masculine culture. That is to say that in no uncertain terms, submission in men is not respected by the mainstream. What’s most frustrating to me, however, is how this disrespect permeated even the most personal of activities; internalized disrespect and self-loathing is frighteningly common in many submissive men. It turns out that it takes an incredibly strong soul (a “Supermasochist”?) to be proud of their own submission.
-maymay](http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kovf2krxpH1qzs83zo1_500.jpg)
A man wearing dirty clothes kneels in front of a stone wall, his wrists shackled above his head.
This lovely photograph was suggested by Trekker, who writes:
[T]his is probably one of my favorite images of male submission, because I have a massive, massive crush on the subject. This is a sort of playful photo taken on the set of Heroes. Adrian Pasdar’s character had been captured and chained up by some bad guys, but in this photo…well…he’s making the context seems very different. His eyes and his pose just kill me every time, seeming at once inviting and defensive—not least because he could, technically, be standing if he chose to be, but instead is kneeling.
Celebrity is a fascinating phenomenon. At its heart is the notion of status and at the heart of status is respect. While many men have achieved celebrity status for one reason or another, I can think of very few who’ve done so through nontraditional forms of masculinity, of which submission is perhaps the most threatening to contemporary masculine culture. That is to say that in no uncertain terms, submission in men is not respected by the mainstream. What’s most frustrating to me, however, is how this disrespect permeated even the most personal of activities; internalized disrespect and self-loathing is frighteningly common in many submissive men. It turns out that it takes an incredibly strong soul (a “Supermasochist”?) to be proud of their own submission.