Female passivity through submission and masochism within Adrian Lyne's 1986 erotic drama 9 1/2 weeks - Essay Example

Elizabeth due to society’s acceptance of male’s domineering and oppressive behaviour towards women in relation to expected passivity of women to this kind of behaviour. Male dominance and assertion of power to make the female passive and submit to the man is evident in the film man occasions particularly when Elizabeth oblige to Mickey’s sexual fantasy. This sexual fantasy includes blindfolding Elizabeth after a date, sex at public places and role playing Mickey’s sexual fantasy. The worst part of the imbalance of Mickey’s relationship to Elizabeth (which really favors Mickey) was the incident when Elizabeth found a picture of Mickey with another woman in their apartment.

Naturally, as any would do, she confronted Mickey if he if he had similar sexual relations with the woman she saw in a picture in their apartment. But instead of getting straight answers, the confrontation turned into a sexual encounter which ultimately overpowered Elizabeth. These scenes in the movie are reflective of the realities of the imbalance of relationship between man and a woman where women are expected to submit and become passive while men’s domineering and sometimes abusive behaviors becomes acceptable.

This imbalance in the distribution of power and uneven relationship between and woman was analysed by several scholars highlighting the various aspects of their unequal relationship. Foremost of this scholar is John K. Noyes who authored “The mastery of submission inventions of masochism” where he argued the source of male masochism. According to Noyes, masochism is the result of the breakdown of society’s mechanisms of reward and punishment. When the mechanism of reward and punishment failed to work, it resulted to the crisis of how should men channel their aggression.

To cope with this problem with masculinity, men adopted a concept and method that would allow their sick aggression to be contextualized. Men with problematic aggression become a machine