An extract from poet william o'neal ii's essay on Bob Flanagan and Sheree Rose, published in issue 6.

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Flanagan was a romantic, a poet. Dating while suffering from a deadly illness complicates romance, & necessitates a few “talks.” Add a propensity towards masochism to the equation & the number multiplies. One of Flanagan’s first girlfriends thought he was a drug addict because of his thinness. He invited her, as he did others, to the cinema to see The Story of O, the 1975 flick based on the French erotic novel of the same name. The story follows O as she is taken by her wealthy lover to a château outside Paris & initiated into a world of submission & sadomasochism. Watching this film together was Flanagan’s way of shepherding his lovers to dip their toes into the cold waters of SM while assuring them, “I WANT TO BE THE WOMAN!”

As Flanagan recalls in his RE/Search Publications interview, these relationships did not last long & there was some shame in that, leading him back to solitude with his chains, his nails & his paddles. By the time Flanagan met Rose on Halloween in 1980, he was no longer looking for love, but to become a slave.

Sadomasochism was in during the early 70s, along with LSD & Billy Joel. This was when many of San Francisco’s gay fetish clubs first opened, allowing small SM communities a safe, private space to call home. The Catacombs, The Barracks, The Tool Box &, later, CLUB FUCK! in LA were a few of the pioneer spots that gave rise to the leather kink scenes in America.

Of course, there was backlash—not only from governmental officials & law enforcement but also from some feminist lesbian activists who viewed these performed displays of violence against women as little more than a dark reflection of the mistreatment & inequality already embedded in the social order. Against Sadomasochism: A Radical Feminist Analysis, published in 1982, is a collection of essays written by women weighing the harm & pleasures of SM. One of its central arguments is that even in loving, heterosexual relationships, the man’s will can often become the woman’s will. For women, the essays argue, “love is structured as masochism.”

On Halloween in 1980 Los Angeles, Rose was dressed as Playboy Playmate Jayne Mansfield with a “blonde wig & big tits.” Flanagan was dressed as a bloody dead man from Dawn of the Dead. Rose was taken by his humour, his punk rock thinness & his unashamed honesty about his sexuality. She remembers Flanagan telling her during an early date, “I have cystic fibrosis, so that means I am a submissive man.” Flanagan loved how bossy she was. Rose also loved some of Flanagan’s poems from his first book, The Kid is the Man, as well as the size of his penis.

Rose was new to SM when she met Flanagan. She’d divorced her first husband a year before & was in the process of changing her life— beginning her own photography career & feminist activism work at Cal State. She was a former housewife with two kids, so meeting Flanagan—a man who wanted to be her full-time slave—proved the perfect catalyst for reimagining both her life & her gender politics in ways most people can only dream. When it came to the intersection of feminism & desiring men, Rose wanted a doctrine that liberated her sexuality rather than excluded it. After a fellow member of the Feminist Socialist Network accused her of “sleeping with the enemy”, Rose began to think of new ways to be liberated within her relationships with men.

Rose & Flanagan’s relationship began with contracts. Flanagan borrowed a copy of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s 1870 novel Venus in Furs from the Cal State Long Beach Library & gifted it to his soon-to-be mistress. Using the seminal sadomasochism handbook as a blueprint, & afraid to commit to another long-term relationship, Rose suggested three-month contracts. Flanagan, believing he had at most two more years to live, wanted the contracts to last longer. They both agreed to renegotiate their relationship after the first set of contracts expired.

The contracts stated that Bob Flanagan was the property of Sheree Rose & that he, Bob Flanagan, would obey everything that Sheree Rose commanded & desired without consideration for his own comfort or pleasure. Flanagan would be in charge of cleaning the house, & when he was told to do so, he would care for Rose’s children. Flanagan also renounced his right to touch himself or have any kind of sex without strict permission. Rose was allowed to see anyone she wanted or desired but Flanagan’s body & mind belonged to her & her alone. Disobedience would result in severe punishment. Flanagan was not allowed to say “I want”, but rather “I need”. Want is a controlling word, so Flanagan in his enslavement decreed,

“I AM TRYING TO ELIMINATE ALL MY CONTROLLING NATURE.”

In Venus in Furs, Severin & Wanda move to Florence so that they can live out their fantasies in a more discreet & socially free city. Wanda treats Severin brutally, but before he is wounded, Severin philosophises about love:

“IT IS A SWEET, SOFT, ENIGMATIC POWER THAT DRIVES US ON. WE CEASE TO THINK, TO FEEL, TO WILL; WE LET OURSELVES BE CARRIED AWAY BY IT, & ASK NOT WHITHER?”

Rose carved her initial, “S”, on the right side of Flanagan’s chest with a blade & after three months, the first set of contracts was extended. Flanagan moved in with Rose at her second home in west LA, where their sadomasochistic relationship soon became the organising principle of their life together.

The 1997 Sundance Special Jury Prize documentary Sick: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist follows the BDSM life & work of Rose & Flanagan up until his death in 1996. The film is unashamed in its documentation of their kink life. It opens with Flanagan in front of a crowd performing a stand-up, sing-song set with a hospital gown tied around his neck like a cape, brandishing his scars & bruises. He sings,

“FORTY YEARS HAVE COME & GONE & BOB IS STILL AROUND. HE’S TIED UP BY HIS ANKLES & HE’S HANGING UPSIDE DOWN. A LIFETIME OF INFECTION & HIS LUNGS ALL FILLED WITH PHLEGM, THE CF WOULD HAVE KILLED HIM IF IT WEREN’T FOR S&M.”

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Thumbnail: Portrait of Sheree Rose and Bob Flanagan, 1994, Michel Delsol. Sheree Rose and Bob Flanagan Papers and Photographs, ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, University of Southern California.

Image: Detail of Wall of Pain, 1992. Sheree Rose and Bob Flanagan Papers and Photographs, ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, University of Southern California.