A strange line of work

N.B. - ADULT CONTENT, anyone under 18 please go away and do not read it.

This starts with the fairly innocent world of quiz shows on television.

The other evening on "Wer wird Millionär?" there was a fireman from the Hamburg area answering the questions. While the urbane Günther Jauch was asking him about his experiences as a fireman in Hamburg arose the story how he had once had to enter the studio of a dominatrix who was dealing with one of her clients.

It has struck me, for as long as I can remember, as a weird desire that anyone would enjoy being humiliated and made to suffer pain.

Further investigation into this strange desire though revealed another strange world - the world of the employed masochist.

Apparently there are in a number of countries in the world (the UK, the USA, the Czech Republic, Russia, Japan, and to an extent, Germany - this list may not be comprehensive) young women who volunteer their services as actresses to appear in movies where they are tied up and beaten, often fiercely and cruelly.

Quite why baffles me. Even given my current financial difficulties I would not accept a million Euro to be humiliated and hurt like that. So why would anyone do it?

There seems to be a recidivist element to it as well - some of the women involved make a pretty successful career from it - it is not a question of just doing it once for the money. But why? The question reverberates. It seems to fly in the face of everything in our nature, you would imagine.

I know from my teaching days that there were young people who liked to prove how tough they were and how much they could take before they finally gave way, but the masochism involved here crosses that line by some way.

And then comes the question as to how far you would allow this to be permitted legally. Do people need to be protected from themselves occasionally? Before they allow themselves to go too far - finally - with all the risks involved?

I will not pretend to know the answer. There are aspects of human nature that will always be beyond my comprehension, and this is definitely one of them.