My next step in thinking about the erotic nature of money was to explore different types of human dynamics and apply how we relate to sex and money in generally the same way. The first of these dynamics, and the second article in this series on Money, Sex and Chocolate is regarding Dominance and Submission.
Power is a very primitive human desire and there isn’t anyone I’ve observed that believes he is more powerful than the man (or woman) who possesses an obscene amount of money. Power is what makes people like Hitler think, “Perhaps I’ll take over the world today.” George W. Bush may claim God told him to become President but anyone who can balance a check book would be able to see how he (and Dick Cheney) have benefited from their occupation of the White House. Why is this? What do we get from feeling powerful? We must gain some sort of animalistic gratification, after all dominance and submission are elemental to human interaction. We are constantly forming varying types of social hierarchies in everyday interactions. The philosopher Hegel in his Master/Slave dialectic,
Thinks the master / slave relation is primitive: it’s a defective form of self-consciousness whose logic is self-defeating, so that it renders itself logically obsolete and is superseded by the superior form of self-consciousness that is economic cooperation.
Economic cooperation, ah hah! Ok so there is something gained by either side of this dynamic. Either by dominating over someone else or being dominated by someone else, the participatory parties are gratified, resulting in a balanced existential interaction. A good example of this natural tendency manifesting itself sexually is Sadism and Masochism,
Often interrelated (one person obtaining sadistic pleasure by inflicting pain or suffering on another person who thereby obtains masochistic pleasure), are collectively known as S&M or sadomasochism.
A similar situation arises around interactions with money. Many people feel a sense of sexual empowerment deriving from their financial gains. In fact, many high-net worth women profess to having better and more exotic sex lives. This happens because, as I mentioned in Part 1, money is an enabler in enhancing sexual experience.
The other facet of this power/sex/money ménage et trios is that of submission. Take “groupies” for example, and I’m not limiting the word “groupie” to women who sleep with rock stars. I’m talking about women who are sexually attracted to men simply for their money and therefore, power. Such a woman is satisfied to be dominated by a powerful man with the financial means to enable her security. Perhaps this is not the healthiest of interactions but it happens and is functional at best.
So it is by evoking feelings of power, exerting dominance or being submissive to that power, that we derive a good deal of our sexual pleasure from money. This is not the only emotive property of money as you will see but, in my opinion, is the most obvious and most intense.
“We live by the Golden Rule. Those who have the gold make the rules.” ~Buzzie Bavasi
Related articles:
Money, Sex and Chocolate Pt. 1