In her third book, notable FemDom author Elise Sutton strays away from the more common lifestyles of FemDom practitioners who pursue relationships based on the principals of loving female authority, and instead she takes an honest look at men who claim to be seeking “unloving female authority” at the hands of a sadistic woman. This book also takes notice of real life experiences of female sadists and the wives and significant others of masochists.
Nevertheless, the primary focus of this book is the life of the man from whom the term “masochist” was coined. Many have heard of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch but few have heard his life story. With the narrative of Leopold’s sexual journey as its foundation, this book examines contemporary self-described masochists who are in search of a cruel, sadistic woman. In other words, just like Leopold, these men are “Searching for Wanda”.
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By Jay Bay
Jul 5, 2010
Ms Sutton has a gift in creating a perfect blend to equally teach and entertain her readers. “Searching for Wanda” is her latest, and in my humble opinion, her best work to date. The primary theme of “Searching for Wanda” is masochism but you don’t have to be a masochist to relate to this book. No matter if you’re interested in female domination, male submission, female sadism, male masochism, fetishism, feminism, or if you’re purely fascinated with distinctive expressions of human sexuality, you will enjoy “Searching for Wanda”. Ms Sutton’s research incorporates the wisdom from some of the great minds of the past two centuries as she examines masochism. Johann Jakob Bachofen, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Sigmund Freud, Helene Deutsch, Theodor Reik, Gilles Deleuze, Carl Jung, Alfred Kinsey and many others are referenced. Notwithstanding, Ms Sutton is never shy about injecting her own observations and opinions, even when her estimations differ from past and present Psychologists,... More > Psychiatrists and Sociologists. The first half of “Searching for Wanda” is primarily about the life of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. His life story is most remarkable and I found it rather clever the way Ms Sutton categorized the chapters in the first half of her book based on the FemDom relationships Sacher-Masoch had with the women in his life, beginning with his adolescent connection with his Aunt Xenobia and continuing through to his final years and his relationship with his second wife, Hulda Meister. As she shares the particulars of Sacher-Masoch’s life, Ms Sutton intermingles in bona fide experiences of current day FemDom couples who’ve had to deal with the effects of masochism. The second half of “Searching for Wanda” uses four fictitious albeit famous female sadists, created by the fantasies of men within literature and film spanning from 1927 to 1982 (those being Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz’s sensual female sadist, Persy; Jac Lenders’ psychological sadist, Hilda Mansell; Dave Friedman’s hardcore sadist, Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS; and the mysterious Dr. Karl Steiner’s extreme sadist, Anneliese Helm), to further examine masochism while at the same time exploring sadism within women. My favorite chapter in the book was ‘Societal Evolution and the Emergence of Wanda’ where Ms Sutton looks at female sadism and shares the results of a most interesting survey she conducted with forty-three dominant women to measure their personal interests in the FemDom lifestyle. The book is sandwich between two letters, the first chapter being a well-crafted and thought-provoking letter written by a masochist, addressed to Ms Sutton, seeking her opinion. The final chapter is her intelligent reply, encouraging him (and the readers of the book) to strive for a balanced FemDom relationship that is based on loving female authority. I’ve greatly enjoyed all three of Elise Sutton’s books and “Searching for Wanda” is no exception. I highly recommend it.< Less
