It is a great injustice to link Sacher-Masoch to Marquis de Sade. The submissive male may desire a female sadist but his motivation and psychological need for abuse at the hand of a woman is rooted in man’s longing for loving female authority. Sacher-Masoch saw women in the spiritual and saw their divinity, thus his fascination with the Goddess Venus. Sade saw mankind as animalistic and he wrote of man’s lowest qualities, as the strong prey on the weak. Sacher-Masoch elevated women by degrading himself. Marquis de Sade degraded women as he sought to degrade both society and religion.

The term Sadomasochism (S&M) forever links the desires of a sadistic man with the desires of a masochistic man. Yet, the masochistic man wanted to be whipped and humiliated by a beautiful woman, whom he felt inferior although he lived during a time when men believed they were superior. The desires of Sacher-Masoch were spiritual in origin.

The desires of Sade were animalistic. Thus these two men were worlds apart in their sexuality.

Since most people who engage in S&M in our society are eager to talk about the spiritual aspects of their lifestyle and how they practice a safe, sane and consensual form of sexuality, it is difficult to label such a sexuality with the desires and writings of Marquis de Sade. Although his life is held up as a celebration of sexual thought and freedom by those who practice S&M, his obvious disdain for women and his pessimistic view of the human condition only lends itself to the negative perception that most of society holds toward the term S&M. In stark contrast, the writings and desires of Sacher-Masoch are a better representation of what those involved in the BDSM community want to convey to society.

Namely, a Dominant/submissive relationship based on mutual love and trust.

In reality, S&M started out as an underground group of purely dominant women and submissive men based on the writings of Sacher-Masoch.

Over the years, S&M has changed to become pan-sexual where either a male or a female could be dominant and either a male or a female could be submissive. But S&M originally stood for a sadistic woman and a masochistic male based primarily on Sacher-Masoch's book "Venus in Furs".