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In her study, Male Subjectivities at the Margins (1992), Kaja Silverman reports masochistic tendencies tend to be regarded as normal and appropriate in the case of women; however, such habits are pathological for men as their eroticiziation of lack and subordination is inconsistent with the phallic regime from which they have passed over into feminine terrain. The discography of the pioneering Dutch darkwave band, Clan of Xymox (COX), provides the most appropriate and frequent exhibitions of this male masochism as the speaker/vocalist, Ronny Moorings, verbalizes expressions of submission, desperation, and victimization as he is constantly destabilized and generally incapacitated by an omnipotent and divine female agent who appears throughout the band’s forty year discography (1983-current). For this talk, I will provide close readings of the numerous songs named after the women by whom Moorings is subordinated in order to demonstrate how he constructs himself as a male masochistic subject who challenges the heteronormative and patriarchal roles to which men are confined. By appropriating feminine tropes and therefore willingly emasculating himself, he opens the scope for the renegotiation of gender roles and thus not only resists masculinist rock conventions but also reinforces the subversive narrative of the effeminate male goth.
