" Sweet smell of Submission", by Erik Pevernagie, oil on canvas, 100 x 100cm

There seems to be a contradictory pattern in female behavior. Many women are strong defendants of emancipation and equality and some men are helping them in their cause.

Some women however seem to show an agreeable acceptance of submission. Some say that if you take away suffering from them, you take away the one thing where they can be really grandiose, noble, magnanimous. Florence Nightingale could be a lighting example.

In their relationship some women like to develop a secret self-destructive dependence on being needed. They invest obsessively in benevolent care and total devotedness to people who are physically or mentally unstable. The only thing they need is to feel needed, to be indispensable. Appropriate cases for them are men who never grew up and remain mentally little boys and addicted or socially deviant characters.

In order to be able to fulfil this self-imposed and addictive task they are prepared to submit to any random act. They can then enjoy the sweet smell of total submission.

Phenomenon: Submission and emancipation

Factual starting point: Submitting girl