Historical cases of male submissive sexual fantasies: Financial domination

Reports of submissive kinks in men from the early literature on human sexuality. In this entry, a case of a man with the financial domination kink reported by Iwan Bloch.

This is part of a series of essays on historical cases of male submissive kinks. Find the Table of contents here.

Some men today have irresistible urges of giving their hard-earned money to beautiful women who readily take it without reciprocating any sexual favors. A man of this kind revels in the humiliation he suffers by having his money taken from him by a woman he desires but who does not desire him back.

The fulfillment of these sexual fantasies of financial domination has been greatly facilitated by technology, which makes such a financial transfer of resources a matter that takes seconds to complete. Modern money transfer technology can also grant some degree of privacy and anonymity to the man sending the money to indulge in his kinks.

Technology has also greatly facilitated the meeting of the men who have the financial domination kink with the women who are unscrupulous enough to accept receiving the money that these men so desperately yearn to rid themselves of.

In sum, it has never been easier to indulge in fulfilling the financial domination kink for the men who have it. It takes little effort to find a financial dominatrix online and a few clicks to send her money. The risk to the man’s reputation or social status is generally minuscule as the matter remains private between him and his domina.

Financial domination is undoubtedly one of the most pernicious of all the male submissive kinks due to the finite nature of financial resources. While it can be thrilling for these men to contemplate giving up increasing sums of money to a beautiful woman who rejects them and humiliates them, the practice can quickly degenerate into a financial fiasco.

The problem lies in the fact that once the money is handed over, it will not be given back. Indeed, some men are driven to ruin themselves financially in pursuing the fulfillment of the insatiable sexual urges that animate their spirits. Some men even go into debt when they run out of cash.

There is an interesting historical case of the financial domination kink reported by the German physician Iwan Bloch at the turn of the 19th century. It concerns an engineer in Germany who had the habit of hiring a prostitute to enact a particular fantasy of his, a fantasy that strongly revolved around financial domination and verbal humiliation.

In the scene, the man approached the prostitute and proposed having sex with her for twenty German marks. The prostitute accepted and took him to her home. When it was time for him to pay, however, he confessed in shame that he only had five marks on him. At this, the prostitute became angry and proceeded to abuse him verbally after snatching the five marks away from him.

She then searched his clothes for anything of value she might have found. To the surprise of both parties, the woman came upon a hundred-mark bill hidden somewhere on the man. When this bill was discovered, and he realized that the prostitute was going to take it from him without reciprocating the sexual favors that were promised for only a fifth of the price, the man reached his climax.

He then proceeded to beg the prostitute to take pity on him and pleaded with her to give him back half the money at least. The woman adamantly refused and the supplications were only met with more scolding and verbal humiliation. At the end of the scene, the prostitute handed him back one mark and instructed him to leave. He dutifully took the one mark and obeyed the prostitute’s orders, leaving in shame.

It is unclear in the case history whether the man’s confession that he only had five marks on him reflected his genuine belief that he did not have enough money or simply his attempt—in the fantasy—to trick the prostitute into having sex with him for only five marks instead of twenty. In any case, it is clear that the engineer also enjoyed being verbally humiliated, either for thinking he did not have enough money or for attempting to fool the prostitute into thinking so.

An engineer meets a prostitute (who has been previously instructed what to do) in the street, and asks her if he may go home with her for twenty marks (shillings). Having reached the home of the girl, he suddenly declares with tears that he has only five marks with him. The prostitute overwhelms him with abuse,¹ takes the five marks from him, and then carefully searches his clothing, until somewhere or other she finds a hundred-mark piece! The moment of the discovery of this piece of money is precisely the moment when the man has the sexual orgasm. In answer to his prayers and whining, to his pitiful request that she shall at least give him back half the money, he only receives scornful abuse. Finally, she presses one mark into his hand, and gives him his congé. This procedure is repeated regularly every fortnight—an expensive amusement for a man who is by no means wealthy. But he is unable to give up this peculiar passion, which for him is the only way of obtaining sexual gratification.²

It is clear that the engineer in question had a financial domination kink and there are three elements in this historical case that are striking. The first is that the financial domination kink was so strong in the man that he found himself unable to fight the urge of resorting to it to achieve orgasm. He could not quit. The second striking element is that this urge was so overwhelming that he apparently had to act out the aforementioned scene every two weeks.

The third element is that the sum of money involved in every financial domination session he had with the prostitute was substantial. A hundred German marks in the beginning of the 20th century is the rough equivalent today in 2024 of about 700 euros or US dollars. The man, we are told, did not have an income that allowed for such a luxury to be repeated so often. It would not be surprising, therefore, if this engineer drove himself to financial ruin in pursuit of the peculiar sexual desires he could not quench.

Whether the details of this case are accurate or the product of embellishments and exaggerations cannot be ascertained, of course, but Iwan Bloch stresses its authenticity. It is striking, in any case, that the same three elements identified in the case history above are present today in many men with the financial domination kink.

These elements are: first, the overwhelming desire to resort to the kink to reach climax; second, the inability to quit and the frequent resort to the practice of financial domination; and third, the substantial sums of money involved relative to the man’s income.

Sadly, we are not told anything about how the engineer felt about the expensive habit that catered to his peculiar kink. Perhaps he, like many men today who have fantasies of financial domination, felt guilt and regret after indulging in this pernicious practice. Perhaps he sought to quit it, only to come back to it in inevitable episodes of relapse.

We do not know, either, what happened to him after this repeated indulgence. Perhaps he drove himself to financial ruin. Perhaps he finally succeeded in quitting his affliction and managed to put his finances in order. In any case, I have no doubt that among my readers who have the financial domination kink, many will identify with the predicament of this engineer from over a century ago.

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The line art in this essay’s card is by Georgian artist Dorian Chelios.

1. The English translation is ambiguous as to whether this abuse was physical or verbal, but the original German is clear that it was only verbal.

2. Bloch, Iwan. (1909). The Sexual Life of Our Time in Its Relations to Modern Civilization. Translated by M. Eden Paul from the sixth German edition. Rebman Limited. (Originally published in 1907.) p. 585.