In 2011, Erica James's scandalous novel Fifty Shades of Gray was published. Within three months of sales, this book became an absolute world bestseller. The love story, seasoned with erotic scenes with elements of sadomasochism, caused a lot of controversy. The popularity of the book was explained by the crisis of feminism and the desire of women to be in the absolute power of men. So what is female masochism? Sigmund Freud first spoke about this problem. The founder of psychoanalysis, with his characteristic categoricalness, stated that to be a woman means to be prone to masochism. This is determined by nature. Is this really so? What is female masochism: a problem that can be solved, or a “highlight” that needs to be accepted? Update: I don’t know if the author of the annotation has read the book... it’s clear that the book was released “in the wake of 50 Shades” - but actually mostly it describes the perverted inclinations of men, oddly enough, such as a tendency towards sadism, masochism, as well as many other deviations that are not so harmless... and the author (Freud) even writes that in general women are less inclined to this kind of entertainment ..