“Do Not Forget the Whip”

Summary

In this essay Nietzsche’s famous dictum “You go to women? Do not forget the whip!” is interpreted on three levels. On the first and most obvious level the author says: “if you go to women, do not forget to take the whip with you and tame the women”. The whip, of course, is the instrument of masculine oppression.

In the context of Nietzsche’s book Also sprach Zarathustra, however, this interpretation is hardly probable. The old woman who is speaking here gives a wise lesson after Zarathustra’s masculine speech about women. In this context “do not forget the whip” can also mean: do not forget that some women in history used the whip to tame men. In 1882 a photograph was taken of Nietzsche himself in the company of Lou Salomé and Paul Rée: Lou is sitting on a car, a whip in her hand.

A third level of interpretation, preferred in this paper, regards the whip as a symbol of emancipation and distance, expression of Nietzsche’s Pathos der Distanz. The old woman uses the more respectful word Frauen, not Weiber. Nietzsche’s dictum in this interpretation means: “If you go to women, do not forget the distance”.

Translated by C. Swanenberg.