Film Review: Preaching to the Perverted (1997)

Preaching to the Perverted, a 1997 erotic comedy directed by Stuart Urban, was recommended to me for its witty portrayal of a dominatrix. Here are my thoughts on the film and its representation.

The film centers around a former pro-dominatrix, Tanya Cheex, who runs a UK fetish club and lives a full-time BDSM lifestyle surrounded by her submissives and slaves. Tanya’s club is the next target of a conservative member of parliament, who is trying to push an anti-pornography agenda and shut down the BDSM scene. To gather evidence, the MP sends his young assistant to the fetish club undercover. The rest of the story follows pretty much as expected - the young boy gets in over his head and falls for the fetish club owner. 

It’s not hard to see how the film attained cult status with its vivid portrayal of Tanya’s club and its many colorful guests, who openly play out SM scenes in front of the crowd (there’s even a performance where a dancer appears to shoot fireworks out of a giant metal cock). No less entertaining are the scenes of the conservatives in parliament and their massive stash of pornography, which they have hoarded, of course, strictly for research purposes.

Tanya herself appears as a confident, fierce, ice-cold mistress. She sneers at the thought of “vanilla sex”, or of wearing any clothing that isn’t skin-tight nylon, latex or leather. When she isn’t torturing one of her slaves or in the midst of an orgasm at the hands of her lesbian submissive, Tanya’s intellectual work involves studying for a PhD on the neuroscience of sex. Secretly, she dreams of having a family, a loving relationship and a child - wishes she finds conflicting because she fears that vulnerability will cost her autonomy.

Few films portray a dominatrix as a complex character. Despite Preaching to the Perverted's status as a comedy full of exaggeration and parody, Tanya has many qualities that defy flattened character tropes: she's funny and intelligent, she has both sexual agency and a degree of emotional depth. The scenes at the courthouse where Tanya exposes the hypocrisy of the moral crusaders targeting her are some of the film's strongest moments.

However, Tanya's character is not without some clichés. She is still framed as the classic media stereotype of a dominatrix: glamorous and bitchy, a mean-looking woman dressed in latex. She looks down on full-service sex workers, contributing to a frustrating division that does not align with the solidarity many real-world pro-dommes express. In my experience, most pro-dommes are also capable of being compassionate, caring people (albeit ones with strong boundaries that others need to respect), but Tanya only sporadically displays these qualities.

One could also argue that the film's heavy focus on BDSM aesthetics runs the risk of reducing kink to a fashion, rather than an emotionally nuanced, well-negotiated practice. However, the aesthetics of BDSM are an important part of this practice too. BDSM is often theatrical, and visual symbolism (latex, leather, chains) can be a playful form of erotic expression, enhancing a role and deepening a dynamic. It also just looks great on film, which is part of what makes Preaching to the Perverted so visually seductive and enjoyable to watch.

Perhaps what makes the film so intriguing is how it blurs the line between satire and sincerity. It's campy and yet self-aware, occasionally mocking itself - like in the supermarket scene where we see Tanya, dressed in her full latex BDSM regalia, clearly out of place buying groceries among a crowd of average-dressed people. “A Mistress never shops,” her submissive chides. Tanya simply shrugs: “Well, Mistress might just be unhappy with your menus.”

Ultimately, Tanya doesn't compromise. She sees through the false morality of those who seek to reform her, she refuses to be totally possessed by a partner, and she continues to fight for her lifestyle and her values. What lingers from the film isn't just the spectacle, it's how Tanya and her friends are rendered as more than just provocateurs. Preaching to the Perverted may be campy and absurd, but its real weight comes from the dignity with which it depicts those who live outside the norm.