Formula One Racing Head with a Nazi Fetish: the Craziest Sex Scandal Yet

Posted by Jill Filipovic, Feministe at 3:11 PM on April 3, 2008.

What. The. Fuck. And here I thought we couldn’t do any better than “Evangelical mega-church preacher does crystal meth with male prostitutes.”

(Sidenote: You know a sex scandal is insane when the first thing you think of is an Overheard in New York quote).

I’m not going to quote at length from the article because the whole thing just makes me feel too weird,* but the gist of it is that the head of Formula One’s governing body was caught on video with five prostitutes playing concentration camp fetish games. And don’t worry, the cracker-jack reporters at ABC news explain that “While the Nazi concept is not unusual in sadomasochistic circles, playing both sides in such a kinky ritual is unusual, say sex experts.”

He played both sides? Well in that case, he really is a pervert!

In an interesting twist (as if there had to be anything else), the guy’s father was the founder of the British Union of Fascists and a supporter of Adolph Hitler. It’s almost the perfect storm of sex scandals — if only he were a right-wing politician playing Nazi dress-up with dudes it would seal the deal.

And, sweet Jesus, there is a video. I haven’t watched it because I’m not such a fan of that stuff, but I’m going to guess that it is neither work-safe nor for the faint of heart.

It’s kind of an amazing confluence of all things offensive in one place.

I don’t want to hate on perverts too much, because ain’t nothing wrong with doin’ the dirty (and making it extra-dirty to your tastes) in the privacy of your own home. I could kind of care less if people want to whip each other or play some boudoir version of Dungeons & Dragons or do whatever the hell else people do to get off. I don’t think that the guy who oversees Formula One necessarily needs to resign because he has some really out-there sexual habits. I realize that human beings are complex creatures and we all do some weird shit, often involving sex. So before anyone jumps down my throat, I am totally not taking a stand against kinky or pervy sex. Kink and perv away.

But… isn’t the Holocaust kind of off-limits, even in private? Or am I just being a judgmental prig here?

Thanks to Noam for the links.

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*I get all tripped up in trying to balance my gut-level disgust at the clearly problematic use of the Holocaust as an event to sexually fetishize, and my political belief that consensual private sexual activity should be, as a general rule, private. I really try not to judge other peoples’ sexual choices (and usually I don’t care enough to judge, unless they involve me), and obviously I still think that this guy should (legally) be able to do whatever the heck he wants in his bedroom, but this just throws me.

Jill Filipovic is a New York-based freelance writer and a law student at NYU. More of her writing is available online at her blog, Feministe.