The Origin of Spankings, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Belt

     Recently, I was reading an article (here) over at Aunty Andrea's wonderful Spank Shop, posted by one of her male readers, who related how his boyhood desires to be spanked unfolded, and it started me pondering a question of cosmological significance (at least to my cosmos):
    So where does this 'spanking thing' come from anyway? Just how is it that some people (more than most suspect, according to some surveys) become attracted to the idea of discipline and punishment as a component of our libido? The question has always intrigued me. Is there a cultural factor involved? The 'English Vice', as it's been called, may not be unique to the Brits, but it is certainly more prevalent in western societies than in the rest of the world. My global visitors map shows they come from every western, industrialized, Christianized nation,and virtually none from outside that sphere).This fact alone opens up a whole truckload of questions: Has the guilt-based religious system instilled some inner need to be cleansed through suffering? Or perhaps our ego-driven, super-competitive, overly stressful lifestyle inspires a backlash, either to let go of the burdens of responsibility and let someone else be our decision maker, or in the case of tops, to regain a sense of control in a society where we have so little?
    On the other hand, perhaps it is not culture-based at all. Some of us would claim to be 'born Spankos', with the 'kink' already hardwired into our brains, or programmed into our genetic makeup. Others don't discover their predeliction for punitive play until adulthood, most often through a partner who is either already a Spanko or just through experimental foreplay. I suspect, though, that the majority of us became aware of this side of ourselves during childhood, often from being spanked.
     I am not qualified to spout universal declarations on any of these questions - I can only speak to my own experience.


    Unlike some Spankos who were punished frequently as kids, spanking was not a common practice in my household. A means of last resort, yes, but relatively rare. I was a quiet, well-behaved child, who almost never did anything that warranted physical punishment.  Nor did I have any desire to be punished by my parents. I respected them, and would have been mortified to drive them to the point of spanking me. But there were plenty of women on tv and in the movies who inspired thoughts of spanking. TV moms and teachers were a legitimate target of desire.
    When you're a kid, the most revealing view of women you have commonly available is of legs. Summer fashions revealed their delights in droves - smooth, round thighs, sunlight glimmering off  knee and gently curving shin. It was - and still is! - maddening. And spanking offered a means of getting up close and personal with what I considered the most exciting aspect to women. The idea of dangling across a pair of lovely legs was mesmerizing (still is,too).
    Add to that fact that the vast majority of my teachers were women - so I came to associate women with figures of authority, and disciplining in class was not the legal and social taboo it is today. Watching a female teacher scold or spank a student was a spectacle that held not only myself, but every kid in class spellbound. Afterward, in the yard, the other children would crowd around the one who'd been punished and pommel him/her with questions - how much did it hurt? Does it still sting? Were you afraid? Did you want to cry? Let's see if she left any marks! I suppose the kid in question was something of a hero to the rest of us. It should have been clear to me then that they all shared my fascination for punishment on some level. But it wasn't clear to me that there were formative sexual underpinnings being forged in us all. Probably in most of my classmates, such incidents are overwhelmed by later, non-spanking experiences - but, with some of us, their power still resonates.
    That's enough rambling for one day. The second half of this post topic will deal with a more specific experience that probably did more to shape my Spanko-ness than any other.


NEXT: The Babysitter Incident.