A preview of the agony aunt column in the Times on Wednesday: big letters over the top of the front page:
“You did wrong. You know it. Now you’re being punished.”
Oh yes, give those correspondents a good scolding.
(The article itself is a normal relationship train wreck, but mmm, the quote…)
Such references in your newspapers appear to be very common, and I think we are headed in that direction too. A review of British comedies recently was laden with references to getting a caning, being spanked etc. It was just her way of saying that some weren’t funny. Our sporting commentators, in print and on radio/tv, continuously refer to a team being spanked, getting a caning, being thrashed. This is particularly interesting when they refer to the “pussies” being whipped. (reference to name of team). Money men talk about getting their bottoms spanked in a trade all the time. I’ll keep a look out in the Aunt Agony type columns to see what is going on there too.
I think
“You’ve been bad. Now you’re going to be punished’
is even more evocative!