The Spanking Writers

Trawling press archives sometimes brings up a wealth of fantasy fodder. Take this article in the “Time” magazine from 1967, which considers the corporal punishment situation in British schools.

At least one quaint custom of British education has not changed since Tom Brown’s Schooldays: the tradition of “six of the best” for misbehaving pupils. Although the cane and the strap are still essential equipment for every self-respecting headmaster, public indignation against corporal punishment is on the rise, and the Labor government would like to abolish it for good.

It took a good few years for corporal punishment to go away, and in the meantime “Time” supplies us with incidents that I for one wouldn’t mind mining for future stories or role-play:

Two Southampton schoolboys were given 21 strokes because they incorrectly spelled “meringue.” … Three girls were caned because they forgot to bring semolina to a cooking class.

Excessive in real life, of course, but as good an excuse for a scene as I’d like to find.

As long as I can be spared actually cooking any semolina.

I often fantasise about judicial whippings, but I had no idea judges wished for their return as well.

Turn out, at least one judge does:

“It was when the judge noted Steves had burglarized his own parents’ home that the issue of corporal punishment came up.

“If I could impose it, you should get a spanking,” Aloi told the 18-year-old.

I wonder if the judge thought he would be the one to administer it, or whether the teen would be handed over to his parents, who would deliver the punishment right there in the courtroom?

Dealing with a schoolgirl? It’s her backside, thighs or hands that take the whacks.  A maid in trouble? Likewise.

A girl in some darker, more abusive scene? As above, or (in theory for me, but less commonly in practice, perhaps with the flicking end of a crop) more intimate areas.

A judicial punishment? Buttocks, back… or breasts.

Breasts?! No, it wouldn’t have struck me as authentic either – and authenticity’s very much my thing when playing scenes. But I’ve just read a press report from Massachusetts that rather startled me:

Michael Cote, an environmental planner, was working on a project for the city when Planning Director Wayne M. Feiden suggested Cote go over the Hampshire Council of Governments office to see if he could find an old map.  Cote said they were looking for an old parcel the city was thinking of buying for conservation and Feiden remembered seeing old maps at the council officer.

Lydia King, executive assistant took Cote into the large storeroom where the materials were kept and Cote said “I almost dropped dead. It was amazing.”  What he found were records dating back to 1677.

“It was stunning, stunning stuff.” Among the archives were court dockets kept by the court magistrate. Cote said he read of a dispute before the court between a husband and wife. On this particular complaint, the judge sentenced the woman to 40 lashes about the breast to be administered in public. While Cote was stunned by the punishment, he was also thinking “I shouldn’t be holding this” because of how old and fragile the document was.

Now, breast whipping really isn’t high on my list of play preferences (although with a nice flogger, or the tip of a riding crop…). So I’m rather taken aback to find it appearing in this context historically – perhaps the first time I’ve read of it as a judicial punishment.

This world is full of wonders. One of such wonders I’ve just discovered is a “combined lifting and spanking machine” patented in 1909:

In case you’re wondering how this works:

The object of the invention is to provide a trick device of this character used ostensibly as a weight-lifting machine but which, when actuated operates a spring actuated electro-generator and a spring actuated paddle.

Can you imagine this in the gym? You grab the weights, pull on them, and suddenly – THWACK!

Oh dear.

You read about some court cases, and it’s not really clear-cut which way the decision should go. And then you get some like this:

A sales manager who chased a female colleague around the office before putting her across his knee and spanking her also hired female workers based on their bra size rather than their abilities, an employment tribunal heard. …

Well, the guy is saying in his defence that none of this is true. But for entertainment value, I would have liked him to stand up in front of the tribunal and go: “Of course I spanked her! She was very, very naughty!”

Is this going to be the most expensive whip ever sold?

“Indiana Jones’ trademark bullwhip from The Raiders of The Lost Ark is up for auction just in time for the 30th anniversary of the movie,” says Business Insider.   “British-based firm Bonham is running the auction and expects the whip to sell for somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000 to $70,000. Bonham tells Business Insider that they have received several inquiries about the auction, and that they’re looking forward to a strong response.”

If I win the lottery before 26 June, when the auction is on, I’m totally bidding for it.

I’m reading a book called “Lunch in Paris”. The main character, an American girl, has started a correspondence with a French guy she fancies.

Artfully worded e-mails flew back and forth. I even tried writing one in French, begging Gwendal in advance to correct my grammar. He waited several months to tell me that corrigez-moi doesn’t imply “check my spelling” so much as “tie me up and tickle me with a feather duster.” There should really be a footnote in those high school textbooks.

There you are, you’ve learned a useful bit of French!

Wandering randomly around the web t’other day. I came across an extract from a rather lovely C19th feminist fairy-tale, “The life of High Countess Gritta von Ratsinourhouse”. I loved one particular (romantic and ultimately poignant) section, about a girl who’s not birched by her father, and thought I’d transcribe it for your delectation:

Until he was made a count, your great-great-great-grandfather had raised his children properly. Shortly after becoming a count, however, he became a father again, this time of a baby girl, and he now thought that a little countess ought no longer to be beaten with a switch. So the birch trees around the castle were no longer watered, and the countess grew up most ill behaved, since the count had no means of punishing her without insulting the nobility in her blood.. Besides, he thought, hers would never be more than minor offenses. That, however, was a mistake. She outgrew the age for spanking and turned wild: She stayed out night after night and came home the following morning in superb humor with wild thorn vines, moss, and night dew in her loose and flying hair…

“One morning she arrived shouldering the carcass of a young bear. It had attacked her in the woods so she had strangled it with her strong firm limbs. Just at that moment her father was speaking with the young man she had chosen for her husband… The young count with his pale face and black beard looked at her with friendliness…

“Now she loved the young count passionately. She did not become his fiancée, one couldn’t call her that; she became his companion… And when the young count sat at his studies, for which he had special inclination, she learned with him. They often sat before old manuscripts until late into the night, their arms interlocked, one helping the other… [Her father] often looked toward the family tree of birch switches, whose rustling leaves seemed to remind him of his failure to raise the countess properly.

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I happened upon this fascinating essay called “The Governess in Nineteenth-Century Literature”. Before you rush over to read it, I must warn you that not once does it mention corporal punishment. This fact hasn’t stopped me from enjoying it a lot, and perverting it to my heart’s content.

For example, these lines: “…Retaining a governess served as a status symbol, signifying the power and wealth of the family. A governess also helped validate a family’s membership in the ranks of the leisure class, a station characterized by the fact that the lady of the house was truly a woman of leisure.”

Picture a family, only marginally rich, but hungry for the status awarded to the truly wealthy. They’ll have to be frugal about many things, but their daughters will have the best governess the family can find. Appearances are very important: the girls must have impeccable manners, learn all the necessary accomplishments, and be ready to woo suitors of a better rank than their father’s. It’s certainly important that the governess is particularly strict with them, as their father explains to her at the start of her engagement.

“Why,” she says, surprised. “I’m used to chastising boys, but girls, as old as fourteen and fifteen? Are you certain, sir?”

“I’m certain. Their mother has been too soft with them. There is a birch tree in the garden, and I would like you to make a good use of it in their education.”

Back to the article. “The general dismissive attitude towards governesses had many roots, but there is an abundance of instances in contemporary letters, journals, and fiction describing public humiliation and degradation by employers of the very person they’d charged with the upbringing of their children.”

A young governess in her first position finds herself facing the child’s mother, who looks at her with visible displeasure. “I saw you return from your walk today with little Anne,” says the mother. “Her hat and gloves were off.”

“She doesn’t like wearing them when it’s hot,” the governess says, knowing full well that she should have found a way to make the little tyrant dress properly.

“Nonsense. She will do as she is told, and if she doesn’t, she will feel the back of your hairbrush. Perhaps, you yourself need a reminder how a hairbrush can help a young person mend her ways?”

“What? No!” the governess is horrified, but the mother gives her a nasty smile.

“I think you’ll find that it would be to your advantage to submit to my discipline. It would be very difficult for you to find a new position without a glowing reference from your first employer. Come and see me in my bedroom tonight, after Anne is asleep. Wear your night dress and nothing else.”

As tears spring to the young woman’s eyes, she knows she will do exactly as she is told.

I could keep going through the article in search of the juicy bits, but I’d be here all day – I’m sure you don’t need me to help you pervert it!

Girl meets older man. Man offers to mentor her, setting down rules for her to follow. Girl consents to be spanked when she breaks the rules.

A familiar fantasy, isn’t it?

Well, a court case in Virginia is dealing with a similar scenario, which went pear-shaped because of what seems like the guy’s imprecise understanding of the concept of consent:

“The three young women first became involved with a Beach restaurateur now facing sexual assault and abduction charges because he promised them college scholarships, room and board and weekly allowances, they testified at a preliminary hearing…

But the so-called Spencer Scholarship Program that 54-year-old Henry Allen Fitzsimmons offered them required obedience – and bare-bottomed spankings…

“At first, he helped me out financially. He helped me cope with my life,” [one of the women] testified. “He made himself to be very caring and to help me get my life back on track…. It just seemed like an amazing opportunity.”

Then came the spankings, she said. Fitzsimmons blocked her exit from a hotel room until she submitted to a beating, the woman testified. [Another] woman, 20, described a similar experience.”

Oh, dear. There are so many women who’re into spanking, and the guy has to try and live out his fantasies with vanilla girls who aren’t entirely willing. Silly, very silly.