The Sweet Smell Of Spanking

Tonight, while packing for the big weekend event in St. Louis, it dawned on me that I have a LOT of stuff that smells good. No, this may have nothing to do with spanking, but it does involve another fetish of mine: scent. Long before I ever got into the spanking scene, I got hooked on things that made me smell good. This probably stemmed from the fact that I smoked like a chimney and needed all the help I could get when it came to making me smell like something more alluring than an ashtray. I bet if I think long and hard, I can remember some of the scents I used to love. I have been wearing perfume or cologne as long as I can remember. It probably started with something like Love's Baby Soft or Love's Fresh Lemon as a young teen. Then, when I got a little older, I loved the smell of Estee Lauder. There were few body sprays in those days, but Jean Nate` made a body splash that was to die for. It was very lemony and woke you up. Of course, most ladies used bath powder (loose powder that came in a decorative container and came with a big puff) back then. My mother kept a couple different ones on her dressing table. I used to love to watch her get ready to go out.

Anyway, fast forward to 2003, the year I got active in the spanking scene. Don't ask me how I knew, but I just sort of instinctively knew that smelling good would be a plus when going to parties. I thought the guys would appreciate a bottom who took the time to look and smell good. And I was right. For years, I spent as much time on selecting what scent I would wear as what panties I would wear. In 2008, I discovered the Bodycology line. I was on a trip to WalMart with Carol and we were looking for some nice body sprays or lotions for an upcoming party. Carol and I flipped over the Bodycology stuff. We went up and down the aisle sniffing everything. We loved it all and pronounced it the best stuff we'd ever used. The company that makes it touts it as "spa quality" and it certainly is that. From then on, no pre-party shopping trip was complete without a trip to WalMart to by some more stuff from Bodycology.

This is my current collection. It's dwindled a bit because I'm trying to use up what I have. I sold my older sister on this stuff, too and her collection is HUGE. I think she has everything. They don't make the body scrub any more, which is a shame. It's great for exfoliating. Now days, a spanking party or even just a play date always includes something that smells good. Even my deodorant and shaving cream have to smell good. Scent has become a full fledged fetish for me. Yes, I know I could go pricier, but I've never been one to believe that just because something is expensive it's somehow better. I understand that many of the higher priced products use essential oils (which are natural fragrances) but I'm not about that. I just need to smell good for a little bit. I don't need something that lasts all day. And I'm not looking for a "signature scent". You can tell I like variety. This is just the Bodycology stuff I have. I have a ton of other stuff.

Obviously, smelling good is important. It's more than just being courteous, though. For me, it's a fetish.

Beat Me In St. Louis

Next weekend, I will be going to St. Louis with friends. Normally, this time of year, a trip to the Gateway City would mean seeing my beloved St. Louis Cardinals on Opening Day. However, this trip is different. Next weekend, I'll be attending my very first Beat Me In St. Louis (obviously a play on "Meet Me In St. Louis", the old Judy Garland film). It's their 15th, but my first. I'm excited but also nervous. First of all, I won't know anyone there except the people I'm going with. Second of all, it's a hardcore BDSM event and I'm a simple spanko. I've been assured that other spankos will be there so that calms my fears a little. It's a hotel party and I have been attending those for years. Hopefully, I'll meet some fun people and get all the spanking I can tolerate for one weekend.

The theme is "Play Hard Leave A Legacy". I certainly intend to. I'm taking my laptop with me, so I will have updates throughout the weekend (just in case you're waiting with breathless anticipation). Wish me luck as this is my first junket away from my Chicago base.

Inked

There used to be a time, up until very recently in fact, when the word "tattoo" conjured up a plethora of negative thoughts. Nice people equated "body art" (as tattoos are now usually referred to) with evil, menacing people: biker gangs, people in prison, anti-social losers, and sometimes people in the military. Some people are synonymous with their tattoos. Richard Speck, the drifting loser who murdered eight student nurses in Chicago in July, 1966, was tripped up because the lone survivor of his night of murder remembered his tattoo--"Born To Raise Hell". Nasty business. Nice people just didn't sport ink. Fast forward to the present. It seems everyone has at least one tattoo these days. I have seen tramp stamps on soccer moms. Of course, any professional athlete worth is paycheck has armfuls of them. I have seen discreet ink on doctors and lawyers as well. Quite a few people that I work with have tattoos. They are not uncommon in these times and have become an acceptable form of self-expression. When I turned 40 in 2000, I began to contemplate getting a tattoo for the first time. Before that, the notion had been unthinkable. What did I need a tattoo for? Once I got seriously into the spanking scene, I began to see more and more people with tattoos. The more I saw of them, the more I wanted one of my own. But I didn't know the first thing about how to go about finding a reputable tattoo artist. My 27-year-old nephew, Sean, solved that dilemma for me. He has a full sleeve on his right arm and an almost full sleeve on his left. He told me "Aunt Cheryl, if you're serious about getting a tattoo, then I'm taking you to my guy." Now his tattoos aren't something I would want. He has aliens, skulls and killer clowns on his arms. He also has "Juggalo" (a reference to the Insane Clown Posse) on his stomach. I knew I wanted something aesthetically pleasing, that conveyed my love of music and also something that I didn't see on anyone else. So I did a Google search of musical notes and found the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. The notes looked awesome together. I knew my search was over. I had found what I wanted. All that remained was saving the money and finding a time when Chris, Sean's tattoo guy, would be available. On Wednesday, Sean informed me that he was going to be going on Sunday to get some more work done and offered to text Chris and ask him if he would consider doing mine the same day. Now tattoo artists are like any other professional. Their time is valuable. You can't assume that he will be free, much less willing. And he's by appointment only. You can't just walk in off the street and expect him to spend three hours on you. He needs to know in advance what he's up against. So Chris sent a text back telling Sean that he would be able to fit me in. It helped that I already knew what I wanted. I loaded the photo on a flash drive and Sunday afternoon, we headed over to the Big Top tattoo parlor for our tattoos. The place was very interesting. The man who owns it collects old circus posters and memorabilia. But I had a moment of panic because there were clowns everywhere and I have a clown phobia. I have hated them all of my life. When Chris took me downstairs to download the photo of the tattoo I wanted, we found that it wouldn't load on his computer. For whatever reason, it didn't download from my computer. Sean fixed that problem. His ex-girlfriend (with whom he's still on very good terms) lived nearby and he offered to go and download it on her computer. While he was gone, Chris got to work on some sketches he wanted to sh0w Sean. He was an excellent artist. As I watched him, I realized there was a lot more talent involved than I had at first thought. We made some small talk, but I saw how into his sketches he was so I decided not to bother him. When Sean returned, we got the picture downloaded and printed and I showed it to Chris. He asked me where I was planning on putting it. "On my ass," I told him. Well, right there was a problem. He explained that the image was flat, but my ass was round (don't I know it LOL). So he took out some paper and began to draw. He was mindful that this was my first tattoo and I didn't want to be there all day or spend a small fortune. Once he got the design he liked, he presented it to me for my approval. To be honest, it didn't look like much on paper. He must have seen my disappointment because he went on to say that it would look much better once he got it on my skin. Skin is a living medium; one that moves and changes with you. Well, there wasn't much left but to get down to it. He asked Sean to look the door in case someone decided to walk in off the street. I was mortified to learn that he didn't have a private room. He took every precaution to ensure that no one saw us. He motioned for me to take my jeans down. I've been in the spanking scene long enough to know this signal when I see it. The first thing he did was shave the area where the tattoo was going. He explained that this was necessary to keep from getting an infected hair, which might affect the way the tattoo healed and would also be monumentally painful. Then he sprayed something on it which helped the transfer stick. It had alcohol in it so it stung a little. I had to stand there with my pants down while it dried. Meanwhile, Sean is watching the whole thing. You might find it a bit yucky, but I actually felt comforted by his presence. When the transfer dried, there was nothing else to do but go for it. He had a massage table which he moved over to where his equipment was. Then he put a pillow on it and told me, which a grin, to "assume the position". Here I thought I was going to be comfortably lying down while I got my tattoo, but no, I had to bend over the table on my tip toes. I was extremely thankful that I had decided to wear a thong. If I hadn't, he would have seen everything in the position I was in. He dipped the needle in the ink and said "Last chance to chicken out." I bent over the table and said "Let's do it." Sean had warned me that it wouldn't tickle. Getting spanked with nasty, evil implements on a regular basis has come in handy more than once and this was one of those times. It did sting, I will admit. But something funny and amazing happened. I zoned out, the same as I would if I was getting a nice, rhythmic paddling. The endorphins flooded my body and I felt so peaceful and calm that I never once moved out of position. He did ask about the healing wounds from the previous week's funishment session. I told him what kind of scene I was in and he was cool with it. A kink friendly tattoo artist might not be such a novelty though. He told me when we were almost done. I really didn't want it to be over. But it soon was. He had me stand up and he put some ointment on it.He told me I could look at it in the mirror if I wanted to. It reminded me of all the times I had looked at my freshly spanked bottom. Then he covered it in a paper towel and some tape. He instructed me on how to take care of it while it healed. All in all, I was thrilled with the whole experience and with the result:

I wanted to make sure that the tattoo was out of the safe spanking zone. I think it may serve as a guide to the safe places to spank; keep it below the tattoo. So now I have my own identifying mark. Everyone who sees my bottom from now on will know it's mine from the tattoo. But I have no regrets. This is something to cross off the Bucket List (if I had one).

Also, on a personal note, I just passed my third blogoversary. It's hard to believe that I've been telling you folks my experiences and dreams for this long. Hopefully, I will be able to continue for many years to come.

The Fetish List

Those of us who congregate on Fetlife (that wonderfully kinky social networking site) all know at least one person with a ridiculously long fetish list. You know the kind I mean; the kind that gives you a writer's cramp scrolling through it. Many of the so-called "fetishes" listed in these "War And Peace"-sized lists have nothing whatsoever to do with kink. I'm talking about things like bacon (and believe me, I have a lot of friends who list bacon as a fetish so I'm in no way saying there's anything wrong with it), zombies chasing them, and other things that don't tell you anything about what they're into, but do say a lot about their attitude towards life in general.

I have a few non-kink fetishes listed, too. I list "The Young Ones" as a fetish, although it's really not. I loved the show back in the 80's and feel nostalgic for the characters (Mike, Ric, Neil and Vyvyan) but it's not a true fetish. I also list 60's and 70's music as a fetish. I love it, yes, but if you look at the normally accepted definition of a fetish, if it were a true fetish, I would have a real problem. I list a lot of things I enjoy but they aren't real fetishes. But most of my fetishes that I list do turn me on in some way.

I list "having my spanked bottom photographed" as a fetish. This was one I created because I didn't see it listed anywhere. I love to have my bottom photographed, whether spanked or not.

There was a time though, when just the thought of having my bare bottom photographed (much less looked at) would have mortified me. I was conditioned to hate it because it was big. Then I got into the spanking scene and discovered that big butts were desired and sought after. Huh, who knew? So for me, posting photos of my bottom on my profile, knowing others will see them, is a fetish because I like that thought a lot.

Another fetish I created is "getting cool comments on my photos". I love to get comments on my photos, especially from people I've played with. Let's face it, we're all a bit on the conceited side to think that anyone is even remotely interested in looking at our photos. But of course, the short answer is that people ARE interested. If they weren't, there would be no photo option and no need for the comment button. Seeing "This pic is awesome!" under one of your photos is an instant ego boost. It makes us feel desirable, at least to someone out there in the ether. However, I don't post photos for shock value. I know a lot of people do and then they take exception when someone makes a comment they don't like. Also, by posting intimate photos of yourself on a public forum, you risk the unwanted sexual comment. There's nothing worse to me than posting an innocent photo of me getting spanked and having some horny idiot make a comment like "I'd f***k that!" If a person posts photos of their genitals, then they should expect comments like that. But spanking photos should, in my opinion, provoke comments that are spanking related.

I also created a fetish called "big tall guys with big hard hands". This is truly a fetish for me. Since I'm a big girl, I love to play with guys who are bigger than I am. That's not to say that I haven't had satisfying spanking scenes with men who are smaller than I am. That happens a lot. But my ideal spanker is over 6'4". I used to get together with a guy who was 6'6" and I loved playing with him. I loved the thought that I fit over his knee comfortably. Another guy I get together with at parties and privately is 6'8". I think he might be even taller than that because he has to duck in the doorways of our party hotel. When I find a tall, well built guy in the scene, believe me, I'm all over it.
I also list public play at parties as a fetish. Again, this is the exhibitionist in me coming out. I've always been a bit of a show off, even in my vanilla life. Playing in public gives me a charge like nothing else. I love private play, too, but nothing is as much fun and speaks to who I am more than getting spanked with people watching. At Crimson Moon parties (and most other spanking parties) the hotel usually provides a banquet room or conference room for people to use. Most groups use these rooms for eating, socializing and, most importantly, playing.
This photo was taken at the October, 2007 Crimson Moon party. I'm being strapped with a London Tanner strap (though the name of the strap escapes me). The party room was full of people and I recall that most of them enjoyed seeing me strapped over my black lace panties.



Which brings me to another fetish--pretty panties. Before I got active in the spanking scene, panties served a practical purpose. I wore them because something had to go between my flesh and my outer clothing. I usually wore the packaged kind offered by Hane's Her Way or Fruit of the Loom. I never shelled out money for expensive panties. After all, who was going to see them besides me? When I got active in the spanking party scene, I knew instinctively that pretty panties were a must. No one had to tell me.I like to go with colors that are outside what you normally see (white, pink, black and red). Lace can be tricky because it's delicate and can tear easily. All it takes at a party is one overeager top to yank those expensive panties down and they become an expensive dust cloth. I've blogged about panties before and the importance of "wrapping the package". But some guys just aren't into panties. They might say "yeah those are nice but they're coming down now." Some guys love panties. They love to look at them, touch them and spank over them. A well chosen pair of panties can sometimes make or break a scene, and I'm speaking from experience here.

A fairly new fetish for me is having my temperature taken rectally. I understand that this activity isn't everyones' cup of kinky tea. I started noticing that it was turning up in spanking videos and not just by one company either, but by many well-known spanking video producers. I became very curious about this activity, but finding someone willing to do it proved challenging. Eventually, though, a top was found who was willing and I finally had my curiosity sated.I suppose this could be considered "branching out" because it isn't really spanking, although it IS spanking related, like figging or plugs. A lot can happen with your pants down and sometimes spanking is the least of it.

Cane marks is another fetish, for me, is very real. I love the feeling of those "tram lines" after a good, hard caning. Many times I've been disappointed because there were no marks and this was often after a caning most would consider severe. The truth is, I just don't mark like I used to. It takes a lot to put marks on me these days.

These marks were the result of not playing for five months and then playing very hard to make up for it. Some of the welts are bruised but that's mostly because the strokes were to the thighs, very sensitive territory on me. I love the look of a few well-placed cane welts. Those vicious, bloody caning pictures aren't for me. There's no way I would endure that.

Basically, everything on my fetish list is important to me in some ways. And almost all of them are scene-related. What's on your fetish list? Is it time to add to it or pare it down a bit? Whichever answer is relevant to you, the most important thing to remember is to have fun with it, but don't get carried away. Or you just might end up with a fetish like "if the zombies chase us, I'm tripping you."

Rating Classic Spanking Scenes

My last entry was one in which I opined on modern spanking scenes. I lamented that Hollywood usually gets it wrong these days. But there was a time when Hollywood got it right, and in some cases, very right. Tonight's entry is all about those classic scenes. There was a time in Hollywood's Golden Age when spanking a woman was considered par for the course, no one got upset over it and you certainly didn't see women's' groups picketing outside the gates of the major Hollywood studios. Usually, the way it worked in these films was there was usually something about the girl that wasn't quite right (usually her attitude) that needed to be corrected. Sometimes, the spanking would turn the girl into a suitable mate, sometimes not. But they all shared one thing: both the spanker and spankee were always reasonably attractive. The man was usually macho to some extent and the woman was almost always extremely feminine (unless it was one of those tomboys that needed taming). Please note that I'm rating only the spanking scene and not the film as a whole. There are other sites for that. This is a spanking bog and that's what I'm concerning myself with. So, dear readers, it's time to enter the Way Back Machine and go back to a time in Hollywood when men were men and women were spanked.

I'll give the name of the film, the names of the people involved and then give a small description of the scene followed by a photo. I'll give the film the number of stars I think it merits (between one and four). Instead of dredging through the myriad pages of stills to find decent ones, I'm using screen captures from my Cinema Swats DVD collection. Apologies if the quality of the photos is lacking.

"The Naughty Flirt" (1931) ***

Paul Page, Alice White

Silent film comedienne Alice White plays Kay Elliot, a young woman who falls for a man (Paul Page) who works in her father's law firm. She's quite a flirt, as the title suggests and he wants nothing to do with her. In the scene that precedes the spanking, we see him standing in a roomful of men, all of them laughing at him because she has done something to embarrass him. He goes and finds her (actually, she's right outside the door) and without a word, puts her over his knee and spanks her. White, ever the comedienne, plays the scene for laughs. When Page stands her back up, he tells her "There you go. You're just man crazy!". He storms off, leaving her rubbing her bottom.

I gave this film three stars because the build up was very nice, with the long-suffering Paul Page finally getting tired of Kay and giving her her just desserts. Alice White is adorable as the spoiled Kay Elliot. The spanking isn't particularly hard but we see all of it and we see his hand actually hitting her bottom (something Hollywood rarely gives us these days).

"The Footloose Heiress" (1937) ****

Craig Reynolds, Anne Sheridan

The lovely Anne Sheridan plays a spoiled socialite who makes plans to elope with a man her ad executive father disapproves of. When the match is unwittingly thwarted by a penniless hobo, nicely played by Craig Reynolds, the girl's father is so grateful he gives him a place to stay. He also encourages the man to spend time with his daughter. She loathes him from the beginning and makes plans to expose him for what she thinks he is. In reality, he's a college educated man (who ultimately writes a winning ad campaign for her father's agency). But he has enough he-man in him that he doesn't put up with anything from her. Before she can put her plan into action (at an ultra-ritzy party) he takes her by the wrist and marches her outside for a spanking, with a pack of onlookers trailing.

This film gets four stars from me because it's about as close to a perfect spanking scene as you're ever going to get in a mainstream film. Both leads are extremely attractive (and he looks great in a tux) and the spanking was certainly deserved. The spanking itself isn't really that hard, but then it doesn't take much to teach a lesson to a girl this spoiled. She's presumably never had a hand laid on her in her life. As with "The Naughty Flirt", whole spanking is shown, with no annoying cutaway shots.

"Love, Honor and Behave" (1938) ***1/2

Wayne Morris, Priscilla Lane

The early days of a young couple's married life are examined in this film. Priscilla Lane plays the bored housewife whose husband refuses to assert himself. Even his father picks on him for preferring tennis to football. She decides to make plans to see another man but when hubby finds out, there's a knock-down drag-out fight, during which they both end up with a black eye. But she gets something extra--a spanking while her family and in-laws watch through a french door. When they bust in, she demands to know why a man can't have any privacy in his own home. Obviously, the spanking hurts but she's thrilled that her man is showing a side of himself that he hadn't previously.This one gets three and a half stars, mostly because of the violence that precedes the spanking (he punches her in the eye but we don't see it) and because of a couple of cutaways, where the various witnesses discuss this state of affairs. The two leads have good chemistry and the build up is pretty good. All in all, a very good scene.

"Look For The Silver Lining" (1949) ***




Gordon MacRae, June Haver



This musical is a biopic of singer and dancer Marilyn Miller. In the scene in question, the two leads are arguing over whether or not she should take a part in a play being put on by Jerome Kern. During the argument, she slaps his face because she thinks he's insulted her. Whereupon he does the manly thing and takes her over his knee and paddles her until she promises to come to her senses and do the show.
This movie gets three stars from me. It's a great scene and the two leads are lovely to look at. MacRae is certainly handsome and has a beautiful baritone. But it's hard to take a man seriously in pajamas. Also the scene is interrupted by the appearance of the maid, whose eyes are as big as silver dollars. Her cries of "Excuse me, Mr. Carter!" take away from the scene for me. Physically, the spanking seems half hearted to me, but the dialogue during the spanking, where he holds his hand over her bottom pending her answer to his questions, is very good. The scene is perfectly framed and shot, which is a plus.




"Stagecoach Kid" (1949) ****



Tim Holt, Jeff Donnell

Cowboy star Tim Holt had a rather interesting Hollywood career. He spent part of his career making B-westerns at Republic Pictures and part of it working with A-list directors in movies like "The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre", "The Magnificent Ambersons" and "Stagecoach". He also made the very interesting cult film "Hitler's Children" (with screen brat Bonita Granville). In this film, he plays Dave Collins, a stagecoach driver with a load of gold to deliver. There's a young woman on board, Jesse, who father is taking her in the opposite direction from the man she loves and so she goes AWOL and disguises herself as a boy. It's a not-too-clever ruse and it doesn't fool Collins for long. In the spanking scene, she's walking off to find a stage to take her to her boyfriend. Holt is a fine rider and roper and we see both talents put to good use here. He ropes her like he would a stray calf, puts her over his knee and spanks the dust out of her jeans.
This spanking scene gets four stars from me for a number of reasons. First, I love Tim Holt. Second, almost never in the annals of Hollywood was a spanking more deserved than this. Jeff Donnell as Jesse has a voice that grates my nerves, she's annoying and whiny and there's just nothing endearing about her. The spanking takes place in the middle of the desert, where there are no people around for miles but, as Holt takes her over his knee, she cries "I'm gonna holler!" How lame is that? Physically, the spanking is pretty brisk, even though Holt keeps his gloves on. The locking down of her legs is something most of us bottoms can identify with. But it's beyond me how a man can look at that girl's bottom and not know it's a girl. We see the entire scene without cutaway shots.



"Captain Lightfoot" (1955) ****



Rock Hudson, Barbara Rush



Rock Hudson plays Michael Martin, an Irish rebel forced to turn highwayman in order to finance his rebellion. In the course of this, he is befriended by a man and taken under his wing. The man has a daughter, Aga, who hates him on sight. The lovely Barbara Rush plays a girl engaged in a rebellion of her own, one Martin is determined to put down himself. The girl's father is called away and puts him in charge. He becomes aware that Aga is spending time with a man of questionable character and he forbids her to see him. She laughs at him, calling him a "bogtrotter dressed as a gentleman". He doesn't take kindly to the insult and turns her over his knee for a hard spanking. When she says "You wouldn't dare!" he replies "A bogtrotter would dare!"

The spanking scene in "Captain Lightfoot" gets four stars from me because it's a perfect spanking scene. The buildup, beginning with Aga listening at the door to the conversation in which Martin says he will speak with her about her relationship with the unsuitable Captain Hood, to the argument, where she tells him it would be a pity to see him die so young (assuming that Captain Hood would challenge Our Hero to a duel) is priceless. Aga goes from haughty to humiliated in the time it takes Martin to get her over his knee. The spanking is surprisingly hard and Hudson looks like he's laying it on with gusto. I'm not a big fan of either of these actors, but I'm a huge fan of this scene. We see the whole thing, with only one or two cutaways, but the action is always close by and the cutaways don't really detract from the scene."

"Holiday For Lovers" (1961) **1/2

Gary Crosby, Carole Lynley

This movie centers on the romantic entanglements of two sisters, while the older one is working in South America. It's the relationship between the younger sister, played by the delightfully spankable Carole Lynley, and an American GI, played by Gary Crosby, that provides the spanking scene in question. Crosby plays Paul, a lonely Army private studying for the sergeant's exam who falls for the lovely Carole, even though she seems a bit young for him in my opinion. Somehow, he loses contact with her, but he's so smitten with her that he goes without food and sleep and blows the sergeancy to find her. When he does, he tells her that he wants to marry her, to which responds that she can't marry him because she has to have more education and doesn't want to give up water skiing, the only thing, admittedly, that she's really good at. On being rejected, he takes her over his knee and spanks her.

This is my least favorite spanking scene of the films I'm rating here. The delightfully spankable Carole Lynley deserved a much better scene than this. First, the positioning is a disaster. He puts her over his knee as though he's going to spank her left-handed, but spanks with his right hand anyway. This is terribly awkward, not to mention aesthetically displeasing. Second, the camera focuses on her facial reactions so we don't really see much of the spanking. Not that it's much of a spanking. The blows are obviously pulled and then, when it's over, he shakes his hand like her bottom hurt it. This is more along the lines of how most spanking scenes would go in films.

So there you have it. This is all I'm doing for tonight. I'll post another review some other time...when I have the patience for it.

Modern vs. Classic

For me (and many other spankos of my generation) my introduction to spanking as something exciting and titillating came via movies. There was no Internet in those days and no uncut and unedited films anywhere but the theater (at least until Home Box Office came along). And of course, only network television had series in those days. As I cut my teeth on movie spanking scenes, it should come as no surprise that I still like a good movie spanking. However, modern films offer us precious little compared to those "old standbys" from my youth--"Kiss Me Kate", "McLintock!", "Blue Hawaii" and others.

So tonight, I'm going to critique a few modern scenes. I will note when I haven't seen the entire movie. On some of them, I don't know anything beyond the two characters involved. But on most I've at least read a synapses of the plot. So here goes. First up, the movie I believe opened the floodgates."Secretary" (2002) delves into the ugly private lives of two people--Edward, a perfectionist lawyer (played by James Spader) and Lee, his very troubled secretary (well played by Maggie Gylenhall). In the spanking scene, I feel the scene is well set. Lee makes many typing errors and one day Edward calls her into his office. He asks her to bend over the desk and place her elbows flat, which she does. Then, he spanks her as she reads the error-laden letter aloud (and more than once). The spanking scene, with its build up, is very well done except for Spader's hand. As the spanking progresses, it looks more like he's doing some kind of martial arts than spanking a bottom. This movie also sends a negative message: only someone who's as psychologically damaged as Lee is would be interested in having a man spank her. I was a newbie in the spanking scene when this film came out and I was disappointed in how it portrayed us.

Next up, spanking as a diversionary tactic. British actor Clive Owen spanks a woman in a museum in "Shoot Em Up" (2007). I've already blogged about this film but I felt I need to include the scene here. Because both participants are standing, it's bad from a positioning standpoint. We never really see his hand strike her bottom. Aside from that, the movie is unbelievably, orgiastically violent. This is one of the movie's lighter moments.

Next, a British film that's so dark and depressing it makes "Secretary" look light and breezy. In "Fish Tank",(2009) Michael Fassbender (the oh so lovely Michael Fassbender) takes his girlfriend's bratty, foulmouthed daughter, Mia (well played by Katie Jarvis) over his knee and spanks her for insulting him. Unfortunately, he also sleeps with her so a creepy element comes into play. The scene is realistically brief and Mia's overreactions to the moderate spanks is adorable. Obviously, no one has ever done this before. I haven't seen the complete film but it looks like a fairly sordid film.

Another teenager who endures a spanking is Hailee Steinfeld in the Coen Brothers' remake of "True Grit" (2010). This is another film I have already blogged about but I felt it worth a mention. Matt Damon as the puffed-up Texas Ranger LaBouef takes the stubborn Mattie Ross over his knee and spanks her, then decides a switch would work better. I liked this scene, all in all and liked the film as a whole. It was duly reported that Miss Steinfeld wore padding and didn't feel a thing. But at least we can actually see him spanking her.

Now on to a television show. I have to admit that I have never watched "Weeds". It's not the kind of thing I would watch. But in the scene in question, Nancy (played by Mary Louise Parker) is taken over the knee of (I guess) a guy she's doing business with and has her dress pulled up for good measure. Now, Miss Parker is no ingenue. I first saw her over 20 years ago in "Fried Green Tomatoes" so it does my heart good to see an older lady in this position. Probably the nicest, most well-filmed spanking I've seen in many years, even if I don't like the show.

Next, a movie I know very little about. Jessica Alba has her bare bottom whipped with a belt by Casey Affleck in "The Killer Inside Me". Of course, all this whipping leads to sex. But we never actually see what's supposed to be happening. Rumor has it that a body double may have been used for the scene. Not a very good scene in my opinion. When I watch a spanking scene, I want to see the spanking, thank you.

Last, and probably least, the much maligned "A Dangerous Method" (2011). In this film from director David Cronenberg, the relationship between Sigmund Frued (Viggo Mortensen) and Carl Jung (the yummy Michael Fassbender) is explored via the study of one of Jung's patients, a woman named Sabine (played by Keira Knightley). Sabine is a nymphomaniac and also has issues stemming from beatings administered by her cruel father. Again, the spanker is Michael Fassbender. But unlike "Fish Tank", where the spanking of a bratty girl makes the scene enjoyable, there's no real build up here. Also the spanking is rather stylized. In another scene, she's tied to a bed while Fassbender uses a belt on her backside. However, we never actually see the blows land on her bottom (the same problem I had with the previous film) and there are also Ms. Knightley's ambivalent comments about filming the scenes.

All in all, not too bad for modern movies. I don't think Hollywood will ever again give us a spanking scene as delicious as the one in "Blue Hawaii", where the whole thing is seen and no tricks were pulled. I think modern actresses are less likely to agree to a scene like that (at least not without a lot of restrictions). Most have the same attitude as the very uptight Keira Knightley: I'll do it for art's sake, but it better not be real. This is a shame. I also think that most leading men would be hesitant to do a scene like that because it might reflect badly on them. When "True Grit" was released, I remember seeing interviews with Matt Damon where he makes sure to mention that he doesn't spank his kids, lest anyone think otherwise and his stock in Hollywood plummets. By the way, I deliberately left out the one-smacker in "The Descendants", in which Damon's pal, George Clooney, smacks the bottom of his teenage daughter once for taking badly about her mother while she lays in a coma. Like a lot of modern scenes, you don't actually see his hand connect with her bottom. It's like modern directors think we won't notice that we've been ripped off. I was especially disappointed in Cronenberg for the completely faked scenes in "A Dangerous Method". I always thought him a tough and uncompromising filmmaker. A guy who can film a scene like the tragic ending in "The Fly" is too scared to show an actual spanking in one of his films. Maybe he has mellowed with age. At any rate, modern tastes will dictate what kinds of movies will get made. So even when Hollywood does give us a spanking scene, expect it to be within the context of modern times--either darkly vicious, leeringly sexual, or completely fake.

They Made Me A Spanko

The photo that sits atop this entry is real. It has not been Photoshopped or doctored in any way. How do I know this with such certainty? I was present when it was taken. The man holding the paddle was my Biology teacher, Mr. Stevenor. The boy he's paddling is named Mark (I had behind the wheel with him the previous year). This is a real paddling. It was photographed surreptitiously by a kid in my class who happened to be on the yearbook staff. The photo was taken without a flash, probably using high speed film. This grainy photo actually did appear in the yearbook in 1977. Let me set the stage for you. Mr. Stevenor was a rather old-fashioned guy as you can no doubt guess from his greased back hair. Not many teachers paddled at PHS, but he did. The paddle he's using is actually a hall pass, which you had to have in your possession (be carrying) if you were out of your room for any reason (except when you had a call slip to go see the dean). No, Mr. S. never paddled me. He didn't paddle girls. He gave girls detention. I use this photo to illustrate a point--corporal punishment was still prevalent in the 70's. People can say it was dying out and falling into disuse if they want to, but anyone who says that wasn't there. Granted, here in Illinois, there weren't many high schools that paddled. If you look at the photo closely, you can see that Mark is bigger than the teacher. And that's the problem. By the time a kid reaches high school age, they are less likely to just go submissively to their punishment. Most, if not all, resent being treated this way when they want to be treated like young adults. The sin that young Mark committed is lost to my memory. But his protest isn't. He was decidedly against being paddled. He didn't want to be treated like a child. Mr. Stevenor's reply? "Act your age and not your shoe size, young man, and you won't get paddled."

Now I touched on this in yesterday's entry, but I have given it more thought. Maybe, just maybe, all of the spanking I witnessed growing up did something to me. Maybe it was environment and not genetics that made me a spanko. I always said it was genetics because my twin was one, too. But maybe both of us got our minds warped by the constant, steady stream of corporal punishment in our lives. Except for a handful of times when I thought the spanking was either undeserved or overdone, I have no bitterness about the way I was treated. There were kids who were treated far worse than I was at home. You knew who the abused kids were. They were the ones who came to school with black eyes and fat lips. The kids who wore long sleeves even in warm weather to hide whatever was being done to them. I don't class a spanking given as discipline as abuse. Abuse happens when the line gets crossed. My father used to say that God gave kids nice padded bottoms for a reason--so that when you needed to make a point, you had a place to make it. I knew kids, even in high school, who could have stood a little bit of no-nonsense discipline. Take this scene from "Class Of 1999":

For people who haven't seen this film, it's sort of got a cult following. The film is set in the not-too-distant future, where teenage gangs have terrorized and taken over the schools in large, urban cities. One school decides to hire robots to handle the kids. The History teacher, Mr. Hardin, is a former military robot. One day, a fight breaks out in his class between two rival gang members. Mr. Hardin has a number of options available to him and they flash on the screen as he's deciding what to do. He decides to use corporal punishment. He hauls the boys apart (and I'm very sure these punks are stunned that this little old man has the strength to do that) and pulls them to the front of the class. Once there, he sits on his desk and takes each boy across his knee for a hard spanking, delivered as only a robot can. My sister and I were both impressed with this scene. Now, I'm quite sure those boys thought themselves big men. I'm sure they spent a lot of time bragging about the fights they'd been in and the old people they had mugged. This was a demonstration for the rest of the class. Those boys didn't look so big in that moment when they were squirming under the hand of the new teacher. When he's done with the punishments, Mr. Hardin straightens his tie and asks "Anyone else?" He gets the response he wanted---each desk is placed back in a neat row and the students sit up straight in rapt attention. When I was in school, the teachers who weren't afraid to show the kids that they were in charge and that they meant business were the ones who won our cooperation and respect. There were probably a few exceptions to this, but I'm saying generally speaking corporal punishment got results.
I guess I took it for granted that if I decided to break the rules I would find myself face down getting my bottom spanked. This was both at home and at school. I was a very respectful child, respectful to authority and quite happy to let the adults be in charge. I had enough insight to know that my friend, Robyn (whom I discussed yesterday) was a spoiled brat. A teenage boy had finally had the courage to do what her father didn't and discipline her. It probably wasn't his place, but someone had to do it. I could picture her at home, begging her dad to fire the guy. But he didn't.

Maybe it's because I'm 51 now and feeling a bit old that I've been doing a lot of reminiscing. All that walking down Memory Lane has also caused me to think long and hard about where my spanking kink might come from. I spent a number of years shrugging off the question and saying "Who cares?" when I bothered to answer it at all. Now though, I really do wonder. I wonder if I spend several weekends a year at parties getting spanked, strapped, paddled and caned because I saw and experienced so much of that firsthand? When I got older, I tried to get my boyfriends to spank me, with no real success. I didn't spend much time thinking about sex. But I spent A LOT of time thinking about spanking. I knew I was different. I knew I was weird. I think, in some instances, kids can be much more perceptive than adults. I'm sure they sensed that there was something not quite right about me. My mother used to warn me that I was far too bright for my own good. I had a keen mind and I was always thinking. And when I wasn't thinking, I was writing. I have been writing my thoughts down, in one form or another, since I was old enough to hold a pencil and form words. And I've been doing it pretty much nonstop. I wrote diaries, in which I tried to sort out my feelings (when I was old enough to self-analyze). I wrote stories when I was much younger in which the girl (sometimes a boy) would get spanked. I wasn't sophisticated enough to know that my burgeoning feelings were sexual. I just knew I got a thrill out of spanking and, in those days, it was usually someone else's more than my own. I began to read books that contained spankings (like "A High Wind In Jamaica" or "To Kill A Mockingbird"). I read a lot of Dickens, in which boys got the cane, usually unfairly. And I read and fell in love with Twain's "Tom Sawyer" and the lovable rascal who was the hero of the story. So even at a young age my spanking kink informed the choices I made on what to read, what to write and also how to behave. So if you were to ask me right this very minute if environment or genetics made me a spanko, I guess I would have to say it was definitely environment in my case. I'm pretty sure all of my relatives are fairly vanilla. But it's not something I'm going to ask them. Frankly, it's none of my business. I've had a hard enough time unravelling my own kink, let alone someone else's.

So I apologize if the last half dozen entries have missed the mark. I've spent an awful lot of time thinking about the past and it's sort of rubbing off on my blog entries. With no play dates or parties on the horizon, this is what I've been left with. Hopefully, that will soon change.