Suspension of disbelief

Well, "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" ended up suggesting that all the events of the whole seven-season series were being written on walls by a patient in a mental institution (portrayed by the same actor who played Commander Sisko) in the 1950s.

"Star Trek: Voyager" relied heavily (too heavily IMHO) on situations wherein seemingly hopeless situations were rescued by people traveling backward in time and changing history so that they never occurred. (I don't mind that concept being used very sparingly, but AFAIC it was overdone in "Voyager" episodes, including the series finale.)

Sometimes you just write the story as an obvious fantasy and don't try to explain why such unreality is being described (dream, alternate reality, future society, etc.). I once wrote a story about a girls' private school wherein the male instructors were corporally punished by the headmistress on their naked buttocks, not only in front of their female pupils but even with the assistance and participation of a few of them--I could have supplied some background about an amazonian matriarchy having risen to power in some alternate universe, but I didn't bother because the fantasy was enough for me in that case. (It was written for publication, and the one and only writing guideline I'd been given was not to get overly involved in background material.)

Girls getting their bare bottoms paddled in a 21st-century public school? That's obviously unrealistic, but I'm figuring that if the characters and their behaviors are consistent and believable within that unreality it might still be an appealing story. In those kind of situations, I'd certainly notice the unrealistic aspects but I could suspend my disbelief and nonetheless enjoy the story anyway... --C.K.

Pain and heat are two different things. Pain results from the stimulation of nerve endings, but the flesh actually does get hot.

Spanking will typically result in a temporary inflammation, the cardinal signs of which are rubor (redness), tumor (swelling), calor (heat) and dolor (pain). The heat element is caused by local vasodilation.

Dr Febs

And on the plus side I would also note that "it was all a dream" was used very effectively in the last episode of the second Bob Newhart series.

Actually, that would imply that the entire Star Trek timeline was a delusional dream of Benny Russel's.

I prefer the idea that Russel was receiving prophetic visions of the future and using them for his stories without realizing their true nature. But either way, that was a very good episode.

Also, while we're on that subject: I don't usually fancy the idea of mixing fan fiction and spankophilia, but I just have the easiest time imagining Kira Nerys as a switch.

Well, AFAIC either interpretation is possible...

There was a great deal of religious influence in "Deep Space Nine," and it turned out that Benjamin Sisko's mother was one of the Bajoran gods (called 'prophets') temporarily assuming human form to give birth to him, so perhaps Benny Russell was receiving visions from the future sent by the 'prophets'--who later had their 'emissary' (Sisko) born in a physical form identical to Russell's.

IMHO Kira's mirror-universe counterpart, the Intendant, was considerably more sensuous than the original--I could easily envision her having been involved in some serious spanking activity... --C.K.

Okay, another go at a plausible reason for bare bottomed paddling in high schools - budget cuts.

In school suspension, staying after class - anything like that costs money because they need staff to supervise. Anything after the normal end of classes means leaving more lights on. Counseling troubled youths - that costs $$$$. Meanwhile tax revenue is down and everyone is trying to cut their budgets.

Result? A school that turns to the cheap shortcut of paddling. Since paddling will be the default punishment and it would be cruel (and possibly unusual) to have too many whacks they link escalation to the covering of the bottom. Say minor things get 3 whacks on the fully clothed bottom, escalating to 6, then resetting to three on underwear, and after that maxes out at 6 whacks then it's bare buns time.

And maybe the school administrators want to prove how stupid the state defined guidelines are, resulting in any offense resulting in the maximum. Something like:
"You were caught chewing gum in class, which is as minor as it gets, but then come the aggravating factors:
You didn't turn yourself in, and trying to conceal your offense adds one whack.
Your teacher had to stop teaching long enough to send you here and an offense that causes a disruption in class automatically gets bumped up a level.
You are currently here and not in class and that can be taken as attempting avoid class work, which bumps it up a level.
You keep trying to interrupt me, which adds a whack, and you're trying to explain your way out of it instead of accepting what's coming to you, which adds a whack. There's more, but we're already at the maximum of six on the bare. No, I don't like this any more than you do, but if we want those state funds we have to do this. Let's begin."
- that sort of thing. Alternatively the disciplinarian might be grinding a grudge against students - thus increasing it to the max.

Okay, that scenario doesn't exist in real life, but it is plausible enough that most readers would accept the premise.

Goodgulf

Paddling in high schools is not a belief problem, it does still exist and is legal in several states, although on the decline. And it is not really much of a leap to picture a large scale expansion under the "back to basics" banner. An occasional politician still makes headlines by advocating a return/expansion of paddling in the schools.

The bare bottom part of the equation is harder to make believable, but not impossible. Bare bottom paddling has been used on boys in some parochial and private schools also for some time, although not often commented on. Extending it to girls may be more difficult but I can envision it happening under the banner of "equal rights."

As I have stated before, pants-down (don't know if bare) OTK spankings happened in my elementary school in the 50's. You can count me as an eye (and ear) witness The spankings were vigorous and loud, but fairly brief. This was a public school in a large northern USA city.

Paddling also happened there, but I only saw it happen over the clothing. Of course, in gym class that meant over thin shorts.

My own children were subject to spanking/paddling at the Christian private school we sent them to. Surprisingly, I know almost nothing about their methods. I know at least one Religious school in the area that preferred to paddle on the bare, but they would ask parental permission first.