Hairbrush Vs. Feather

I'm not sure why this popped in my head recently, but not too long ago I started thinking about a letter I saw in one of Penthouse's family of magazines -- either Forum or Variations, but it really doesn't matter.

The letter related the story of a young woman being subjected to a severe tickling. It's mentioned that she is extremely ticklish, so this falls into the category of worst possible nightmare. When they let up briefly, she begs her tormentors to stop, and even offers, "You could spank me instead." The leader says something along the lines of, "Spanking? How barbaric! This is much more civilized." And of course, the tickling resumes.

Now, here's my question. How bad would it have to be for someone to ask to be spanked to avoid being tickled? What would make our victim choose the hairbrush over the feather?

And of course, has this little musing of mine given any of you any inspiration?

Many believe feathers gently and strategically applied are sensuous instruments of foreplay. Of course those sensitive to tickling do not enjoy it and so that would make it torture and punishment. I have used feathers as afterplay in a story. No one has commented on it though.
IC

Did you hear about the girl who was alternately tickled and spanked? She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Why WOULDN'T she prefer a spanking to being tickled. I bet a high percentage of the people here would prefer the spanking to being tickled. In fact, I that, even if they're extremely ticklish, many here would prefer a spanking to NOT being tickled.

I'm pretty ticklish, delights my wife no end, but I'm not sure that I'd prefer the pain of a spanking over the tickling to be honest.

I think that both spanking and tickling feed into the same type of dominant/submissive feelings but tickling is milder unless the spanking is very light and the submissive is very ticklish. By the way I have never found feathers to be very effective tickling instruments. Fingers are much more effective.

Tickling can be fun but to me it does not tend to lead me toward anything but laughing whereas spanking gets me leading to all sorts of places that I will not mention here otherwise i would have to blush

CS

I recall reading of a similar scenario in a piece of victorian erotica. the spankee was either tickled or spanked and all they had to do to make the one stop was to ask for the other - Hobson's choice, as both were equally bad.

Tickling has been used both as a form of torture in the past - there were special devices made to secure the victim exposing typically the soles of the feet - or for pleasure, again there is a small part of the fetish community which gets its kicks from tickling rather than the more common pleasure we share.

It is odd ( but sadly typical) to see the reaction that spanking is essentially less reputable than tickling when used for either purpose

You reckon, opb? I rather like being disreputable....