Nature or Nurture?

There has been much discussion as to whether an interest in spanking has anything to do with being spanked as a child or not. This discussion has been going on for quite a long time. The editor of MR. magazine, Mr. Shelton, made the following comments in 1962.

The two letters that follow are addressed to Mr Shelton, and deal with the subject of spankings. One is from a woman (B.L. of Calif) and the other from a man - J.L. of New Mexico. Both of these letters can be
found in the in the Author section of the Library under MR.

"Scholars who are interested in the genesis of adult interest in
spankings will find these two reports interesting because of one clear
point of contrast. J.L. attributes his desire for corporal punishment
to childhood experience, during which he was frequently chastised by
two older women in his family. B.L., on the contrary, reports that she
was never spanked as a child.

B.L.'s experience poses a challenge to those who like to theorize and
claim that childhood conditioning is the essential determinant for
adult interest in the paddle. We are not yet ready to attempt a
generalization, but we do go this far: B.L.'s late interest, without
the experience of corporal punishment as a child is by no means
unique. Enough material now exists in our files to convince us that
factors in addition to the physical experiences of childhood
must be taken into account in any effort to explain the attraction of
'punishment' to some adults.

In any case, our thanks are due to both our contributors, who have
taken the time and effort necessary to detail their backgrounds and
points of view."

I've had discussions with many people with an interest in spanking. I'd say they were pretty evenly divided those who were frequently spanked, and those who were never spanked and/or received at most an occasional swat. Even among those who were spanked, there were those who doubted it had any real influence (though who knows?). Among my (presumably) vanilla acquaintances, there are those who were spanked and those who weren't. Whatever role that experience has in developing a person's interest, it must work in concert with something else.

In my case it was definitely nature. I never got spanked in my childhood - I was the only kid on my street who didn't. I was also the only kid on my street who WANTED it. I could have gotten the paddle in school quite easily if I had provoked the administration - my problem was that in my entire school history I never had a female principal/vice principal. I had zero desire to get it from a man.

In a few weeks, I will post a semi-biographical account of (1) missing out on the chance to witness the one-time spanking of female twin neighbors;
(2) attempting to provoke a rookie female teacher into paddling me; and
(3) contemplating asking my seventeen year-old female babysitter for one. But the honest truth was I couldn't BUY a spanking.

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.

Thanks, tiptopper for posting this.

In my case as I look back I would say it was because of all the spankings in our house, I think i got it about every third day from my grandmother or someone else, and I saw my brothers and sisters get it for even minor things. I think even today I have my feelings of having guilt until I get spanked to erase it. I know what and why I feel that way but nothing I have done and I have done some things, get rid of the feelings.

My wife says we who are spankees are not perverts just different. I tell her that means I and my fellow spankees are smarter then the average person, but for some reason she does not agree on that point, which of course makes the point true because one would only see the point if they were one of the smart ones. Anyway.....

I have been entranced by spankings for as long as I can remember, but I didn't understand what the feeling were that it generated until much later. I can only remember getting spanked once as a child, and it was a terrifying experience even though I probably only got about 3-5 spanks from an open hand.


I agree with Canadianspankee that we are smarter than the average person. This library alone is evidence of that.

I'm not sure about that. I think that people who write and critique fiction are generally smarter than the average person. Not sure if the spanking thing is relevant. It might be; that would be an interesting study.

I think anybody of my generation was spanked regularly at home, and as far as school was concerned, it was open season for the teachers, who could get away with practically anything, never mind the formalised canings. It certainly left a mark (no pun intended!) on my psyche, and writing for the KLSF has helped me get a lot of it out of my system. Although all my efforts are fiction, I'm able to bring in things that actually happened to me when I was a boy.

SNM, you're right to point out that there is some likely selection in the population. It's probably true that my funnel is narrowed to those who write and create fiction. For the spankos I've come to know, it's almost certainly true that they are at least avid readers, so they are therefore another selected population.

That being said and despite all disclaimers, my unscientific sense is that the average spanko is far smarter than the average person. It seems to me they possess far more facts and can process them much more robustly. I am taking the "average person" sample to mean primarily people I've worked with and secondarily, the people I meet in commerce and in "the world." I can go long stretches of time without noting an impressive mind in that venue, but that is never so in getting to know my fellow spankos.

I would love to see a truly scientific comparison/constrast of the IQ scatter between groups, but that would be an undertaking fraught with a massive degree of population issues.

Imagine what that says about us far-above-average spankos!

Yes, regular corporal punishment made me the man I am today!!!!