"on the bare"

Why does this phrase, with 'bare' as a noun, often appear in spanking fiction? It annoys me. Bare what? I think it artificial and unnecessary. It would surely suffice if 'on the' were omitted and 'bare' used on its own or with 'naked' substituted, and all could be written to include a pronoun and place. The phrase does not encapsulate anything long or complex. Is it used in everyday speech anywhere except perhaps by readers of the genre and those otherwise iinvolved in the subject? I do not see it in the online edition of the OED.

I appreciate that language is not static but is this phrase a worthwhile development that should be kept and used?

On the bare, is like bend over, it is almost unheard of for a spanking story not to include this phrase. I actually prefer to use on the bare bottom myself, as bottom is a word worth including at least once every paragraph.

I'm not sure if that particular phrase shows up in my stories or not, but I respectfully fail to share your concern. Yes, I'm no purist. I'm perfectly willing to leave the defense of the English language to others.

One thing that my association with the library (and it's member-authors) has taught me is to avoid wordiness. When re-writing one of my drafts, I find no bigger thrill than replacing two convoluted sentences with one clear one. More commonly, I trim phrases, I substitute short words for long ones, I even tend to assign one-syllable names to my characters!

If "on the bare" is a shorthand for a longer description that any reader should be able to understand, then mark me down as "all for it". If simply saying "bare" conveys the exact same meaning, then "bare" would be my choice.

IMHO yes, it should, because it's commonly used in the spankophile community, especially the spanking-oriented reading and writing part of it (which includes us Library members) and to me it's a bit of a 'turn-on' to read (and write) that phrase as part of the descriptive dialogue.

Obviously, a word referring to the human buttocks (bottom, behind, seat, posterior, derriere, etc.) is implied after the word "bare," but AFAIK the expression is used almost exclusively in dealing with spanking so the description of the specific target area isn't always necessary: "She got it good and hard, right on the bare." "Young man, when I get you home you're getting paddled on the bare!" "Do you think she'll really spank us on the bare in front of your sisters?"

AFAIC the expression "on the bare" gives a bit of relief from overusing "bare bottom," which I'd opine is a highly exciting term but still can be repeated a bit too much in a spanking account.

"Show him (or her) that you really care, spank him (or her) soundly on the bare."

Well, I like it anyway ... --C.K.

First, when I see "on the bare" in a spanking story, I'm pretty sure it's not referring to, say, bare knuckles! Second, I have a hypothesis that you almost cannot overuse the words spanking, bottom, bare, bend over, etc. We enjoy writing and reading sentences with those words, the very essence of a spanking story. There is one author here whose stories contain the word spank, spanked, spanking in practically every sentence. And I enjoy those stories immensely.

"On the bare" alone is sort of like a fragmented or incomplete sentence in some cases. "On the bare bottom" is more a keen to what is about to happen. However, "On the bare" works in most stories because we all know what is going to be bared. CK in his examples shows us this. I don't think I've used it very ofter in my stories, if at all as I think about it now.

The idea of 'showing' instead of 'telling' in a story helps, too.

"She put him over her knee with his pants and underwear down and give it to him good, right on the bare."

I've seen this so many times with either gender as the spanker and spankee. Why was the word 'bottom' left out? Well, it doesn't matter to me because 'pants and underwear down' says it all. Have you ever read in a story or heard someone say, "Wow! I read a story by Crimson Kid about these women who got this guy good for calling a girl a bitch. I mean, they took him and gave it to him good on his bare ass."

Gave him what good on his bare ass? Of course we know "A Spanking." This is after all the Library of Spanking Fiction.

Should it be kept and used? Yes, most definitely. To me it's erotic.

B

I agree entirely. It's no different from a snooker commentator saying, "He's going for the blue." We don't need to ask, "Blue what?" We know it's the blue ball.

A woman holds up two dresses and asks, "Should I wear the red or the black?" Same thing. We simply use the adjective on its own and the noun is 'understood'.

Now, perhaps if I were to follow your example, more people might read my stories.
I expect it would help if I wrote the stories first!

Need you ask? It´s the little black number every time!

The correct answer of course is to say whichever you prefer! My own experience is if you say red she will say whats wrong with the black one and vice versa. Best to have no opinions at all then you can't be wrong.