Where it all began?

Ah, the old and favored question.

Like many here, I was fascinated early on, looked at comics, read stories, and surreptitiously checked the dictionary. It does seem to be brought on by a culture that enshrouds in embarrassment certain aspects of our lives (bottoms, sexuality, bottoms, etc [did I mention bottoms?]) and then brazenly breaches its own boundaries in certain situations. I've not read an anthropological study on the phenomenon of fetishes, but I imagine such a thing exists for those eager enough to seek it out.

I was one of those who was spanked as a child though rarely. I was also witness to several. Neither of these did I much like. It was when I was alone with other children and the subject came up, or the game was suggested that I was able to indulge my fetish (not realizing, of course, what it was at the time.)

It's still something I have trouble talking about in real life, though my girl friend and I indulge. I couldn't talk to my parents about it certainly.

-LK

Gosh no, some things are def private!!

Well done on the amount of 'bottoms' you managed in that post too

Personally, I blame exposure to the profusion of slipperings depicted in the Beano comic for turning me into a perve at a very early age. Well that's my excuse anyway and I'm sticking to it...

The Dandy wasn't far behind. The best one was when Dirty Dick got the slipper from his mum one week!

I bought an old Dandy annual when I organised a munch, it was very interesting All the comics (and Enid Blyton books that I grew up reading) have been made politically correct these days

I wonder when the very last caning happened in the Dandy?

Last time I read a Dandy was about ten years ago. It had certainly gone downhill since my childhood. Winker Watson, Brassneck, Big Head and Thick Head, Jammy Mr Sammy where were they all? I remember one of my favourites was Ali ha ha and the 40 thieves. The 40 thieves all had daft names like Mustapha Phag! Of course Mustapha Phag usually had about 15 ciggies going at once. I know it's not politically correct and I am not totally against some political correctness. Time has moved on you can't have Rupert visiting Coon Island like he did in one of the war time annuals I had as a child but how can you make William, Billy Bunter or Enid Blytons books politically correct, it is just a nonsense.

The nice thing about Enid Blyton books is they had lots of spankings in them or at least lots of threats of spanking! I remember one Enid Blyton story about a boy who kept on forgetting his handkerchief despite warnings from the schoolmistress that she would spank him if he forgot again. It had me on the edge of my seat I can tell you but sadly I think he escaped the ultimate penalty but I remember being thrilled with it and reading it till it fell apart or my mother gave it to the jumble sale. Someone should have written an alternative ending for spankophiles where she gives him a smacked bottom!! That is what I would have wanted in his position anyway!

Recently I found some audio versions of Enid Byton's books - sometimes different versions of the same story. There was one version of the first famous five book that is the original one and that was more PC - as in not calling George's parents all that poor just because they only owned a single house and a farm that they rented and not enough for George to go to a proper school.

Enid Byton's books capture the feeling of those past days. Yes spankings happened, but they weren't something that happened every day.

Goodgulf

For me it started at an early age. I have no idea why, beyond an occasional swat (and I could count those on the fingers of one hand) my parents never spanked me and I was too well behaved to get it at school, although it was permitted back then. For as long as I can remember it held a fascination for me and always has.
As an aside the censorship of the Enid Blyton books (not just the removal of all corporal punishment references, but the altering of the golliwogs to goblins and the changing of the names in the Faraway Tree books. Fanny is now Frannie, Bessie is Beth I think and Dick became Rick) scares the crap out of me. How long before someone in the jack booted sook brigade decides that Dickens is too depressing or Shakespeare too dirty?

I recall being ill as a child and as my mother had to work my tonsillitis and I were packed off to my Grandmother's for the day. She fetched a box of books and toys she had saved from my mother's childhood to keep me occupied, and in there was "Noddy Goes To School". I remember being enthralled by the slipper hanging on the wall of the classroom, and at one point a naughty student is told to "fetch the slipper" and they hesitate, so Noddy (trying to be obliging and not realising what it symbolises) says "I'll fetch it for you miss!" I don't remember what happens in the rest of the book, but the first chapter was well-thumbed.