What makes a spanko?

True, much like many authors write under both male and female pseudonyms or as the opposite of what they really are because it suits the market they are targeting.

Ah, I tend to assume people are who and what they say they are. Perhaps because I am always very truthful

I would hesitate to think that the membership of a spanking related forum such as this is perforce related to the prevalence of the kink in wider society, because you need to be interested in both things to ship up here. Along with that I suspect that there is a higher proportion of non-playing spankos compared to playing ones on forums compared to the ratio in the wider population. This would be because the forum provides a way to express one's kink when one is in a situation where it may not be played out in practice.

I would like to think that there are as many women as men who share this kink, but maybe the average man is more likely to go in active search of a membership at this type of site than the average woman. Another contributing factor could be that more men than women use the internet in many parts of the world. And some men might be less cautious when it comes to attracting attention to themselves than some women.

I'm curious about how many of our members are active spankos, aside from having an interest. That definitely includes our authors.

I'm sad so say not active. All my stories are completely imaginary.

To the original point, I would have to say that galt probably has it right. To say it's genetic or innate would require one heckuva large leap over accepted views on innate behaviors in humans. Also to dismiss the question with a "that's just they way it is/ we are" implies that some things have no explanations rather than that all things do.......but just haven't been proven yet.

Perhaps those curious about this might want to look up some legitimate psychological articles on simple things like walking, or kissing and how even these seemingly "innate" things may well not be....or at least not entirely. Innate behavior is not simply explained through anecdotal evidence or hunches.

23&me has helped successfully link certain genes to many types of traits, and yet, despite some very solid evidence from twin studies that homosexuality seems to have a genetic component, even with the relatively high percentage for that versus something like a spanking fetish, no gene has yet been identified........which even I find astounding. Of all things, one would think that one would have been discovered by now based on how many people have submitted DNA and their data on proclivity.

I believe that what any individual finds erotic depends on subconscious premises and cannot depend on genes. Except for the widespread and "normal" state of affairs that most men wish to take the initiative and most men wish to surrender. That "normal state of affairs" is probably due to the nature of sexual physiology in males and females. Since men have a penis and women have a vagina it "comes naturally" that the man takes the initiative in the sex act and the woman surrenders.

In my case, I suspect that the reason I became a spanko in early childhood (I discovered my kink at the tender age of six) could be this:

Perhaps when I was an infant I slept in the same bedroom as my parents, and perhaps I witnessed my parents having sex, and being in a state of ignorance I might have leapt to the conclusion that my father was assaulting my mother. And as a result of that cognitive error I might have developed the subconscious premise that female surrender during sex equates with female submission. Then I might have tended to associate erotic feelings with the phenomenon of a man dominating a woman by means of giving her a spanking.

I have no evidence for the hypothesis above - but it seems eminently plausible. And it does not pesuppose the philosophically untenable phenomenon which is innate ideas.

kdpierre

One of the biggest problems KDP is that psychology has become very politicised in recent years, and as such the findings tend to err on the side of what the researcher wanted to find before they started the research.

Back in the 1930s politicians discovered that psychology was a very useful tool to control peoples thinking and behaviour. As one particularly sinister politician once said "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

I am engaged and intrigued by many of the answers above.
I empathise with Phil K's response.
I can only speak from my own perspective and observations over the last six decades.
I had no dominant mother, no abusive father, never slept in my parent's bedroom even as a newborn, however I was sent to public school at 9 years old where I was fascinated by the institution that was just what I had previously thought only existed in comic strips.
I hated the punishments and the regime of entrenched and expected bullying, yet still played at housemasters/headmasters & schoolboys with one or two of my fellows but was always fascinated by girl's bottoms and spanking girls.
Is it genetic? Things aren't passed on 100% to every generation, take eyes or hair colour, but I am aware that my son is also affected.