Stories bordering abuse

Bear in mind too that this is the most open and non-judgmental site for free spanking stories, at least that I have ever come across, the only taboo being actual sex acts between children and adults. Well, apart from the requirement to write reasonably literate English and that the story has to have at least some spanking referred to within!

It is a very non judgemental site and most of the people on it are very non judgemental but you do get the odd paragon of virtue. Best say nothing more!

I find this an interesting and, perhaps, important discussion.

First of all I would like to point out that there is no reason to assume that people in general prefer their literature to be safe, cute, and unproblematic. One doesn't really have to turn to Hamlet; it suffices to look at the sales figures for books on mass murder, concentration camps, incest, rape, abduction, mental and physical abuse etc. Some of this may be due to our fascination with the macabre, but I think there is a more important reason: Our need to understand, as understanding is our only real hope of coping with these issues.

So why do people get so upset when they come across a spanking story that is dark and troubling, although much less so than most stories of concentration camps and mass murder? I can think of several reasons, but the most important seems to be a set of unconscious assumptions. Many readers seem to assume automatically that a spanking story is a sexual fantasy - that is written because the author finds it sexually arousing and posted because he or she wants to share their excitement with others. This may be true for the majority of spanking stories, but it is definitely not true for all stories on this sight.

So why would anyone like to write a spanking story that is not arousing? Again 'understanding' is the key term. Spanking is a baffling fetish, and I am sure I am not the only one who has found it deeply problematic. What does it mean that I actually like to beat women? What does it say about me, what does is predict about my future, how does it influence my chances of a successful lovelife? I definitely appreciate stories that discuss and illustrate such issues even if they are not sexually arousing, and I would have found it deeply disappointing if the largest collection of spanking stories anywhere refused to have them. We even have to face the fact that our fetish may lead to abuse. It's definitely an unsettling thought, but it would be stupid and naive to ignore it.

Although it wasn't said explicitly, it seems clear that the starting point of this discussion was Alan Barr's story "Teenage Licks: The Death Of Innocence". It is a dark and troublesome story, and in my opinion an outstanding one - one I really would have liked to have written myself. However, if it is read under the assumption that every spanking story is a sexual fantasy that is meant to arouse the reader, it turns into a monster - a deeply disturbing sign of sexual deviation. In my opinion, it is totally against the grain of the story to read it that way, and, in fact, I think it is only possible if one starts with a totally wrong set of preconceptions. In my eyes, the story is really a humanistic exploration of the nature of power, abuse, and manipulation. Sad, disturbing - and deeply moral.

Personal experience, turned around for therapeutic purposes, in my case.

No, I wasn't physically abused (though my child-self from ~40 years ago might have a different opinion). I was spanked when I deserved it, and so was my younger sister. Now, my sister and I couldn't be less alike. She is, and has always been, a classic "Type A" personality. Me, not so much. My spankings were typically the result of my curiosity getting the better of me, with unfortunate results. My sister's spankings were typically for willful misbehavior.
And my mother made a mistake. On more than one occasion, she poked fun at my crying after a spanking by pointing out that she spanked my sister longer and harder, and she didn't cry. That was humiliating. Probably not Mother's intent, but that was the effect.

With that knowledge, it should not be surprising that I write stories about girls being spanked long and hard enough to make sure they cry.

The bulk of my stories are about teenaged girls being spanked, despite the fact that parental spankings in my family pretty much stopped by the time we were 11-12 years old. By that age, I'd wised up and learned to avoid the behaviors that attracted spankings (in other words, I learned to stop for a moment and think about what I was about to do); my sister learned to hide her misbehavior better.

But I discovered the erotic appeal of spankings while still in junior high school (at the time, grades 7-9 in the USA, or roughly age 12-14). That was also the same time period in which I made the unfortunate discovery that girls could be much worse bullies than boys. Boy bullies would just punch you. Girl bullies would attack your sense of self-worth.

And with that knowledge, it should not be surprising that I write stories about teenaged girls getting what they have coming.

Writing about it is much more productive and much less harmful than doing it. I also fully acknowledge that the spankings in many of my stories go "beyond the pale", and would indeed be abuse in real life. I simply find it more interesting to describe a long spanking than a short one, in the same way it is more interesting to describe an hour-long lovemaking session than two-minutes of grunting followed by the man rolling over and falling asleep. Which is what so many of the spanking videos I discovered in my early Internet years felt like. Twenty minutes of some British schoolmarm wagging her head while lecturing a silent, 27-year-old, pigtailed schoolgirl ("Insolence! You are so insolent! And now your insolence is your undoing, you insolent young lady!") followed by six cane strokes dragged out over ten minutes, administered to the bum of the unflinching, utterly silent 27-year-old pigtailed schoolgirl. *yawn*

Now that's interesting. A 'get even' in fictional stories. I really like that response, RS. We have stories in the LSF that have comments such as, "Well, I hope there is a follow up where he/she gets his/her comeuppance." So, there you have it in a nutshell; the getting even.

For whatever it is worth, I am getting in late on this discussion. With regard to Alan's story, I really thought this was the most well written, brilliant story of something we would like to think could never happen but does. I hate that Alan was made to feel bad by the comments, and I apologize if I was one of those commenters.

We all have different things that appeal to us and things which offend us. There are probably some of you who like brussels sprouts, I am offended by even having them near my plate and feel terribly abused if I am asked to taste them. Literature is the same. Even though I might find a story to be over the top or even abusive, I will also try to find a reason for it. Normally there is one.

Maybe it was the overall plot that I disliked and not so much with the actual spanking and the humiliation with friends watching the spanking.

It's not so much about subject matter as it is about the context of spanking stories in general. Spanking stories are meant to titillate, but there is an obvious aspect of pain. In this sense, spanking stories are like comedy, in which the rule is "no one gets hurt." Often in comedy we drive pleasure from watching the protagonist step on the proverbial rake, or lay out all the rakes for others to step on, with the understanding that the rake has no chance to break the nose and make you bleed. It stings, we laugh, on to the next joke.

When something crosses the line into abuse, we're not in the aforementioned realm. Someone--albeit a fictional someone--is getting hurt. They aren't laughing about it later on. There is no "aw shucks, I won't sit for a week" moment. They're miserable and overall possibly worse off from the experience. The natural reaction is "am I supposed to be enjoying this? Why would you write this? I don't like this, it's mean."

That's totally fair in the spanko/comedic context. It's an inappropriate reaction in the dramatic context, because we all know that showing intense situations enhances the drama and reveals character. The more tragic, the better, in a sense.

We can't know the context of a story before we go in. Some people do get off from genuine pain and misery, and we have know way of knowing if that's the author's heart. It was DJ Black who I first saw write, "No fictional characters were harmed in the making of this story."

Though I have no desire to encourage a sadistic mindset, I think we should all remember that writing about harm is always different from harm. Censoring creativity on the other hand, can be intellectually harmful in even the most acute of situations.

I would like to offer Alan an apology.

I read your story, Alan and made a pretty nondescript comment, including the words 'disturbing', mainly because I didn't want to stand out from the crowd. Usually I am not afraid to have an opinion and voice it (as my frequent forum posts prove). But in this case, to have gone against the consensus would have taken bravery....and I guess I am just not brave!

The fact is, Alan, it turned me on. There, I've said it.

I was aroused by the fact that she was forcibly held down, bared and spanked. I thought it was a great story and I'm so glad I read it. I don't think being turned on by FICTIONAL violence makes me totally warped though..but if it does, so be it.

Mini
XxxxX