What Is A Spanking Story?

Janine, after my long winded post, your short and sweet one made sense to me. Thanks in advance to Gail and AustCarr for the use of their names.

It is always interesting to read the comments made on a story as there are often extreme reactions at both ends of the scale as to the severity and appropriateness of the content. This is why we all have our own opinion of what we like/dislike - approve/disapprove. I think the most common definition of a spanking story is where someone's bottom is spanked, whether by hand or implement, Over the knee or bent over something, over clothes or bare, in some way, shape or form. As we know here in the LSF we use many implements and positions, including humiliation as well, probably mostly as punishment, but many other situations too. Nothing is ever black or white, so why try to make them so? Does it matter? As long as we all have free will to read or write what we like, anything goes (within the reasonable limits set so ably for us by our admin team). Sometimes we need to be influenced by others, but we also have to be true to ourselves. Spanking is spanking and variety is the spice of life!

A few times I have commented that a certain story would stand nicely by itself even if it didn't happen to contain a spanking. Believe me, that was a compliment, not a gripe! So surely spanking doesn't always have to be a central theme of a spanking story. In fact, we have hundreds of "spanking" stories here in the LSF that don't even contain a single spanking!

So what is a spanking story? Not to dodge the question but... As always, that's in the eye of the beholder.

Well, I'd venture that a spanking doesn't have to actually be described within a given account for it to be considered a "spanking story," but from my perspective the spanking (whether actually occurring within the story or not) should be a key plot element in it. I've read, and even infrequently written, stories which involve spanking to some degree, yet wouldn't be classified as "spanking stories" by this standard.

Of course, this Library has a broader, more inclusive (plus arguably less subjective) interpretation of "spanking fiction," which works fine by me for its purposes.

I'd define spanking quite broadly as corporal punishment of the human buttocks via striking them repeatedly, whether by hand (palm), rigid implements (paddles, brushes, wooden spoons, rulers, etc.) and/or flexible or semiflexible ones (canes, switches, straps, belts, whips, crops, sandals, slippers, etc.), in any position that leaves them vulnerable to such correction.

Of and by themselves, I don't consider other forms of physical discipline (bondage, imprisonment, striking other parts of the body, cornertime, tickling, pinching, electrification, forced nudity, sexual teasing, etc.) to be spanking, although of course they could be included in a "spanking story," as long as it involved spanking as a key plot element. (Thighs are a separate body part from buttocks, from my point of view.)

What constitutes a literary work classified as featuring "No Spanking" by Library standards, however, that's an issue that sometimes leaves me baffled... --C.K.

True, CK. However there are stories in parts that have NO SPANKING until the end. One of our authors once wrote a series and explained that in the forum. It did lead up to spanking. I guess as long as it does lead up to the main topic of the LSF, then it's good to go.


That's true they are, but OTK spanking in many stories here include the back of the thighs. As long as the buttocks are smacked along with them it's a spanking as I see it. I believe gail's Equestrienne Leather story does a bit of this.

True, Sebastian. Many times those stories are well accepted, too. By the comments they receive that is.

As explained by former United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in a slightly different context, "I know it when I see it."

Last time we had a discussion of this kind, somebody came up with a distinction between "a spanking story" and "a story with a spanking" that I found quite useful. "A spanking story", in this terminology, is a story that revolves around spanking and which would simply cease to exist if the spanking element was taken out. "A story with a spanking" is a story which contains a spanking, but where the main theme is something else. A story of this kind would work equally well (at least for non-spankos) if the spanking was replaced by something with a similar emotional impact. There are stories of both kinds in the Library (as I think there should be) and also of all kinds of graduations between these two extremes.

I don't know how it is with others, but I often seem to get most aroused by spanking scenes in mainstream movies or books. They somehow seem more "real" than spanking scenes in spanking stories and spanking videos as they were not put there with the obvious intent of arousing me. Some "stories with a spanking" have a similar charm.

You're right, Alef. Spanking videos are horrible. The acting is horrible. Mainstream spanking in movies are more or less like McLintock. Didn't do anything for me. I will say this. I believe John Wayne was a spanko.

In one of his Rooster Cogburn movies Glen Campbell spanked a young girl with a small tree branch until Rooster told him to stop. In The Cowboys the young boys were drinking and carrying on. They were partially undressed when he said, "And while their pants are down I might administer a little parental guidance. In the Shootist he asks Mrs. Rogers where her son was after trying to sell his horse for $100.00. She says, "In the woodshed." Wayne then says, "How appropriate." Then there was McLintock with an over the knee. In She Wore A Yellow Ribbon he asks the young lieutenant who was being sarcastic, "When was the last time someone took down your pants and tanned your hide?"

Okay, I kind of deviated a bit here. LOL