Spanking in Movies, TV, and Books

I remember several references in "Bewitched". Samantha evidently had a thing for hairbrushes...Wilbur Smith has references to spankings in several of his books, but I dont remember any actual scenes. James Clavell has pretty detailed scenes in several of his books.

There are 2 spankings I can remember Smith describing, a short aborted one in The Sound of Thunder, and a fantastic one of a father spanking his 21 year old daughter in A Sparrow Falls.

Just in case you haven't seen a compilation of Hollywood spanking scenes there is a decent one here:

https://spankbang.com/38254/video/the+endless+spankings+of+classic+hollywood

Over time I have seen several references to Robert Jordan's 'Wheel of Time' series of books which I am currently reading and yes ... there are many, many references to spankings. The story is pretty good too if you are into a magical and epic story stretching over 13 very thick books!

What I just wanted people to know is that Amazon are serialising these books ... or at least some of them. Here in the U.K. the series starts on 19th November (2021) via Amazon Prime. I believe it is free to view for Prime customers.

I am definitely going to watch it - and will be fascinated by how many references there will be in the script to spankings, switchings etc. in this PC age. My guess will be none, but ya never know!

Dithering in what to say and stay on topic; there's so much I want to say in relation to what others are saying, but not saying.

On what I said previously; a pornographic story, to me, is not a story that mentions sex or anything sexual. It is where there is no underlying story. No character development. No story arc. Just sex, or where ~80% of the story is sex. The story I mentioned earlier had sex pertaining to the plot. No argument, the sex is sheer, pure XXX, but relevant.

Anyway, John Norman is somewhat hated. His Gor series is... well, it is what it is. That said, in one book, "Captive of Gor," focuses on a female lead character; Elinor (sic) Brinton. At one point, she is starting to come around to the Gorean way, and tries to engage with one of her captors whom she likes, but embarasses him because she is "only white silk." She fears for her life, judging by his expression. Instead, he then gives her a hand spanking (very unGorean, who have a thing for whips) for her efforts, publicly, with everyone laughing now at poor, humiliated, Elinor instead of her embarrassed intended.

The first 4 or 5 Gor books were decent sword and sorcery books with a little an SF twist. It was when he did Captive and seemed to become slightly obsessed with the concept of enslaved women that they went off the rails somewhat. Captive and Kajira were basically the same book with the names changed. Then again David and Leigh Eddings also did that with Belgarath the Sorceror and Polgara the Sorceress. Gor, has however, inspired a whole lifestyle culture of Goreans.

The early books in WoT didn't mention spanking a lot. There were references to kids being switched and the novices at the White Tower received that sort of punishment. It became more prevalent in later books. In fact, I think Knife of Dreams could be subtitled at 50 Shades of Wheel of Time or more descriptively Egwene Gets Spanked.

Well, true, but it seems everyone was dòing multiple book perspectives around that time. Anne McCaffrey did the same with her Pern series. She was also trying to make her books more mature for adult readers. Some of McCaffrey's books started alluding that the female lead could read the male lead's mind, especially after an argument, and intimated his thoughts were about spanking her. Which she was oddly compliant to doing, considering how toppy the female lead was.

Okay, I wasn't going to do this here, bur start a new thread, but what the hey. Dòes anybody else think the wheel of time or whatever other stories allude to but don't get "descriptive" by doing off-screen spankings and such, that such authors are just placating the masses in a topical sense?

I was told that McCaffrey was suggested to put more adult subject matter in her stories to get adults to read her material. Perhaps they did the same to other authors too?

I’m not at all sure about the McCaffrey stuff, she was the first woman to win a Hugo for fiction. She sold well and was highly regarded by both adult and YA readers. She was also very adamant that Pern was SF, not fantasy. I doubt she was pressured into doing anything.
The early WoT books mention corporal punishment, because it makes sense that’s how children and teens (which is what the Aes Sedai novices mostly are) would have been disciplined in a pre industrial society. While WoT is hinted at being set in a post apocalyptic world, it’s kind of medieval in terms of technology and society. The mention of spankings escalated later on, and has as been said here, that was quite possibly due to an author predilection. He was already a nest selling author with a hot series behind him. He was very friendly with his publisher, (Tor is often referred to as the house that WoT built), his wife was his editor. He was largely at the point of I write what I want write, overedit it at your own peril.

I've also read several of Jordan's WoT books and remember the spanking references. I don't have the whole collection.

McCaffrey was an odd duck, which probably isn't saying much. She had visions for her stories, and wrote them (beautifully), but she couldn't accept criticism that her vision was erred. I remember hearing how she faced off with Michael Whelan (my favorite SF cover art artists) because of his depictions of her "thread." She wanted it to look driving rain. He depicted it like floating tinsel. Some of his worst cover art was done forher books, like he was thinking "I don't have time for this nonsense!" And she wrote in side/snide comments in her books that Whelan is highly sought after, but he isn't all that.

I once met McCaffrey, but didn't realize it until later. I was reading one of her books on a flight, and she was seated next to me. She asked what I was reading, and intolerant this old busy body was interrupting my reading at one of the good parts, and simply closed the cover for her to read the title herself. Then she tried wheedling a comment out of me, by saying "Oh, she must be a young writer!" "naw, she's an old chick." And close the book so she can see her picture on the rear dust jacket, then resume my reading.

I didn't say McCaffrey was "pressured" into anything, I've read her publishers had "suggested" that she try writing more aduĺt content into her books because critics thought her writing style was very YA, and her publishers thought it might boost sales. Supposedly, she was strongly against such stuff, and yet insinuated mature subject matter in her T&T stories.
As far as her thoughts on what genre her stories were, I've never met a rock band that said of their own work that it was anything other than, "oh, it's new! It's totally new! It's a direction of Rock that has never been explored before!" Yet it sounds like the same old rock n roll. In other words, writers write. Others who study other's writings will categorize it as they like. Personally, I never saw the SF in her stories. It was more Fantasy if you ask me. She might have thought she had science and technology backing her ideas, but she only passing talked about it, more focused on the human emotion side of thìngs (which, hey, I liked. Who cares what title was put on the category of her books? As you pointed out, she was well read)