Crazy or what?

There's been quite a hysteria here in the U.S. in recent years about child porn. For this reason, many spanking story sites wouldn't accept stories involving anyone under the age of eighteen, even if the story was completely non-sexual.

Another site not mentioned here is the small membership-based (but free) Flaming Cheeks founded by Alex Birch. It's struggling a bit at present, but it concentrates on literate stories and comment, is civilised and a friendly community. The rules on what's admissable seem pretty much the same here and there. It's mostly M/F and F/F, but there have been a few other type stories.

To follow up what Februs posted:

Narrow mindedness is not only limited to vanilla people. I have noticed for many years that people who have a particular kink often are totally intolerant of others who may have a different preference.

For example, people who are into hardcore b/d & s/m look down on spankophiles and think that they are weak wanabes, too timid to go all out. And spankos think that the bdsm crowd is "sick."

There are even these prejudices among spankos. Those who like adult spanking consider anything involving minors wrong and call those people pedophiles. So you end up with this type of internecine warfare and name calling.

Frankly I think that all of these intolerant attitudes are silly. We all have different SSI's (what psychologists call Spealized Sexual Interests). If you like chocolate ice cream don't put down the people who like strawberry or, even worse, try to ban strawberry ice cream. There is a flavor for everyone. Or as the saying goes, "Different strokes for different folks."

I'd like to say a word in defense of Literotica. I posted non-spanking stories there, under a different name, for a number of years, and enjoyed the feedback immensely. Most readers were quite generous with their praise, which is the only reward we amateurs receive.

But of course Literotica is very strict with their underage policy. For example, I submitted a Victorian-era story in which an eleven-year old boy was taken into the lap of of an older woman who had been his wet nurse when he was an infant. She fondly caressed the boy and took his hand and placed it on her bosom as she described the many times he had nursed at her breast as a baby. The story was rejected, and only accepted when I amended the scene so that the woman gave him a motherly hug and nothing more.

In hindsight I could not blame Literotica, because pedophilia on the internet is such a hot-button issue; their policy is to avoid even the hint of it. Ironically, Literotica has sections for BDSM and Incest, with stories that are, to say the least, quite graphic.

This is a very interesting thread.

An example; some see stories of aunts spanking their young nephews as cosy and heartwarming tales of healthy domestic discipline, while others may view them as examples of promoting the systematic physical abuse of minors.

Clearly personal tastes have little to do with it.

What interests me is whether there is a line that can be drawn and if so, where?
And more to the point, what exactly is the legal threshold?

One of the things which never ceases to amaze me in regards to the various people that raise fierce objections to the content of certain spanking stories (or non-spanking stories for that matter) is that a great many of them seem to forget that it's fiction that's being discussed not the occurrence of real, actual events.

I'm also generally puzzled as to why many of those complaining can't simply choose to avoid those stories that they know they will object to rather than attempting to inflict their own personal reading likes and dislikes on all and sundry.

A story can cause offense because some people may see parallels in the story that are insulting, even though it is a fiction.
Often, when these stories cause offense to individuals, either directly or indirectly, this happens only during a story being read, so avoiding that story can be a bit tricky, although it's true that the Author can be avoided in future. So, what's the right course? Print everything or be selective? And if you choose selection, then what are the criteria?


What interests me is whether there is a line that can be drawn and if so, where?
And more to the point, what exactly is the legal threshold?

Line drawn by whom? And what 'legal threshold'? On top of which anything of a 'legal' nature is specific to a particular country or State. There are no absolutes.

As to people taking offence at something they've read that's simply impossible to avoid as who can say what people will take offence at? We do, however, provide as much information as possible to would-be readers to allow them to be selective in what they choose to read and we operate a policy of rejecting items which we collectively consider likely to offend the majority of people, a wholly subjective exercise of course, but it's the best that can be done by us as site admins. The rest is up to the reader to use the information we provide in terms of content icons and story synopses.

I'm sorry to ask the wrong questions but appreciate your answers. Thank you.

I'm sorry I've upset everybody.

Well, you can't do anything to "everybody," I'm pretty certain that there are numerous readers here who avoid the discussion boards and focus entirely on the stories--so they wouldn't care what's posted in this area of the Library at all.

I'm figuring that few people are actually "upset" with your approach, but there's obviously some disagreement with it.

Personally, I believe that you're expecting far too much if you're counting on a serious effort (beyond the considerable degree of categorization and description already in place) by anyone else to help you (as a reader) avoid reading stories that you'd find offensive based on your own individual values and experiences.

You have to take responsibility for your own reading, and AFAIC that sometimes means not personalizing items and events you read in particular stories. It's highly unlikely that the authors of spanking stories posted here have aimed them at yourself or any other specific potential reader, so IMHO it's rather pointless for you to take personal offense at them.

If a story starts to 'squick' you at some point, there's no requirement that you finish reading it.

Perhaps I'm overreacting a touch here, but some of your statements are quite similar to those of people who want to impose censorship across their society as a whole--notably that there's some inherent "right not to be offended" that overrides basic First Amendment freedoms.

That's a truly scary concept, but quite a few people seem to accept it... --C.K.