I was using the American Amazon site recently to make a purchase not available from the UK version, and while I was there curiosity led me to look up my own writing. Library of Spanking Fiction (LSF) have published a number of my short stories as a Kindle eBook under the title The Spanked Schoolgirl Anthology. It was nice to see that of those who chose to give it a rating (okay, there were only six of them!) all but one give it four or five stars. The other one gave it three stars and they were the only one to leave a comment. I quote:-
Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2020
The use of corporal punishment has disappeared from most schools. Too bad because the threat of physical punishment has resulted in trying to find an alternative solution to bad behavior by students. While I agree that punishment should produce some pain I totally disagree with the use of any switch that could produce welts that could cut into the skin. Too much have (sic) of the switch which exceeds normal punishment.
Right. Before I go any further I need to make some things clear. What I write is fantasy. Unlike the writer of the critique, I emphatically don’t believe in returning to an era when classrooms were regularly ‘managed’ by schoolteachers beating their charges. Thankfully, in the UK, it is a thing of the past. In the US it seems to be dwindling but still present in many states. Some of those have a policy of offering ‘swats’ as an alternative to suspension and I suppose, provided there is no coercion, I can see that this might be tolerable so long as everyone is in agreement – especially the recipient. A lot of what I write is based in imaginary British school settings, hence the cane is a frequent element (not really a switch but I guess that’s what he wasn’t happy with).
The reality is that whether your preferred instrument is a cane, belt (tawse), or wooden paddle, hitting someone across their bottom in order to punish is pretty likely to leave marks even when the recipient is fully clothed. I find it strange when people think it’s okay to use physical punishments but have no expectation of marking.
There are quite a few accounts easily found on the internet (mainly from news programmes from the USA) where people are complaining about punishments that have been administered where they don’t object to the idea of physical punishment as such, but object because of the resultant marking. I can understand people taking the view that corporal punishment in schools in the 21st century is inappropriate. I can understand, although I disagree, where people think corporal punishment should still be used and where a parent for example, has given permission for a school to use corporal punishment on their son/daughter. But then when the school has gone and done so, they seem to then decide object for a variety of reasons.
I’ve seen video clips where the primary objection was that the recipient was held down or that a female pupil was hit by a male member of staff, sometimes with another male acting as an official witness – those also seem like reasonable grounds for objecting even when the parent didn’t object to the idea of physical punishment in the first place. There’s one video where the parents had signed that they didn’t want their daughter to be paddled but she had been (in line with state law) for quite a trivial offence. Again that seems like grounds for a complaint but their actual complaint seemed to be that actually they weren’t opposed to corporal punishment for serious offences, but this had led to bruising. One girl who had been paddled made the comment on camera that the administrator had “made the swat hard on purpose.” Hmm, that’s kind of the idea isn’t it? One male who had been paddled complained that he still had some bruising a week later. That doesn’t really surprise me. Another parent complained that their child had been “left with bruising.” Another male who was paddled said he wasn’t bruised but it had stung for almost an hour. To me the really strange thing is that it is often parents running to the media that get their son/daughter thrust into the full glare of publicity about what they did wrong and the consequences they suffered – if that had been me, I would have preferred to get the punishment for a second time rather than having it splashed all over the press and media.
Quite a few recipients seem to be taken aback by the fact it has really hurt. You actually get the same thing on hundreds of YouTube videos where in a party atmosphere someone volunteers to be whacked and is then shocked to discover that it hurts.
Bizarre. By all means say you totally disagree with any corporal punishment but if you go along with it, that is what happens.
1 The person administering the punishment aims to make it hurt
2 It actually hurts
3 It leaves marks
That’s what it’s all about. Otherwise they could just make you wear a badge saying ‘I’ve been naughty.’
