The Library of Spanking Fiction: Wellred Weekly


Wellred Weekly
Volume 1, Number 6 : March 23, 2012
 
Articles
Items of interest regarding all things spanking

The Iconic Woodshed
by js_anon

I recently wrote a story about kids being 'taken to the woodshed' for spankings, but while I was writing it I realized that many readers might be baffled about what a woodshed really was, and why it would be evocative of spankings. I don't think the phrase 'taken to the woodshed' is used at all in Britain, and it doesn't even seem common in Canada, although Americanisms often cross the border.

I should explain that my story was entirely fiction. I was never spanked in a woodshed and never knew anyone who was. A quick Google search reveals that some people have been, but it's not a very common experience, and 'woodshed' has other connotations, as well - especially for musicians, who may have practiced in a woodshed so that they need not worry about the volume of their efforts. For the same reason, spankings might be relegated to a private place where both the application and the resulting cries would not be seen and only distantly heard.

A woodshed was once common in rural areas because wood storage took up a lot of space, created dirt and dust, and was therefore often relegated to a small structure outside the home. Wood for fires and cooking stoves was the norm in rural areas in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and lots of wood was needed. A 'cord' of wood was the usual measure, but a cord of wood measures 4 ft. by 4 ft. by 8 ft., too much to store near the fireplace or kitchen. Hence, a special woodshed, far enough away from the house so as not to be a fire hazard.

The real question is: why does this phrase still resonate so powerfully for many Americans who never had any such experience? It's still in common use today. Sports writers, especially, seem prone to speak of a team being taken to the woodshed. But, then sports writers also say that a team 'got spanked' when it loses badly. Politicians who lose key elections are also sometimes said to have been taken to the woodshed; in those cases, we could all wish the reference was literal, not figurative.

I do not recall when and where I first read or heard about some kid being taken to the woodshed. I do remember reading the Penrod stories by Booth Tarkington, an author likely to be unknown to readers today but very popular in my father's era, and therefore recommended to me by him. Penrod, age 11, (and his friend, Sam) must have lived in a small town in Indiana, since that's where Tarkington came from; Penrod clearly is, to some extent, a childhood reminiscence. I have not read these stories for half a century, but my recollection is that there was a woodshed in them, out back of the house, where Penrod was occasionally taken for correction. That recollection just caused me to look up and and find this passage that long ago embedded itself in my memory:
"The sun was setting behind the back fence (though at a considerable distance) as Penrod Schofield approached that fence and looked thoughtfully up at the top of it, apparently having in mind some purpose to climb up and sit there. Debating this, he passed his fingers gently up and down the backs of his legs; and then something seemed to decide him not to sit anywhere."
My memory is not entirely reliable these days, but (like so many of us), anything I ever read referring to spanking sticks in my mind forever, so, when I read that passage, more than half a century ago, it stuck, and it's still there. It conjured up a picture of an eleven-year-old boy who had experienced a session in the woodshed. If I had more time to do research, I bet I would find an actual woodshed in these stories. Or in some other story of rural America. It was a cliché.

A quick glance around the internet will bring up quite a few references to 'the woodshed' but the best one is probably in the discussion at the Spanking Art site. Its assertions ring true to me: that the woodshed was reserved for spanking more severe than a short trip over the lap, which was more likely to occur 'on the spot' where the crime was committed. It also details that the woodshed was a masculine preserve where sons were spanked by dads, and where the spanking would probably be with a belt, branch, or slat, not by hand, possibly positioned over a saw horse or bench. So the word 'woodshed' conjured up an entire panoply of spanking detail: being hustled away forcibly, positioned, bottom bared, and then a session of belting or paddling that would evoke cries and begging loud enough to need the privacy of an outbuilding.

My best guess about the persistence of this phrase has to do with the fact that spanking, for the most part, is now in the past. People like us who are aroused by it are, at heart, a bit nostalgic for the time when it was a subject that could be discussed (and enjoyed) without lengthy disclaimers to the effect that it should not be practiced. We don't spank children ourselves (I hope), but we may have been spanked when we were children, and even if we were not spanked, we were just as obsessed with and aroused by the subject then as we are today. So the references we heard or read as children about 'a trip to the woodshed' are among those many recollections we all seem to retain, all our lives, of our own special subject.

There is also a masculinity to this scenario. Mothers did not take their daughter to the woodshed (although Brooke Shields is taken there, off camera, in Pretty Baby). They generally did not use a belt. Girls would most likely have been spanked in the bedroom by hand, or possibly a with hairbrush. But the woodshed was a place fathers went, to fetch wood, or to work on wood. Their sons might accompany them to help. Hence, the phrase, 'take to the woodshed' signified being dragged there for punishment, not sent there for a chore. Children might be 'sent' to their rooms, for spanking or just to cool off, but boys were 'taken' to the woodshed.

The woodshed also suggested a degree of privacy, and therefore probably a longer, harder spanking out of sight than might occur when family was near. It suggests a razor strop or belt kept there for the purpose of application to a boy's bottom. Today, It suggests an earlier, simpler, rural life when spankings were the common fate of kids who stepped out of line.

It probably means little if anything to the average reader, but for those of us who are secretly fascinated by every part of the spanking experience, 'taken to the woodshed' is an iconic phrase, something that makes us sit up and listen any time we hear it.
 
20 comments:
DannySwottem5 said...
Fabulous article about a phenomenon that really does belong to the good old US of A . J S Anon is bang on the money with the observation regarding the UK because when I was just a nipper I don`t recall any of my friends or kids I knew at school being "taken to the woodshed ." Well done.
23 March 2012 00:50
bendover said...
A great article JS_A. I do remember one of my uncles taking my two cousins on a trip to the shed. Well done indeed.

B
23 March 2012 00:52
thepreacherswife said...
There is a story about Laura Ingalls Wilder's grandfather in Little House in The Big Woods (Chapter 5) in which grandpa and his two brothers violated the Sabbath:

"But when the sun went down and the Sabbath day was over, their father took them out to the woodshed and tanned their jackets, first James, then George, then Grandpa."
23 March 2012 03:20
catmama said...
Wonderful article. Sometimes a barn substituted when no woodshed was available.
23 March 2012 03:55
Alef said...
There are lots of woodsheds in Scandinavia, but no similar expression as far as I know. But, as catmama says, sometimes a barn was a good substitute.... Great article!
23 March 2012 15:15
islandcarol said...
I had not idea, JS, that there was such a rich history around the woodshed.
There were no woodsheds in the city, but there were plenty of spankings.
I do not know when I first heard the phrase, perhaps college because it was a rural area.
I enjoyed your article.
.
23 March 2012 22:16
Sebastian said...
Interesting article on the woodsheds that was used for serious punishment by the father to their sons and at times, their daughters. In my past, there were no woodsheds so I got to know them through stories.
24 March 2012 03:33
drkeate said...
Here in Britain I never came across the term until the Internet. But it has a great air of threat & ultimate sanction about it, & also masculine bonding as you say. Didn't Nixon imply he took his daughters to the woodshed in the Oliver Stone film?
24 March 2012 08:08
TomHobbes said...
The phrase also has a common variant: "taken out behind the woodshed." In fact, that may be more historically accurate since most woodsheds are open on the sides so the wood will dry for use in the winter. We do have a woodshed since we live in the north woods of USA and outside town in the country. The phrase now is also heard when a politician is upstaged or undercut by an assistant such as "The President took him out to the woodshed for that. . . . " I think the primary idea was privacy and space since it was usually father and son out there for a serious punishment. I grew up in the city and when I was older went down to the basement for a serious spanking. My mother, always my best in house attorney when I was in trouble, usually took a long walk when I was sent down to the basement for a lesson with the strap. And yes, we do. Use our woodshed for the purpose here discussed.
25 March 2012 00:01
PinkAngel said...
Great article! We have a woodshed but have never used it for that purpose... yet lol.
25 March 2012 19:21
barretthunter said...
I think most Brits would guess what a woodshed was (the title is hardly opaque) but wouldn't associate it with spanking.

I'd suggest another reason for the phrase's survival might be that it evokes a rural past Americans love to evoke - log cabin, frontier, paddlesteamers...

Apart from wishing to defend politicians who lose elections - losing an election is not a sign of being wrong or an unpleasant person and not all politicians are dishonest or mean - I find the idea of spanking Gordon Brown or Newt Gingrich downright repulsive.
26 March 2012 16:05
KJM said...
Great article. No woodshed in my past, I learned the expression from literature and I vaguely record that it wasn’t spanking literature.
27 March 2012 19:39
canadianspankee said...
My parents often used the threat about taking us out to the woodshed even though we lived in an urban setting most ot my time at home. I have read it in sports stories, have heard it used around child welfare offices (in a negative sense) and on occasion hear a parent today still mention it to their child.

Where I have lived in Canada, it is a phrase associated with punishment, and is used as a threat to try and make one behaved. If one sits and listens to some of the talk from their grandparents in speaking of their time as children the phrase is very common.

Today not too many people have access to a woodshed however I am sure the spankings continue, woodshed or not. Great article, thanks for bringing back the memories.
29 March 2012 04:17
yenz said...
A Swedish book for children, which has been shown on tv as a children's series, has an extremely naughty boy as its head character. Emil from Lönneberg is protected from his father's rage by being locked up in the woodshed until everything is quiet again. So there is no spanking in these stories.
15 April 2012 11:44
Michael said...
"Cowcatcher's Daughter", the lovely 1931 Mack Sennett short, has a reference to the woodshed in the original script. It was of course the daughter here who has earned herself a spanking from her father and she asked "Where do I get it, in the living room or the woodshed." In the finished film this became "the living room or the kitchen"; maybe they sounded more likely venues for a misbehaving young lady.

The reply though was the same in both versions "In the place where it will do the most good!"
21 April 2012 18:35
sixofthebest said...
In many countries around the world. not only naughty daughters, but many a wife, mother-in-law, grand-mothers, aunts, and nieces, were taken to the so called 'woodshed', to have their bare bottoms warmed, by a good spanking. But also governesses... maids, female cooks, and nannies, as well... in order for the master of the household to have a spanking good time, on their naked rear ends.
28 May 2012 14:57
Redskinluver said...
A fine piece on the history of the phrase "being taken to the woodshed", whether the spanking is actual or metaphorical.
Heard an announcer use it in a WWE match, where another woman was spanking Trish Stratus- "she's taking Trish to the woodshed". Have to get out the DVD and watch it again.
Now, howe about an article on the phrase "brand-spanking new"?
29 May 2012 14:08
Goodgulf said...
I've always thought that when someone was taken to the woodshed it was about noise control. That the person could cry and scream all they wanted without disturbing the rest of the household.

It was a place that wasn't public (so no witnesses could see what was happening) and far enough removed from the house that the sound would be muffled.
29 May 2012 19:08
flowerchild said...
It was always a phrase that drew tingles to a certain part of my anatomy, and you may find in a couple of my stories that a young wife has been sent outside to await her chastisement. A barn worked just as well, as it was more isolated from the house and interferance. One of my favorite stories, Mail Order Mayhem by Ruegirl has wonderful scenes of the errant female character being sent to the woodshed for more severe punishments than the usual over-the-knee with a hairbrush punishments she usually eearned.
30 May 2012 13:31
carsrus said...
If you were taken to the woodshed, as I was, there wouldn't be such a fascination about it! It's not a pleasant trip, the strop HURTS, blisters the bare butt cheeks and causes you to think twice before getting into serious trouble for another trip out there!
23 August 2012 16:54

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