The Library of Spanking Fiction: Wellred Weekly


Wellred Weekly
Volume 1, Number 10 : August 28, 2012
 
Articles
Items of interest regarding all things spanking

Consent vs. Non-Consent in Fiction and Real Life
by Renee Rose

As a writer of spanking romance, the issue of consent vs. non-consent is a pretty hefty consideration for me. It relates to my thoughts on feminism vs. submission, as well. I read with interest Cara Bristol's article in Wellred Weekly Vol.1 No.8 on the topic of Spanking, Feminism and Gender Roles, as it is a subject I've been giving a lot of thought to recently.

Let's face it: non-consent is hot, at least it is to me, as a natural submissive. The idea of the fate of the heroine's backside being truly at the mercy of the hero is more titillating than one in which she can stop it with a safe word at any moment. (For simplicity's sake I'm using the M/f spanking scenario throughout this article). That works for me in fantasy but never in reality. This is where feminism (or is it just humanism?) collides with what turns me on. In this day and age, I believe it is never acceptable to hurt another human being. So that's where consent must come in.

I had never heard of domestic discipline (DD) until a year ago, and when I first started reading about it, I was simultaneously shocked and turned on at the idea. I have to admit that at first, the feminist in me was quite rankled. Once I gained a deeper understanding of these relationships, however, I found peace with it. Consent is the key. What's beautiful to me about DD relationships is the dance around consent and non-consent. It's the consensual non-consent -- the idea of giving blanket consent to your partner to be punished, giving up your right to refuse any individual punishments that you may not care to receive. That makes it both acceptable to the feminist in me (consent) and still really hot (non-consent). The non-consent piece takes it out of the domain of role-playing with spanking and into reality. It truly is an acceptable fantasy come to life for the modern-day feminist spanking enthusiast. I don't mean to diminish the other benefits of DD relationships (e.g., intimacy, improved communication, ease of a structured chain of command) by merely focusing on what I find sexually stimulating about the idea. I understand there are other reasons couples choose a DD relationship, including religious beliefs, but I'm not going to explore those here, as my primary focus is on the consent/non-consent question.

I like to write historical spanking romances, largely because there is a similar dance between consent and non-consent. The consent comes in the form of societal consent or custom. Corporal punishment was the norm until recently. It was within the rights of the master of the house to physically punish his servants, children and wife for disobedience. So in this type of environment, I can easily place a quaking heroine over a stern hero's knee without any compunction whatsoever.

In any spanking story I'm looking for believability, which typically means that in a contemporary setting, the spanking must be consensual. The only scenarios I can see in which a non-consensual spanking might plausibly fly are ones in which the spanker has a total disregard for the laws that govern human rights. For example, I could imagine a mafia boss, a drug dealer, or a pimp having no problem with yanking off their belt and administering a sound spanking. While I do have some fascination with those types of scenarios, it would be much more difficult to craft a romance around those types of characters, and I'm primarily interested in romance with discipline, versus strict disciplinary stories. I'm not saying it couldn't be done (Tony Soprano was likeable, even as we were shocked by his behavior), but I'm not sure I have the skill or depth as a writer yet to pull that off.

I have a hard time reading contemporary stories with non-consensual spankings. My suspension of disbelief just doesn't go that far, I guess. It's hard for me to believe the heroine would accept it in this day and age, and if she does, then it would be impossible for me to maintain any respect for her. I am especially offended by stories that seem to imply that a modern day man has a right to spank any woman who doesn't submit to his authority. You just can't cross my feminist line that way. No one could ever make me believe that a man knows better and therefore should have the final say and back up those decisions with spanking. I am sometimes even offended by historical scenarios like these, in which the "moral" of the story seems to be that the heroine should have listened to the hero, period. I don't like the spanker to be completely flawless and the spankee to be the wild, unruly chit who must be tamed. To me, this misses the exquisite beauty of dominance and submission. It is not about one or the other being right or wrong, but rather the remarkable interplay of the dynamic itself. The drama is in the moments when these elements come together, creating sexual tension and interest between the characters. The complexity of non-consent naturally heightens that tension.

Authors of contemporary spanking fiction have come up with a myriad of imaginative ways to insert their characters into scenarios of reluctant consent, which is not quite as hot as non-consent, but still allows for the titillation of the quailing spankee submitting to a punishment they don't wish to receive. I have great admiration for the writers who are able to make a contemporary scenario both believable and still retain that element of non-consent or reluctant consent. These are the most successful stories, in my opinion.



 
9 comments:
Spankzz said...
Wow! This is the best article I've read. Your ideas about consensual vs. non-consensual spankings were thought provoking. I often write stories about punishment spankings that are non-consensual but usually they are set in another time or place.

For contemporary stories, I don't like to use safe words but the spankee and spanker know that no damage will occur (blood, scars, marks beyond a week, etc.) I guess in these the spanking itself is consensual but the severity of the spanking is non-consensual but limited.
29 August 2012 01:13
Redskinluver said...
A very interesting and insightful article,particularly about the meaning of consent , and how it is handled in stories set in the present, especially M/F. When as she says we no longer believe(and correctly so) that the male has a right to spank the female just because he happens to be male.
29 August 2012 15:35
bendover said...
It's funny that the mention of mob boss spanking that I remember a scene from a movie (I can't remember it), but it has Dana Delaney getting spanked by a mob boss for cheating on her husband I believe.

Great article and great insight on the subjects.
29 August 2012 16:47
rollin said...
Non-consent in a modern day setting is very tricky to pull off and even in period pieces you have to be careful. I generally don't like for my modern day characters to be "into" spanking as players in "the scene". So that means I have to invent a scenario where spanking happens. Usually I devise some type of plot or setting in which it happens consensually. so a good question to ask is---can you have a non-consensual spanking scene in a contemporary setting and have it be believable? And make it believable without the heroine being some simpering weak character? I think you can, but the key word is "justified". It has to be appropriate to the behavior and it has to be so deserved that the reader is saying "yeah" as that climactic point approaches, and no one feels sorry for the character who gets it.
I do have one or two examples here in the library and readers can judge whether or not I pulled it off. Part 2 of "Beverly and the Principal" has one. Part one of "Retribution" has a semi-consensual scene (they are lovers), and in "Vale vs. Connor" it is the reason for the lawsuit and very non-consensual. But in each of these cases it's a dramatic device and hopefully rings true given the overall plot line.
But I agree one hundred per cent that it is inconceivable that you'd have a male spanking a female in a contemporary romance for some trivial reason like swearing or being late or disobeying. That could border on creepy.
30 August 2012 02:32
canadianspankee said...
I may agree that non-consent may be a "hot" button for some people, but a spanking without at least some implied consent or consent gained after the spanking, as when one discovers they actually liked spanking, turns me right off.

That being said, a young teen would likely rarely consent to their parents spanking them, but as you state, custom and tradition cover that aspect anyway. Today in real life there is very little accepted in the way of old traditions and customs that make spankings acceptable to the general public, and one has to make their own value judgement on that issue.

For me though as a reader I want to see or feel there is or may be consent, else I tend to think of the story as mere stronger person inflicting their will on a weaker person, and that is a turn off.

The sad truth is some spanking stories can verge on the S&M side very quickly if no consent is sought or obtained, and the spanker implies there is no reason for the consent. If I was into S&M I would not be on this site.
31 August 2012 00:30
KJM said...
What canadianspankee says is certainly true, there's quite a broad line separating the spanko world from S&M, but spanko world does include a lot of variances and the non-consensual element is there as well.

A spanking author has an array of tools, just like a sci&fi author to suspend the disbelief of his readers in a contemporary story. You can have another planet, a parallel world, a dream, a lost island and another culture. Even today in quite a large part of this world people live governed by other customs and mores.

Excellent, well thought-out article, mainly on the struggle that a sexually submissive female has with her truly feminist persona in the world out of her bedroom.
1 September 2012 15:17
blackmarrow said...
I have always been opposed to non-consensual spankings or any other form of domination by the supposedly stronger over the weaker. I am rabidly opposed to willful and deliberate humiliation of one person over another. I see no benefit being gained from humiliation. I personally have little respect for anyone who imposes their will physically or otherwise over another, and even less for the person who allows it to occur. Your article ws very relevant to my way of thinking with regards to spanking. The other thing that always struck me as odd in so many stories is the frequency of non-consensual spanking in a story. If it is so effective as a means of discipline then why the need for it to be repeated so often.
1 September 2012 20:19
islandcarol said...
We have had many conversations here in the library on spanking as a effective disciplinary strategy. I agree with Blackmarrow that it is not effective, Non consent and humiliation are the top two elements I encounnter in most of our stories here in the library. They are fiction and I don't usually worry over these elements because we all seem to agree. I do appreciate that extreme stories have warnings posted and I like to be able to choose to read a nonconsentual or over the top humiliating punishment.
The author is quite right in identifying these two elments as being the most satisfying/ stimulating /exciting elements in spanking lit. It is a dilemma we all live with!
2 September 2012 02:08
barretthunter said...
This is a very thoughtful article and I believe Renee's conclusions are broadly right. It's interesting that she finds non-consensual spanking exciting as fantasy. That's the key word: many thing shappen in such fantasy which most of us would not dream of condoning in real life. Where I differ from her in personal choice is that I will happily take a huge amount of fantasy if just certain things are credible. It's like Kafka: no-one actually wakes up as a giant beetle, but if someone did, people might well react like that.
2 September 2012 15:49

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