I don’t feature the topic of religion in many of my posts. It’s typically something I have no interest in. A bit like reality television or college sports. I recognize that some people get very excited about them, but I don’t really get why.
Despite this fact, I did enjoy this article by Valerie Tarico on the common themes of Christianity and kink. That’s certainly not a new comparison and many people have commented on it in the past. I just found this article to be one of the more interesting and readable takes on it.
Oddly enough (in my weirdest segue ever), it reminds me of the old joke about Ayn Rand and Orcs. To paraphrase it for this context: If forced to pick between religion and kink, then keep in mind that one’s a strange cult involving odd outfits, tortured naked bodies, unbelievable stories of perverse practices and punishment by all powerful authority figures. The other is a great way to have sex.
This image is from the Divine Bitches site. I’m not a big fan of that name, but in this case it is unusually appropriate.
Although I was raised Catholic, I didn’t go to Catholic school, and until recently, the thought of being punished by nuns was a definite boner killer.
This picture, though…
While I cannot argue with the basic them of either article, I don’t believe spanking is of Christian origin. Instead, I suspect that it evolved from ancient fertility rituals. In time, of course, spanking was found to have other purposes.
Then, as Christianity spread, it incorporated many local practices into the faith. Much as Christianity turned Saturnalia into Christmas, they also quickly realized the value of allowing new converts to keep their practice of spanking.
Over time, much like Christmas, spanking spread with Christianity. Eventually, spanking became the equivalent of a universal language. Until recently, depending on how it was administered, everyone knew what it meant.
Spanking only became linked with Christianity after the secular world began questioning the disciplinary value of spanking. Typically, being conservative slow to change, Christians continued the practice. Results included labels like Christian Domestic Discipline.
Yet, the name domestic discipline is new. Only a few decades ago, its principal component was simply known as spanking. In a traditional household in the days after World War II until the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s, it wasn’t unheard of for a mother to spank her daughter for some undesirable behavior, and then to be privately spanked by her husband for doing the same thing.
Everybody knew it happened. One of my high school friends, who freely admitted she still got spanked by her parents, found out her mother had been spanked by her father. Although somewhat surprised, I said she felt her mother probably deserved it.
According to a reliable source, another mother in the neighbor got her bottom privately whipped with a switch for having a potty mouth. A short time later, this same mother said she spanked her teenage daughter with a belt for shoplifting.
No one quoted the Bible to justify any of the above. Rather it was what happened in some household when daughters didn’t listen to their mothers and mothers pushed things too far with their husbands.