Spanking: The Gateway Fetish
While working on projects like her SpankSeek spanking personals and spanko community site, Bethie encounters a lot of people at varying stages of kink acceptance. Many of them are so conflicted about their spanking fetish that they’ve tried to redefine it as “mainstream” or somehow “not kinky” … and they are so invested in the idea that spanking isn’t kinky that they take enormous umbrage at innocent questions like “Do you have any other kinks?” They’ll explode with “How DARE you! Spanking isn’t kinky! Why…” and go on like that that for six hundred words.
Thus, I really laughed and enjoyed this account by Ten of the way spanking was treated at a kink event called Fusion:
You see, I’m a spanko first and foremost. My fetish as long as I can remember was spanking… Over-the-knee, Domestic Discipline, Big/little roleplay– I love it all.
But I have other interests as well. Although they are probably not as pronounced fetishes, these things get me hot too: Bondage, other types of impact play, takedown scenes, sensation toys — and just plain being naked. I’m not a “spanking purist” and I enjoy much of the variety that the sharper side of pleasure can produce.
So imagine my surprise when, ironically, the only thing I really felt like doing at this all encompassing BDSM event was get spanked. Oh, and walk around naked. Maybe have an orgasm or two. As far as BDSM goes, however, I didn’t want to be taken into the depths of myself, transcending thresholds of pain until I was I was a human puddle of bruised flesh — only to come out of the other side feeling purified with a sense of catharsis and a renewed sense of strength and spirit.
Nope.
Honestly, I arrived and…
I just wanted my butt whacked.
So apparently I wasn’t all that kinky during this event. You see, spanking isn’t really all that kinky anymore. Let me explain.
There was an event called the “Wheel of Destiny” which can be summarized as kinky Wheel of Fortune. There were all kinds of ridiculous things on there, some kinky some not. Anal, punching, grappling, making out, electricity, piercing, cake (yes, a slice of cake), a hug, and a something my devious friend Graydancer called “Tar & Feathering” (where the tar was actually maple syrup) were among the list but I noticed that “spanking” wasn’t there.
When I asked about why my favorite fetish wasn’t present I was told the following:
“Oh, spanking isn’t really all that kinky. It’s like… the gateway fetish”.
That stuck with me. It made me think about the “spanking purists” I encountered. Were they not really all that kinky as well? Well, they get together in hotels and convention centers and slap each other’s butts so they’re a little kinky.
Ya think maybe? ;-)







