Why has BDSM become mainstream?

I don't normally contribute to newspapers' discussion boards, but this piece in the Telegraph by Rowan Pelling was too good to miss.

To be honest, I am genuinely puzzled by the way in which BDSM has become a mainstream pastime whilst spanking has gone almost underground. My posting was made in the hope that someone would come up with an answer, and that's why I am reposting it here:



Hi, Rowan, and lemme start off by asking you to excuse the cheesy pen name. Back in the day we were all calling ourselves Hugh Janus, Tanya Hyde or Ben Dover. I just haven't changed, that's all. Besides, if you check out my Amazon page, you will see that it is the name I use to write my CP works under, so allow me to use it to comment here.

Here's a thought for you: Why has spanking, the great English pastime, been taken over by BDSM? Not only that but taken over to the extent that BDSM has become respectable whereas spanking is seen as almost beyond the pale? You don't believe me? The University of Birmingham has a fetish society which is basically another name for the BDSM club - how's that for respectability? Needless to say, there is no spanking society.

When I started writing in the 1970s the world seemed to be full of retired colonels who all believed that the smack of firm government began at home or in the office, as applied to recalcitrant wives and naughty secretaries. The fact that they got turned on by all this did not alter the fact that they believed in it as a way of ordering society. My job as a writer was to churn out the fiction that reinforced what they already believed, and make some easy money by doing it.

Your point about Christopher Hitchens and his notion that any man can be made ridiculous by adding "Spanker" to his name is really only true in so far as the male submissive is concerned. Certainly that was Hitchen's point in writing 'The rise and fall of Paul "Spanker" Johnson," which is where the idea first appeared. That brings me back to BDSM which is not just about wearing strange clothing, but often about femdom as well.

You could argue that the retired colonels have all died, but why were they not replaced by their sons and grandsons - we are all the inheritors of our country's past and we walk the paths that our ancestors walked, so why the sea change? Do today's men enjoy being pussy whipped curs? Perhaps I was on holiday when that happened...

Alternatively, since there is still a vast market for traditional spanking stories, it could be that spanking has gone underground, to become the attitude that dare not speak its name, and at the same time BDSM and femdom has become respectable.

 I can sort of see how that happened, but I will be damned if I can understand why it did.

Order of the Burning Buttocks: Susanna Reid

From the Daily Mail comes this story about yet another Susanna Reid upskirt on live television. If she is not chatting up young fellows half her age this 42 year old is busy tightening the trousers of the male viewing public. Has she no shame, we ask ourselves?

Clearly this saucy madam needs to learn that she is still not too old to find herself face down across a man's knee, to suffer the shame as she feels her skirts being raised, and then the utter helplessness as a hand is inserted into the waistband of her panties before peeling them down unceremoniously to mid thigh. Then her bare bottom should be smacked soundly until all that sauciness has been knocked out of her.

Come here, young lady: you know that you deserve this!

Order of the Burning Buttocks: Alice Eve

 Have you ever heard of Alice Eve? That's OK because neither had I until I came across some photos of her at last week's GQ awards. The one that caught my eye is the one above which shows her flashing an old upskirt as she climbs out of her car. What is it about the females of today that they have not been taught how to decant themselves from a car without giving the chaps of the land a perving moment? It is utterly disgraceful behaviour as I am sure that you will agree.

Given that she is the owner of a nice rounded bottom I think that you would agree that there is really only one solution to this naughtiness which is clearly aimed at distracting the men of the land from weighty matters of state.

On that basis we are pleased to award an Order of the Buring Buttocks to Miss Alice Eve, whoever she is, and it now only remains for us to say:

Come here, young lady: you know that you deserve this, and yes, those knickers are coming down!

Farewell to Lupus

Lupus Pictures, the Czech video company has closed. Formerly known as Rigid East the company revolutionised the world of CP video right from the start in 2002. Their use of professional studio facilities, with authentic costumes, props and settings set a new standard for an industry that until then had been accustomed to making videos in some bloke's front room with the curtains drawn.

However, what really made Lupus stand out from the crowd was the severity of the discipline that their girls had to agree to receive. Now, the point has to be made here that many of the British videos were just as severe or even more so, but the British producers used the rota of girls who were well established in the scene - and they were all experienced pro-subs with backsides that a cane just bounces off. The marks do not show in other words and that was not the case with the inexperienced Lupus girls, many of whom were just in it for the money.

As things now stand the old URL now redirects to  a site called Quirkyway.com and already some of the new videos are on offer. It looks to me as if they are moving into the hardcore BDSM world, but why they decided to just dump their back catalogue, with videos now being offered at anything up to a seventy percent discount is anyone's guess.

If anyone can shed any light on what is happening with this outfit please leave the information in the comment box.