OK--fantasy 'fess up time.
Now, I *loathe* non-consensual torture. It makes me ill. I silently seethed at Bush & Co. for the better part of 8 years as they did what they did at Gitmo et. al. PTSD is a nasty ugly thing I would not wish on my worst enemy. It can be a fate worse than death.
Judicial CP is a step away from that, I think. A country capable of doing that is closer to committing worse atrocities if threatened, IMHO.
That said....
Back in 1994 I was as shocked as anyone to learn that an American teenager in Singapore had been sentenced to caning for going on a graffiti bender. I was concerned for him and his health and I absolutely felt that rehabilitation would have been a far better bet in his case. This kid was a bit wayward but clearly not a sociopath. The sentence got reduced from 6 to 4 and I am assuming the fellow is basically OK today without too much PTSD.
And yet...there was something about the whole scenario that stirred my core in a fantasy sense. I had a pretty good grasp on the difference between fantasy and reality then and I let this thing play out in fantasy for months. I did not want to see this done to anyone non-consensually--yet I sure as heck wanted to know how it was done.
I was vaguely aware of BDSM back then and was nowhere close to considering myself "one of those people". I can only imagine what the kinksters did that year when they heard about this case. This just lived in my fantasy and I thought that was where it would stay.
So I've been in the lifestyle 6 years. I started off doing spanking and paddling and quickly advanced to beginner versions of the other CP toys. The 1 ft. thin handle of a dangly style cat toy was my first cane (it is still a mean OTK implement). My bottom was not only experienced but he had the toughest derriere in the local community. He was and is still a Phoenix legend. So I was able to develop any and every CP technique I wanted and he could absorb it.
I've been caning with "real canes" for 5 years. I bought some judicial style canes 3 years ago as a gag--then started using the damn things at a moderate level. I caused a sight at some dungeon parties for awhile, but then I put the things away because they were a bit too large to be practical at some of the house parties that I was starting to attend.
Then recently a friend asked if I did judicial caning. I told this person no, explaning that I did not have the room to practice. But, this brought back all of those old fantasies (I changed my mind on how much room I had, later).
The difference now is that I am living on my own, I already own the canes, and I've developed 80% of the skill I need. I am also, for the first time in a long time, wondering if I am crazy for having a particular kink. It did not help recently when I went to a demo given by a spanko friend and this person said that "what they do in Singapore is nasty stuff and none of us would want anything to do with it."
So now I officially beg to differ with both my "crazy" feelings and with this friend. I want nothing to do with the non-consensual caning, whipping, or flogging of anyone.
I want everything to do with consensual re-enactment of it.
I am not sure if this is a rare kink or something that is currently not visible in the local community--but I know that there are other people out there who are into prison style CP as a kink. It is as much about the set up and ritual as it is about what force someone puts into it. Looks like I get to strike out somewhat alone on this one, with the help of a few heavy bottoms who don't care what I do, so long as I don't call them late to supper.
Now, a word on the nastiness, from a cultural perspective. In BDSM how great the force used in any technique depends on what the bottom can take, period. This goes beyond how hard someone can hit. There is a certain pleasure in knowing you could hit much harder but don't. Many bottoms will report the same thing from the other side. What the person is able to do, *might* do gives the scene that scary sexy edge.
The nastiness is *not* all in the force. At my local club someone actually did this as a demo (not sure if he used a four foot cane--but the damage report was well in line to what I have seen in pics). What makes this such a nasty rl punishment is, of course, the non-consensuality. Then there is the fact that shouting out is not allowed, socially, in Oriental cultures lest the man "lose face." This puts the canee in a terrible double bind. The scars can be lifelong. A hard core kinkster will wear them with pride, much like I will file down the point of a hook and then wear that around with pride. An ex-con in a country that practices judicial caning has now just earned a very humiliating (in a bad sense) scarlet letter. Also, when one is subjected to a very threatening ordeal for which the mind is not prepared PTSD is a possible result.
The person who was caned at the local dungeon was very well prepared mentally and emotionally. This was a rite of passage for her and she later wrote movingly of it in our newsletter.
It is all about the intent, folks. I don't condone spanking kids either, yet I and my friends regularly get together and use techniques originally designed to punish kids. The cat-o-nine tails I use to good effect in my toybag is descended from some truly nasty tar-dipped rope floggers that would easily flay the entire *back skin* off of a man.
So here I go--away from the traditional spanking culture and off the edge.
