Innocent bystanders

In times gone by, it was common for corporal punishment to be carried out in some public place, so that citizens could see justice being done, take heed that such an outcome could be in their own future if they strayed too far, and to make the ordeal more unpleasant for the sinner.

Indeed, at most school's in the UK when corporal punishment was still permitted, the ultimate sanction was to be caned in front of the whole school.   The only crime that seemed to merit such a public setting was that of stealing, and about once a year we would be assembled in the main hall to watch someone caught shoplifting getting a public beating.   And learned to refrain from helping ourselves to goods freely available to the light fingered when visiting department stores.

In the main, domestic spankings were private affairs, conducted behind closed bedroom doors.   The yells and yelps of the wrongdoer alerted the siblings to how severe retribution could be, but, usually it was a private matter between parent and child.   There were exceptions.   Notably, Bridget Bardot was once spanked in front of her entire family for having caused a valuable antique vase to get broken, but she was an exception, not the norm of how things were done in the recent past.

Public spankings of an erotic nature are a different matter.   The spanker and the spankee are there to enjoy themselves and part of the enjoyment is a group of aficionados looking on with the tingle that might come from the echo of someone else getting a sore bottom.   I have never actually attended such a session, not as participant and not as onlooker so I can only surmise that you need to overcome a fair degree of embarrassment in order to fit in comfortably.   Erotic spankings are usually meant to lead to more intimate activities, and I am reasonably certain that the more intimate activities were not part of the entertainment watched by the audience..

For us authors of spanking fiction, setting up the plot so that a spanking - whether consensual to some degree or not - leads to interesting possibilities in examining the emotions of all concerned.   From that felt by an elder woman, grimly pleased to see a young hussy getting her just deserts, through to pleasure felt by some males when they watch a female bottom bouncing up and down, through to the humiliation burning at the wretched wretch getting thoroughly paddled.

There are so many possibilities for us to explore, I shall return to this topic again in the near future.    In the meantime, do experiment with putting your spanking in a public place and see where that plot device leads you.