Recap: MBS Sunday Brunch for Feb 20

Are we surrounded by spanking references or does it just seem that way to those of us who already have spanking on our minds? Our question of the week probed the degree to which our frequent observation of spanking references in the vanilla world is influenced by our interest in the topic. Here are your thoughts.

Xantu: I don't know if it was always there, is really there or if I wear spanking-colored glasses these days. But now just about anything with a handle is looked at speculatively and assessed for spanking potential (and, at times, embarrassingly 'tested out' in the store aisle). Other people's relationships are analyzed for relative power exchange. Scenes from movies where the uppity female protagonist is tipped over a lap and swatted soundly are met with new appreciation and applause.

Luna: I think innuendo is everywhere depending on your frame of mind and life experiences. That's why kinky people can pick up kinky references, spankos can pick up spanking references and the sexually obsessed see and hear sex everywhere.

We always take our own experiences and use those to interpret the world around us, so if we are a spanko, we'll see these things around us, even if they really are unrelated.

Raven Red: In the period where I was trying to ignore the spanking side of my personality, I was still very aware of spanking references around me. Leather belts, wooden spoons, and rulers were things that I was very "uncomfortable" to be around.

However, after embracing that part of myself, spanking references are everywhere. I even attended a lecture and ended up wondering whether the man is a spanker!

I think that what is important to us on a personal and intimate level, is what we inevitably will see and subconsciously look for in the world around us.

Rayne: My friends see a low wall to sit on, I see something at the perfect height for bending over. My family sees a kitchen-ware store. I see a veritable smorgasbord of delightful implements. My non-spanko lovers of the past saw a sexual advance when I was communicating my need for a spanking...

I think it is absolutely true that these things are always here, and that our own personal frames of reference shape them into what we see.

This is true for most of our observed and imagined world. It doesn't just pertain to spanking references. When I am hungry, I look at an orange and see something potentially good to eat, while someone who is angry may look at the same orange and see something potentially good to throw. :D The world is ours to create!

Daisy: As others have said, these things are always around us, but only those who are so oriented will see them,. People have always worn belts, used wooden spoons in the kitchen, had trees/bushes (full of switches!) in their gardens, used bath brushes to wash and hairbrushes to brush hair. To vanillas, that is their purpose. To us spankos, there is another purpose entirely!

So, the question isn't really either/or. It is more of a statement of fact. These cues are always there. We see them BECAUSE of our spanking biased perspective, but that doesn't make them any LESS there just because others don't recognise the references!

Uncle Nick: I inserted a spanking reference on the Daily Telegraph's website today. I said that a woman in the story needed to be taken in hand. My meaning was clear, and if it wasn't, my Twitter silhouette should have made it so. At the time of this writing, six people have recommended my comment!

Hermione: I think it's all a matter of perspective. If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If you're a spanko, and especially if you are under pressure to create daily spanking-related posts, then you wear your spanking filters and see spanking possibilities everywhere. It's so much fun!

Six of the Best: How many times have you heard people use the word phrase 'spanking new' in conversations. For example, I just bought a 'spanking' new car or a 'spanking' new dishwasher. My wife just delivered the family a 'spanking' new baby boy or girl.

Emanuele Lombardi: I do think that spanko references are everywhere, but having spanko-colored glasses myself, I can see the more subtle ones put there by like-minded creative people.

Defer and Submit: Spanking references are everywhere to some, just as bondage references are everywhere to others. It's all viewed from an individual's perception and personally, I love the view!

On Her Knee: There are references and pervertables everywhere. Funny, it didn't seem to be that way until I became a card carrying spanko.

Without any attempt to eavesdrop, and with basic poor hearing in one of my ears, I still manage to pickup keywords in a crowd.

My fine lady and I went out for an hour or so on Valentine's Day. I heard a woman laughing as she commented "...But he won't let me whip him..." Now, she could have been talking about games of chess, but somehow I suspected that their games weren't quite so boring. As we were leaving, I asked her, "Did you say he won't let you whip him?" Her reply was, "Yeah, he won't let me cuff and whip him..." I laughed and said, "Well, then put on the heels and garter belt. He'll come around."

MarQe: I think that people with even the faintest interest in spanking drop a reference into an otherwise vanilla conversation. I must admit that I do it myself with my vanilla friends. I threatened to take my mate's wife across my knee in jest once. Her eyes sparkled and she asked, "Is that a promise?" I'm sure she was more than curious, but sadly, I never did find out!

Mark: Just envision the scene: every man around you whipping off his belt, then doubling it over in his hands... and then looping it back through after having gone through with "it."

"It" is security stuff at your friendly airport, of course, what did you think?

Are you wired to feel faint and then aroused when seeing a male do that with his belt? Or have you read it stated somewhere that there are those who do?

Well then, that shows the answer is somewhere between Yes and No. Yes, for when you filter it through your kink. No, because there are just too many opportunities for random associations around us.

How about the sports commentators' vocabulary: "whip," "beat," "spank," "flog, and "thrash," Do you think that if they were spankos, would they be so free with placing these words? Then again, I don't hear women sportscasters use the same words, so who knows?

Then again, maybe the answer is Yes. There are signs everywhere: 2/3 of the cooking implements at Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond cannot possibly be used for cooking, but only for striking soft defenseless surfaces, so who knows...

Bonnie: I honestly don't know the answer. I've been a dedicated spanko for as long as I can remember. My radar has always been tuned to detect bottom warming references.

I have to mention that when I hear those special words in a seemingly vanilla context, I sometimes pause for a second or two as I imagine what it would feel like to have my bottom spanked while lying over someone's lap. Randy jokingly calls this reaction “spankolepsy.” For those brief moments, I am absent from the conversation. He likes to unleash the S word in public places just to see if he can get me to engage in a mid-sentence daydream. What can I say? I love my spankings.

Thank you, everyone, for joining this week's brunch!