Gay Spanking Blog

A tawse is a typically Scottish implement for physical punishment, called tawsing after it, that was often used for educational discipline instead of the English cane (which, like the horse crop, was however used in private schools, usually on bare bottoms or the hands).

It consists of a thick, relatively hard piece of leather, often made by a saddler, rather like a prison strap, that splits into two, three or sometimes more parallel tails. Confusingly it was frequently called ‘the belt’. The solid products of the best-known producer, Lochgelly, became a household name, feared by punishees; hence also spelled without a capital L.
It was long quite common, also in state schools, to chastise Scottish pupil’s bottoms and legs with it, and it was not unusual for recipients to attempt relieving the burning sensation by pressing their posterior against a cooling stane (large piece of natural stone)- in fact such ‘disrespectful’ use of tombstones nearby schools was, if found out, say by the dominie of the kirk, sometimes punished with another spanking. For serious offenses headmasters often gave a terrifying tawsing in school assembly, preferably on the bare buttocks; a 1968 teacher’s code banned its use for spanking. However for common offenses it was applied on the hands in class, and apparently far more frequently than in English schools: even in the 20th century most Scottish pupils felt it and many even more than once a month.
Since the EU-ordered ban on all corporal punishment in the UK, it survives mainly in BDSM and corporal punishment scenes in the UK (especially in Scotland where there exist several private clubs where the tawse is used in corporal punishment play).

A switch is a flexible rod, typically used for corporal punishment of the birching type, called switching after it, especially when using a single branch: multiple branches are rather called a rod, a less flexible single rod is rather called a cane, an inflexible one a stick; a paddle is broader but hard and flattened.

It makes an ominous ’swoosh’ sound, rather like a whip, and can be agitated up and down quickly, so the lashes can rain down on the victim, who is usually a spankee, mostly bare bottom so it can ‘bite’ the skin. While young children usually suffer it over the knee (or rather the lap), it can be more painful if the discipliner makes more elbow-room by ordering the punishee to lie or bend over an object, which can, especially if standing, increase the humiliation by exposing the genitals.

Switches are most efficient (i.e. painful and durable) if made of a strong but flexible type of wood, such as hazel (also use for a very severe birch) or hickory (see hickory stick; as the use of their names for disciplinary implements, without specification, and as verbs for lashing, indicates, birch and willow branches are time-honoured favorites, but branches from most strong trees and large shrubs can be used, often simply nearby from a garden, an orchard or the wild.

Making a switch is simply called cutting, as it only involves cutting it from the stem and removing twigs or directly attached leaves as those would lessen its sting (hence deliberately left on for sauna use). For optimal flexibility it is cut fresh shortly before use, rather than keeping it for re-use over considerable time.

Parents in the United States (where the wider paddle is the most common spanking implement) are reputed to threaten disobedient children with gifts of utilitarian coal and switches for Christmas should they not reform their behavior, although the actual practice of this is rare to the vanishing point, especially as most people live in urban areas where less suitable wood is easily at hand for the old-fashioned woodshed treatment and most modern educators consider such severe physical discipline cruel and it is often banned by law as child abuse.

A wooden spoon is also not an uncommon choice as an implement for mild physical punishment, in the form of a spanking, especially used on young children (too small to endure heavier traditional implements except the bare hand), and as a so-called pervertible in sexual bondage.

A spatula is a hand-held tool that is used for lifting, flipping, or spreading substances. The word “spatula” is derived from the Latin term spatha which means a broad sword (as in spatharius) or a flat piece of wood. This word is also the origin of the words spade (digging tool) and spathe. The blade of the device is wide and/or thin. The shape of the blade varies, with square and rectangular shapes being most common. The blade is usually somewhat flexible. Spatula blades are often longer on the right side than the left, as this is more effective for right-handed people. There are also left-handed spatulas, but these are rare. It is also a rather common pervertible, especially for spanking, as a physical punishment in BDSM, where its humilitating association with infancy and the kitchen (objectizing) may motivate its choice.

A ruler makes a popular tool for use as a pervertible, i.e. for corporal punishment, specifically called rulering, usually on the hands (either outstretched palms or knuckles) or thighs. Generally, solid, heavy wooden or metal rulers are used for this purpose, but lighter, often flexible plastic ones can also be used punitively, especially in gay spanking.

A spanking paddle is a usually wooden instrument with a wide, flat face and narrow neck, so called because it is roughly shaped like the homonymous piece of sports equipment, but existing in more varied sizes and dimensions, used to administer a spanking to the buttocks; it would be too hard and heavy to use safely on the back.

# A spanking paddle can sometimes be called shingle, apparently after its form, or be given names (rather like weapons in military and police units), especially when used in an organisation, that allude to its hot effect on the paddled posterior, such as ass-burner, butt-buster. Educators and children in households where a paddle is used for discipline sometimes award the paddle such nicknames also, such as “Lola’s bane” and “Mother’s little helper.” (Confusingly, sometimes non-wooden flat devices, such as straps, are wrongly called paddles, even in official institutions.)

# For a paddling various terms exist, some referring to wood, the usual material, such as giving wood, the woodshed treatment [from the old tradition that such punishments were administered in the woodshed], or more general term for spanking, for corporal punishment or for discipline such as punishment, a lesson, (rightly) deserved, (hide-)tanning, medicine, therapy, etc., and even incorrect terms that strictly speaking refer to a different method of corporal punishment, such as a whipping; it is also possible to specify the anatomical target (thus indirectly affirming it is a form of spanking), e.g. arse whupping.

A martinet (French word, possibly from marteau ‘hammer’ since one beats with it, and it is also a type of hammer in French) is a short, scourge-like (multi-tail) type of whip made of a wooden handle of about 25 cm (10 inches) in length and about 10 lashes of equal, relatively short length. The lashes are usually made of leather, but sometimes soap-stiffened cords are used in place of leather. It is a traditional instrument of physical punishment in France (in French it also meant a similar dusting implement; the type for chastisement was also known as fouet d’enfant, ‘child’s whip’) and other European countries.

The martinet was often applied on the calves, for children did not have to disrobe that way. Otherwise it was often applied on the bare buttocks, adding a dose of humiliation to the physical pain, like the English and Commonwealth caning, birching, naval boy’s pussy, American paddling, et cetera. As it is not blunt and heavy, impact on cloths would be reduced too much to remain effective.
It is generally considered abusive to use it for spanking children nowadays. Still, martinets are still sold in the pet section of French supermarkets; it is generally believed that a large share of those sold are meant for use on children, not pets, or at least to threaten them. It is also often still carried demonstratively by Zwarte Pieten (male black assistants of Saint Nicholas, the European original of Santa Claus, celebrated on December 6; attribute persisting where lashes are banned, as in Belgium) to chastise very naughty kids instead of leaving presents.
* The martinet is also used as an implement in erotic gay spanking scenes, hard to distinguish from the flogger but that is usually lighter.

A hairbrush is a brush used in hair care for brushing, tidying, and detangling human hair or a domestic animal’s fur.

It is typically used on longer hair, while a comb is normally used on shorter hair, but can be still used for short hair. For an equine’s thougher hair, a curry-comb is used.

Like stroking or licking fur in nature, the gesture on another person (or a pet treated like one) is often perceived as a mark of affection and/or a bonding experience, which can have a soothing effect, e.g. a cat thus groomed often starts purring.

Being conveniently shaped like some small paddles, it is sometimes used as a spanking implement, especially in the United States, applying the hard backside (usually made of ebony or hardwood) to the often bared buttocks of the naughty child, generally at home, either over the lap or a knee or just standing or bending over; similarly popular posterior discipline with an innocently looking object in the Commonwealth is a so-called slippering (also elsewhere, especially in schools) with footwear. It is not used anymore, though it was common in the yesteryears.

As a popular implement for erotic spanking, a hairbrush is a pervertible.

A crop, sometimes called a riding crop or hunting crop, is a rather short type of whip without a crack, used in horseback riding, hence also known as a horsewhip. A crop usually consists of a long rod of fiberglass or cane or which is covered in leather, fabric, or similar material.

The rod of a crop thickens at one end to form a handle, and terminates in a thin, flexible tress such as wound cord or a leather tongue. The thin end is intended to make contact with the body. The handle may have a loop of leather to help secure the grip.
* While it is considered proof of bad horsemanship and abusive to whip a horse painfully (Britain actually had laws against animal abuse sooner than against child abuse), the crop was used thus to lash human victims, such as grooms, other servants and children (possibly as an agonizing spanking), and even judicially, as a severe form of physical punishment, known as horsewhipping and more likely to leave bloody stripes than a (broader) strap. Such was still in use into the 20th century alongside the cat o’ nine tails in Delaware (county) prisons, applied to the bare back at whipping posts nick-named Red Hannah.
* The riding crop is still widely seen as the traditional symbol of dominance in BDSM activities, for actual use (rather symbolical or really lashing) or at least threatening. It is a logical choice because it is not only painful but also has the humiliating connotation of reducing the ’slave’ to an animal. Its material is the only obvious link with the common leather fetish in that scene.

A cane is a long, straight wooden stick, generally of bamboo, Malacca (rattan), or some similar plant, mainly used as a support, such as a walking stick or as an instrument of punishment. Rattan canes especially are used to beat someone, generally on the buttocks or the palm of the hand, as a form of physical punishment, (often as a severe spanking, like a paddling) specifically known as caning, both domestic and judicial, and traditional in various cultures, notably England and many nations of the Commonwealth. Caning is a physical punishment consisting of a beating with a cane, generally applied on the bare or clad buttocks, hand(s) (palm, rarely knuckles) or even the soles of the feet. It was a common punishment in many parts of Asia and throughout Europe and North America and several colonies in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, but has now been banned in most countries. It is often considered a cruel, inhumane and degrading punishment as meant by the United Nations Convention Against Torture, but remains legal in numerous nations.