A Punished Brats member wrote to me recently asking where we got the idea of a parent spanking the daughter of another parent came from. I had to ponder this a bit before responding as there wasn’t a single inspiration point for this type of scene. There is always the aim of trying to come up with variations on a theme so that we aren’t always doing repeated plot lines and stretching the boundaries of reality as necessary. Yes, it would probably be pretty rare these days in the general vanilla population for someone to ask another person to spank their teen, spouse, or other loved one, but there was a time when I believe it was more commonplace. And my every reliable source of knowledge? TVLand.
Yep, good ol’ fashioned boob tube tells me there was a time when spanking was a much more acceptable form of discipline for naughty brats, pushy girlfriends and wives, and even ditzy secretaries and it seems like just about any elder, related or not, could deliver the punishment without question. I can’t specify any show titles and so maybe I’m just making it all up in my spank obsessed mind, but I can clearly picture episodes of black and white television programs in which a distraught neighbor or grumpy shopkeeper threatens the poorly behaved with a good spanking. At the very least, I know that references were made on Little House On The Prarie as I watched a marathon of episodes recently. Back then it seems, no one was going to cry foul and call the authorities. I’m not saying it’s wrong or right, just trying to explain that this is where the thought that even those without express consent for corporal punishment (such as a boarding school where parental permission is granted) could give spanking might have come from.
Does anyone else remember shows that depicted every day life including the threat of a spanking from seemingly anyone in authority? Or does anyone remember this being the case even outside of TVLand reruns? Or have I truly lost it? Actually, don’t answer that last bit. 