Whipped for Finding Gold

I was reading up on the history of gold mining in Siberia the other day, for reasons that are too off-topic to go into here (let's just call it a combination of leisurely and professional interests). The following anecdote grabbed my attention: in 1813, a young woman named Katerina Bogdanova found a gold nugget in the basin of the Neyva river in the Urals (one translation refers to her as a "little girl", but because of what happened to her and also because of some other tidbits of the story, I am inclined to believe that she was actually a young, unmarried woman). She immediately brought her find to the local authorities. Instead of a reward, however, she received a whipping and was ordered to not tell anyone about her discovery. Apparently, the authorities feared the disturbances that would be brought on by a gold rush to the region. They were unsuccessful in the end, because other people also found gold in the vicinity and the news eventually got out.

But think about poor Katerina. This has to be the most unfair, most scandalous punishment I have ever heard of. She finds a gold nugget, and instead of keeping it for herself or exploiting the site only for her own benefit and that of her family, she dutifully reports what she found. Alright, maybe she was hoping for a reward as well - which would have been well-justified in my view. And what does she get? A whipping! Life just isn't fair, is it?

There are quite a few people in our spanko community who have a passion for unfair punishments. Our friend and partner in crime Pandora Blake is one of them, for instance, as evidenced by this interesting older post of hers. For Kaelah, unfair punishments are generally a turn-off. I'm stuck somewhere in the middle: I can potentially find such a scenario hot, but preferably if the spankee suffering the unfair punishment finds justice in the end or at least emerges as the moral victor. Lupus Pictures gave some of their classic storylines a twist like that, and I could imagine a number of such possible twists to avenge our gold-finding heroine. Where the official responsible for her treatment ends up getting it worse than she did. Admittedly, it's a kind of straight-forward morality play and rather old-fashioned, but it works well in the spanking genre...

Let me use the topic to pose the question to you: how do you feel about unfair punishments as a kinky scenario? Do you like them or hate them, do you find the idea hot or a total turn-off? Or are you, like me, somewhere in the middle, where a scenario with an unfair punishment might have appeal to you, but only under certain circumstances? Write down your thoughts in a comment if you like.

Kinky China (Part 1): The Forbidden City

Visiting foreign countries, learning to know different cultures and getting to see famous sights and beautiful landscapes is something that is an important and special part of life for both Ludwig and me. If the whole thing gets mixed with kink – all the better!

Some time ago, we travelled to Beijing and had a great albeit exhausting time to explore this interesting and busy city. Of course, the Forbidden City was a must-see! As you can see in the first photo, the entrance doors are already very intimidating and impressive. It was hard for me not to picture a whipping scene in my head in that scenery.

And obviously the thought wasn't really far fetched, as you can see from the artefact we came across in the museum of the Imperial Palace. I don't think I would want to try out that one, at least not on the receiving end! But the idea of having a quieting whip to make sure that the rituals at the palace aren't interrupted by someone not sticking to the rules definitely has a kinky appeal to me.

Obviously, we couldn't take any pictures which are too explicit at such a crowded place, but fortunately the Chinese love creative poses on their photos and bending over doesn't attract too much attention (as long as one's trousers aren't pulled down that is ;-) ).

We left the Imperial Palace shortly before sunset and managed to shoot this beautiful final picture outside. It might not be a perfect pose kink-wise, but I love the way the sun reflects on the water.

After having seen the poster above, I am actually quite confident that the Chinese aren't so easily shocked when it comes to kink, anyway. We did shoot some more kinky pictures on our trip – this time on the Great Wall! We will share those with you soon. I hope you like the ones of today's post as much as we do. We might have had sexier and more explicit ones on this site, but it is the special surrounding which makes these ones very dear to us.

Fourth of July

(Image courtesy of FoxyJacky.com)

Today is the Fourth of July. Most of our readers, being from the Anglo-Saxon world, undoubtedly know what that means: it is the day when the British celebrate that the Americans are no longer part of the British Empire!

As a German, I could decide to not give a toss. Our own national holiday is October 3rd, commemorating the anniversary of the German reunification in 1990. But, this is an English-language blog, Kaelah and I are both Anglophiles, and we have good friends in the spanking community across the Atlantic such as Indy and Mija, so I thought to myself: why not do a Fourth of July post this year! Hereby, without further ado, we would like to wish all our American spanko readers a happy holiday.

I distinguish between the American people and the American government, so I won't hold it against you that your NSA has apparently been spying on us quite extensively, monitoring around 500 million telephone calls, emails and text messages in Germany every month. Actually, as a historian and consummate cynic, I am not particularly surprised. This is precisely how powerful empires have operated since the dawn of civilization: trusting no one and snooping on everyone, including their allies. Especially when that ally is a lucrative target for industrial espionage like Germany. Hell, the NSA is probably constantly spying on you too, their own citizens, it just hasn't come out yet. In any case, a little Paranoia 101 never hurts.

The great thing about America, though, is that throughout its history, time and again, opposition forces have eventually appeared to address and correct such abuses of power. There are enough people who take the "land of the free" thing seriously, which impresses even a cynic like me. I am actually quite hopeful that, this time, in regards to the ever-growing intrusions of the secret agencies and security agencies, it will be the same. The world wide web as a new technology harbours enormous potential for connecting people, spreading knowledge and ideas, creating wealth and progress, but it also harbours enormous potential for totalitarian surveillance and creating the "totally transparent citizen". We should strive to maximize the former and minimize the latter.

But enough about that. Why have I, in five years of blogging, never written a Fourth of July post before? I remember thinking about it once or twice, but I always missed the date somehow. July was often a busy time in the history of Rohrstock-Palast. In my first year in 2008, I visited Niki Flynn as chronicled in The Wolfenstein Experiments, and shortly thereafter made my first visit to SM-Circus. In July 2009, Kaelah made her first official appearance as my mate in K-Day is coming! and Where No Man Has Spanked Before.  In 2012, we published a video with us and Leia Ann-Woods. In other years like 2011, July was just a busy month outside of the blog for us, which is why we only did three posts in July that year. Something always got in the way. But this year, finally, here is our very own Fourth of July post for the Yanks.

I have spent the past hour searching for a good picture with a "fourth of july spanking", a "stars and stripes spanking", "uncle sam spanking" or otherwise American-themed spanking, but did not find anything I was really happy with. The best I can offer is the picture above, which shows not a spanking but a spankable bottom. And just so you don't think that we only feature stereotypical fare of skinny chicks here, let me add, for the sake of gender equality, this shot of a hunk with a body that puts mine to shame (I found it on Roz's blog, so thanks for that).

Happy Forth of July, everyone!

Kaelah's Corner (Jun 2013): Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover

("I want it naughty." Advertisement for safer sex.

Taken from http://www.bzga.de)

There is a great advertisement in Germany at the moment for safer sex which caught both Ludwig's and my attention. Each poster shows another person who makes a statement about how they want their sex to be. The wonderful thing is that what they say is very different from what one might expect judging by their looks. For instance, there is the punk girl who wants it to be classical. And the body-builder with tattoos who wants tender sex. Finally there is the business guy who likes it naughty.

As spankos, I think we are all aware that one usually doesn't tell kinky people by their outward appearance. We don't look "naughty". Quite the contrary, a lot of the fellow kinksters whom I had the pleasure to meet in person are rather shy and not very unconventional in their day-to-day lives.

But I ask myself, are we really aware of this simple fact, that outward appearance and the first glance don't say all that much about what is behind the curtain when we meet other people in our day-to-day-lives? I don't think I am. That's why the advertisement is so effective.

And, what's more interesting: Are we really aware what is behind our own curtain? Do we know what we want and need? There was a time in my life when I didn't know much about myself and my needs. It was more important for me that I functioned properly than to be in contact with myself and take care of my needs. That has changed a lot. But sometimes I still need a reminder to take a break and listen to myself.

I guess for some kinksters it is already very difficult to admit to themselves that they are kinky and that they want their sex to be "naughty" or "painful" or "dominant" or whatever. For many it is even more difficult to tell others about their needs. It comes with the risk that the others don't understand it and that the picture they once had is shattered.

Luckily, I never had much of a problem with my kink. Once I started exploring the kinky community, I also talked about my kink with lots of people. Maybe my friends are already used to the fact that what I do doesn't always fit into the picture that one might have had at first sight. When I was a teenager, I started watching professional wrestling. Later, I began listening to punk music and heavy metal. Then I thought about becoming a single mother by choice. And finally, I started a kinky relationship with that great guy whom I had met online.

I have learned that my family and my friends take me and like me as I am. That's quite easy for me, too, when it comes to kink. There are other parts of me, though, which are much more difficult to accept and come to terms with. Because not all of my traits are nice and loveable. Some can make my own life miserable. And, what's much worse, some can hurt the people I love. Still I know that it would be wrong to ignore or hate those parts. Of course it is good to work on those traits which can make my life and the lives of those around me miserable. Still, I think I also have to accept and honour the traits I am not always happy with, for they are a part of who I am. I am not sure whether we are able to really be compassionate with others if we aren't compassionate with ourselves.

I think it is important to keep in mind, that it is not one single aspect that defines us. I am not only kinky. I am not only a business woman. I am not only a family person. I am not only the structured thinker and organizer. I am not only an emotional and fearful person. I am not only a grumpy dachshund. I am all of that and much more. And I think it is the mixture that makes us all so special and so interesting. The business guy who wants conventional sex and never takes a risk in his life would be boring. The body-builder who doesn't also show his sensitive side from time to time would be very one-dimensional. It's the sum of all of our parts that makes us special, including those we aren't so happy about. The same is true for the people around us.

Let's hope that we all know how to treat ourselves and the others with respect, compassion and loving kindness. Not only the nice parts, but also the naughty ones.

The Lost Bag

A while ago, Ludwig and I were travelling by train, carrying backpacks with us. We arrived at our destination in the evening, took a brief look at the local map outside of the train station and walked to our hotel. About 25 minutes later we arrived, checked in at the front desk and finally entered our room. It was small but nice and I decided to take some pictures first before everything would be occupied by our stuff.

I tried to get our luggage out of sight when I suddenly realised that I didn't see my backpack anywhere. Ludwig and I both searched the room but couldn't find it. I figured that I must have forgotten it at the front desk. So we quickly went downstairs again. But my bag wasn't lying anywhere at the front desk. We asked the staff whether they had seen it and maybe put it away. But they hadn't seen my bag, either.

At that point I began to sweat. Obviously, I had lost my bag somewhere on the way! Fortunately, my money and my passport weren't in the backpack, but my notebook was. So there was only one thing we could do – make our way back to the train station as quickly as possible. As we rushed through the dark streets, we figured that there were only two possible places where I could have forgotten my bag. Either on the train where I had put it on a chair while we were waiting for the train to stop and the doors to open. Or next to the map in front of the train station.

Both possibilities didn't sound too good. The final destination of the train we had arrived with was quite a long distance from the city where we were staying. And if the bag was standing near the big city map – well, then it had been there for more than one hour already. Maybe someone had taken it, maybe the police had been alarmed because of the unattended luggage. I quickened my steps even more on the last part of the way, turned around the corner in front of the station to the place were the big map was – and there stood my backpack, looking very forlorn. I took a closer look and quickly confirmed that nothing was missing. Both Ludwig and I were tremendously relieved! That was the best possible outcome.

We took the bag and, for the second time that evening, walked in the direction of our hotel. Much slower than we had rushed back to the station. I was still totally shocked that this had happened to me, because I am normally such a well-organised and cautious person. I also felt a bit guilty because, in a first reflex, I had told Ludwig that I might have forgotten the bag in the train because I had to put it onto another chair in order to let him take out his luggage. So, in a way, I had falsely accused him of being partly responsible for the incident.

Suddenly, a thought popped up in my head: What good luck that Ludwig and I didn't do any real-life discipline. If we did, I would have been in for a severe spanking in addition to the shock that I had already experienced. I told Ludwig about my thought and he admitted that he had fantasised about a spanking, too. On that evening, there was no spanking at all, though, because we were tired and just relieved that the incident was solved and everything had turned out so well.

But of course, Ludwig teased me about the incident, because usually I am the one who reminds him not to forget this or that, to carefully check everything and to be cautious. And in a way, I found the incident too good to pass by for a spanking scenario. Especially because I knew that Ludwig enjoys integrating real-life events into playful kinky scenarios.

The opportunity arose a while later. Ludwig and I had already engaged in some fun activities that evening, but I longed for a formal little naval scene to conclude the day. So, when Ludwig was in the bathroom, I looked for a suitable implement. What I found was a plastic shoehorn, a pervertible implement one often finds in hotel rooms. Ludwig was a bit surprised when he came back and saw the shoehorn lying on the bed. I explained to him that I would love to get a bedtime spanking as an errant male naval cadet who had – surprise, surprise – almost lost an important bag during shore leave.

Ludwig was game and went into the character of a senior navy officer. He lectured me, telling me that he couldn't accept mishaps like that, especially not from promising cadets. I was told to drop the trousers of my PJ and my underpants and to bend over the bed. I followed the instruction and got into position. Ludwig took aim with the shoehorn and ordered me to count the strokes. I confirmed his order with a proper “Yes, Sir.” Ludwig drew back his weapon and soon the first stroke hit target. The shoehorn packed quite a sting but wasn't unbearable. Actually, the kind of pain it produced was rather lovely. I dutifully counted the stroke, of course followed by the mandatory “Sir”. One by one eleven more strokes hit target. Then I was allowed to get up and rearrange my clothes.

It was just a very spontaneous and small scene, but I liked it very much nonetheless. This was the very first time Ludwig and I did an M/M scenario (sort of!) and I definitely would love to go there more often. On that day, we simply went to bed, though, and I fell asleep to some lovely kinky naval fantasies. So the lost bag didn't only cause a huge amount of stress, it finally had a positive effect as well. Of course, some events in our lives are plainly horrible, but for the little troubles that can bother us at times, too – I guess it's up to us what to make of them.

Darker Dreams

 As Ludwig already told you in his post Too Severe for CCBill, Pandora was forced to delete several clips from her site Dreams of Spanking by the company processing the payments. Among them was Ludwig's and my scene The Final Test because the action was deemed too severe.

As I already wrote in a comment on Pandora's blog, the news brought up different kinds of thoughts for me. Of course, I feel sorry for Pandora. Not only did she have to delete three scenes entirely, she was also forced to reedit several of her clip descriptions and posts which surely did not only cause frustration, but also meant a lot of additional work. But, like Ludwig, I find it kind of cool that someone deems something which I, personified Miss Goody-Two-Shoes, have done worth censoring. Especially taking into account that neither Ludwig’s film for Mood nor the one for Lupus was censored. Instead, our clip for the "notorious" producer Pandora Blake and her site Dreams of Spanking was…

And now, Pandora has made good on her announcement. She has published the deleted scenes on her new site Darker Dreams where you can watch them – for free! So, if you haven't seen The Pirates of the Jolly Kraken, The Avenger and The Final Test yet, this is your chance. If you like them, you might want to subscribe to Pandora's site Dreams of Spanking and watch the rest of her clips as well, or maybe make a small donation.

I very much like the name of Pandora's new site. I've had lots of very dark dreams recently. But in contrast to those ones, Pandora's darker dreams are fun. I hope you will enjoy them, too.

Two Texts on BDSM and Psychiatry

I am hard pressed for time this week and did not know whether I would be able to write a post. But as luck would have it, I found two interesting texts I can reference.

I was reading an online discussion about ethics that started out completely unrelated to BDSM, but then had someone bringing in BDSM as a topic of ethics. Some people propagated the usual ignorance, equating BDSM to violence and claiming that anyone who is into "such crap" must have had a traumatic experience during childhood. One participant in the debate, who was apparently kinky himself, kindly pointed out that this is utter nonsense. I did not get involved myself. The discussion was several years old already, and even if it had been current, I tend to not waste my time with such matters anymore.

However, in reading through that discussion, I found two interesting texsts on BDSM and psychiatry. One is Psychology & BDSM: Pathology or Individual Difference? by Margaret Nichols, a psychologist and fellow kinkster, who delves into the history of psychotherapy and sexual minorities:

In the area of sexuality, psychology has been particularly harsh and justified particularly brutal treatments for those considered "sexual deviants." Through the first half of the twentieth century, girls who had "excessive sex drive", e.g. masturbated regularly, were considered abnormal and might be subjected to clitoridectomies; until the 1970s gay people could be committed to mental institutions by parents; and even today electro-shock aversion therapy and so-called "chemical castration" are considered acceptable psychiatric interventions for sexual paraphilias - among which are included Fetishism, Sexual Masochism, Sexual Sadism, Transvestic Fetishism, and other practices near and dear to some of us.

Why does psychiatry even concern itself with sexual behavior that is consensual and adult? Why label any such behavior "sick"? Urban anthropologist and founding LSM member Dr. Gayle Rubin has described the way society views sex by classifying sexual behavior as part of the "Charmed Circle of Sex" versus the "Outer Limits". Basically, society likes sex to be straight, married, monogamous, private, not-forhire, procreative, and vanilla. Some BDSMers manage to violate each and every one of those proscriptions - sometimes all at once! According to Rubin, society does its best to eradicate or suppress behavior on the "outer limits". We do this in several ways, including social and religious disapproval, legislation around sexuality, and classifying behavior as psychologically "sick" versus "healthy". Enter the role of psychiatry.

Mental health theories have changed. Masturbation is okay; women can be sexual; even homosexuality is no longer a mental illness. But psychiatry still pathologizes BDSM, and I maintain that this contributes to shame, secrecy, isolation, and selfloathing within the BDSM community. More concretely, it justifies laws criminalizing S/M behavior, legal decisions to deny child custody to kinky people, and discrimination in job and housing areas. So it’s more important than you think to fight the psychiatric classification of kinky behavior.

Nichols goes on to make a case for why it is unwarranted and harmful to classify an inclination for BDSM and assorted fetishes as "paraphilias", argues that traditional psychological theories of sexuality from Krafft-Ebing to Freud have been "pretty dismal", but still exert influence today, and proposes an alternate view labelled "the paradoxical view of sex", which holds that "there is no reason to consider sexual behavior pathological unless concrete evidence of lifethreatening or similar horrendous harm exists, or unless it is nonconsensual (by definition including children as nonconsensual)".

The other text I wanted to bring to your attention is Bias in Psychotherapy with BDSM Clients and BDSM in Psychotherapy: A Culturally Aware Curriculum by Heather Powers:

Bondage, Discipline, and Sadomasochism (BDSM) is a sexual orientation and behavior often misunderstood by both the psychological community and the public. Although extreme and obsessive BDSM activities may point to a paraphilic diagnosis, the majority of people involved in BDSM are well adjusted, successful and productive members of society. It is important that the mental health community have proper tools for differentiating between paraphilic disorders and healthy sexual diversity. Paper one examines the historical and present experiences of BDSM participants as a stigmatized sexual minority. Paper two addresses twelve clinical guidelines for providing culturally sensitive care to BDSM clients. These guidelines may be used as a three segment class for mental health providers interested in working with BDSM oriented clients.

In Powers' thesis, I found the various surveys and studies she cites of particular interest, and the insight they provide into the variety of people's motivations for BDSM, the variety of BDSM practices and lifestyles, and the fact that an inclination for BDSM does not point towards mental illness, past abuse or difficulty with "normal" sex, as is sometimes assumed. All of which is in accordance with my own experiences and impressions of both my own kink and the kinks of others I have met in the BDSM community.