In an interview between Jessica Gross and Jillian Keenan, published on Longreads as An Exegesis on Spanking Fetishists, Jillian recounts a story from her book:

I mention that a friend of mine was dating a guy from the BDSM scene—not the spanking scene, just the BDSM scene. She once complained, “I need a real spanko spanking.” So the point of that comment, and the reason I included it and enjoyed it so much, is that the distinction is not necessarily between vanilla people and non-vanilla people. It’s that we all fall in different categories and there are ways that any subculture cannot necessarily and automatically understand another subculture. BDSM spankings are very different than the kinds of spankings that people in my scene give and what we’re into.

The point is, a spanking is not generic. There are many different kinds of spankings, both in motivation and reaction. This illustrated guide has five types, which probably cover the vast majority, but there are probably others too.

So, what are these five types?

Sexy spankings: Probably best knows by most people as “funishments”. These are designed to be fun, playful and get your juices flowing.

Punishment spankings: This type of spanking isn’t supposed to be enjoyed by the spankee. It’s punishment for a breach of some kind of agreement on behaviour.

Therapy spankings: This is probably the kind of spanking refered to by Jillian Keenan in the quote above. Many people find spankings to be grounding or cathartic. They give some kind of release of built up tension and have psychological benefit. These are also known as “maintenance spankings”.

Role play spankings: Because we’ve all got some kind of memory of spankings, whether we received them as a child or they were in books and movies and conversations, we can easily associate them with different scenes, such as ageplay. It’s not even necessary to really be enacting specific roles, because our association can be so strong that it’s hard not to feel at least a little like a naughty child when being spanked.

Hardcore spanking: Strictly speaking, most people consider this impact play rather than spanking, but it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins, and often it is all happening in the same scene. It’s the harder end of the spanking spectrum, where Sadism and masochism become part of the mix.

We’ve reblogged this illustration from Arkham-Insanity at DeviantArt. She’s got a bunch of great spanking illustrations in her gallery worth checking out.

This is a regular series of illustrated guides. You can find the others here.

FURTHER READING

• Deviance & Desire – Illustrated Guide – Spanking
• Deviance & Desire – Illustrated Guide – Impact Sting Levels
• Deviance & Desire – Illustrated Guide – Self Spanking
• Slate (Jillian Keenan) – Is Kink a Sexual Orientation?
• Kinkly – Smack! 3 Thrilling Types of Erotic Spanking
• Spanking Life – Types of Spankings