Man has long had an infatuation with punishment. I have entitled this piece Castigation.
So, what is Castigation?
It describes the infliction of severe punishment. One who administers a castigation is a castigator or chastiser. In earlier times, castigation specifically meant restoring one to a religiously pure state, called chastity. My name is Sam Evans and I am a writer who has a deep interest in the subject. I am not alone, it is a subject which fascinates a huge number of people, many of which are men.
There has always been a belief much of this resulted from the use of corporal punishment in schools, but that was banned in the UK state schools in 1987, although it continued in private schools much longer. That is 35 years ago which suggests few under the age of 50, in the UK anyway would remember it’s use. Yet the subject is as much alive today as ever and certainly with those who would never have seen it’s use.. This means, while memories of school punishment still exist for many and may be an influence, it is far more complex than a simplistic link to school experiences.
I wrote two books, The Headmaster’s Study and The Appointment. Both describe a man setting off to visit an older man who will administer corporal punishment. The first book, The Headmaster’s Study directly links memories of such a school time visit which for him will be re-enacted 40 years later. Today, there is a thriving industry, mostly by women who offer such services to men and of course to a lesser extent women. Open any pornographic website and search, soon a huge amount of material will appear. Unfortunately much will be very poor and usually sadly predictable and repetitive.
This article will mainly focus on men who visit men, in their case it rarely has a financial motive but instead one resulting from a shared interest in sadomasochism. Much is written on the subject of corporal punishment. Dare I suggest most of the literature available is very poor in its content and sadly written by people who have never experienced it. A long time ago, I heard an author on the radio describing how he approached writing. He said, write about what you know. It was good advise and I’ve always tried to incorporate real experiences in everything I write.
I was at school during a period where corporal punishment was an every day occurrence. This begs the question whether I fell foul of authority in school. Most certainly is the answer and in my school few didn’t! The most frequent reason to receive a dose of the cane was for being caught smoking. A pincer movement of teachers would appear each side of the cycle sheds so nobody could escape, so the line of boys and often girls was long as they were marched off to get their caning from the head teacher who like the music teacher at the school I attended loved his work! But, we were well organised. Other boys would be lining the corridors as the culprits were marched off to the head teacher’s office where he’d be busy flexing his cane and ensuring the pen was in working order to record each caning in the school punishment book. As we passed, oh yes I was often one of them, we’d hand our cigarettes and matches to a waiting boy, making sure you memorised his face for later collection. It was one thing to get your six of the best, but to lose your cigarettes too – unthinkable!
The showers on Fridays after PE was always interesting. This gave a very visual indication of who’d been a naughty boy. Of course we never knew if the same could be said in the adjacent room where the girls, separately of course, had their showers. A head mistress dealt with them.
Why such painful memories then later invade adult life will never be quite understood. There will be those who wish to be the headmaster, the Dom, while conversely others will wish to play the part of the pupil, the Sub. Each are richly described in both books already mentioned. In one, The Headmaster’s Study, a man reflects on an event in his younger life, while travelling to meet a Dom. It is split equally between an event true in every detail before the story moves to an invitation for the boy to visit the headmaster privately at his home, this part was pure fantasy. Genuine wishful thinking which explores what the teenage boy hoped would happen, which never did – then.
For this reason the second book, The Appointment, explores the part in the first book which never takes place but now most certainly does in every sordid detail. All those involved in both books were living people. The man on the receiving end will remain anonymous, but he is very real. Focusing on the elderly man awaiting the arrival of the younger man at his west London flat, he certainly was real too. He was a Samaritan several times a week, talking people, often young men, out of suicide. I suspect many he saved, later visited that same flat and found themselves secured spread eagled naked to a single bed while he thrashed their bottom with a cane. Even though without doubt he was a sadist, he was still a kindly, soft spoken man, who later offered tea and home made Dundee cake, albeit to someone sitting uncomfortably. He really did have a portrait of Margaret Thatcher hanging on his living room wall which defied his Welsh roots. Also true, a Christmas cactus which bloomed throughout the year. How I know this for sure will have to be for the reader to decide for themselves.
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