Flogging Workshop
What happens
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Floggings aren't necessarily painful: there is a wide range of implements and techniques, which impart many different sensations and can in fact feel like a firm or sensual massage. Like a massage, the point between pleasure and pain is variable according to the individual and the circumstances. A light flogging can mentally and physically relax a person. It creates a very noticeable changed psychological state, often referred to as 'sub-space', very near to the meditative state one reaches in transcendental meditation or other forms of deep relaxation. For some people, inflicting or enduring experiences that are very painful gives a cathartic release. Flogging someone is simply another way of touching them, implements used are an extension of that touch. Using paddles and floggers helps extend experiences, by giving a wider range of sensations, and by saving on energy and sore hands (especially when doing spanking) to allow a play session or 'scene' to go longer. Flagellation can incorporate a great element of role-playing that appeals to many. Scenes can involve the acting out of punishment, powerlessness and religious sacrifice by drawing on real cultural traditions of flagellation and corporal punishment: parental, school and naval or military discipline, animal training, slavery, and judicial corporal punishment from both past and present. Some scenes may be elaborate and detailed recreations of 'real-life' scenarios: there are, for example, enthusiasts of British public school-style caning, and military flogging scenes. Physically, what is happening is that energy is being transmitted from one person to the other via the implement. When the body surface is struck, the cells are compressed, causing nerve cells sensitive to pressure to respond, when they are unable to absorb all of the energy transferred, this provokes a pain response, and the release of endorphin's. As blood is brought to the surface of the skin, the flesh is warmed and circulation is stimulated, bringing the flesh beneath 'alive' to even the slightest touch. |
Physical factors involved in the effects of different toys |
How 'hard' a strike is depends on factors like the force behind a blow, the distance the implement travels and its speed when it hits. Other important factors are the design of the implement, the material it is composed of, and how it is used. Some materials and designs are more efficient at transferring energy than others, and will consequently require less effort for the same effect.
* Flexibility, from inflexible paddles to somewhat flexible riding crops to very flexible floggers. A flexible implement will bounce, with a certain amount of energy reflected back, whereas a heavier, more rigid implement will not, and may cause deep bruising. A more flexible instrument will also be easier to accelerate: whips are one of the most dangerous items, because the tip can move so fast (the crack of a whip occurs when the tip moves fast enough to break the sound barrier). |
Selection of sensation | Quite often people in the scene describe equipment as being "thuddy" or "stingy." Thuddy items land with a solid impact; they shove you, they feel like a cross between a shove and a punch. Stingy items land with a bite; they feel like a cross between a scratch and a slap. Both kinds of sensation are enjoyable in different ways, and a skilled person can alternate thud and sting to create waves of sensation that send the one they are playing with into ecstasy. Whips and floggers aren't the end of the story. Some people use paddles of leather, wood, or other materials, sometimes with holes cut in them to decrease air resistance and make for a harder impact, or studs on them to create a rougher surface. Paddles produce a solid "smack!" which can feel like a powerful spanking, and help save the hands of the spanker. Some players like canes, which can be thick or thin, stiff or relatively flexible. Canes can produce some of the strongest impacts of all - the "whick!" of a quick-moving cane is distinctive. Not everyone can handle the intensely focused pain canes can produce. Canes used in untrained hands can result in very severe bruises. All manner of household items such as wooden spoons, kitchen spatulas, hairbrushes, and slippers have been pressed into service as instruments of flagellation, depending on what is available and the sensation or type of scene wanted. |
Types of Floggings |
The exact way in which a flagellation scene plays itself out is largely a matter of the balance between the sensation and the role-playing aspects of the activity. Flogging is not about taking a flogger and going to town on your partner, randomly striking wherever. It is a methodical use of the flogger(s) to bring your partner to the "place" they like to be. With the tempo and strength you can set the pace at which they arrive there and for how long they stay. Some partners may want a scene in which the main attraction is the feeling of being punished. Some heavy masochists will want you to simply lay on strokes hard, fast, and mercilessly, they expect to be pushed to their limits, or beyond. Most, however, need time to build up endorphins and to adjust to the intense sensations they are experiencing. Some tops get their main enjoyment from being able to dominate, others enjoy the reactions of a partner in pain or ecstasy. Sometimes a flogging is a challenge, a test of strength and stamina, and your partner will respect you for pushing the envelope. Too tame and it seems trivial and senseless, and at worst a complete waste of time. On the other hand, too fierce and the enjoyment can disappear just as quickly. The type of flogging both enjoy requires a kind of nonverbal communication that comes only with time. A whipping scene will often start off very lightly, and switching to heavier and heavier whips as the bottom gets deeper and deeper, more and more receptive to additional sensation. Of course, the top may choose to lead the bottom on any kind of tactile journey the top desires-switching from stinging light switches to biting canes, soft fleeces, wax, ice and feathers. It's all about physical sensation. Most people enjoy a slow buildup when being whipped. This can culminate in an explosive climax of impacts, leaving both top and bottom drained and delighted. Or it can wind down gently, ending casually. Or it can stop feeling good suddenly, resulting in a safeword. Or it can turn into a galloping intense sex scene! But the general "start slow, build up, end intensely" tempo is common to many SM scenes. Whipping or spanking is sometimes used as part of a "punishment" scene, in which the pretext for the scene is that the bottom has been disobedient or naughty in some way, which requires chastisement. This can be fun to do as role-playing, but clear boundaries must be shown between what is "play" punishment - which is intended to be fun - from "real" punishment involving seriously broken agreements. Here is where reality and fantasy need to be delicately separated, and here is where the real world differs from S&M fiction. In 'real-life' CP, the intention is usually simply to cause unpleasantness and pain: the offender is sentenced to a certain number of strokes in advance and each is delivered as hard as the prevailing practice prescribes irrespective of the individual. And while there are some players who try to recreate this scenario in consensual SM, most find it difficult to get much enjoyment out of a finite number of merciless lashes, at least outside the context of an ongoing relationship or scene. Also bear in mind that, unlike most forms of 'real-life' CP, you are not limited to using only one implement and one technique per scene. Most play much more loosely, varying the treatment according to the dynamics of the scene and, in particular, allowing a 'warming-up' period of lighter strokes from which the intensity gradually builds. |