[RG_]

LOL. Well, I started to reply to Adelina's post about going through much of that with her, and then aurora chimed in. So I'll just generalize the intended comment a bit.

I think that this little series of posts point out some very important things about the spanking community and finding your way in it. There have also been a few other recent posts around the same theme (Panda Bear's comes to mind), which indicates that this is a pretty important topic in our world. Some of my personal observations:

(1) What people get out of spanking and what people need from spanking is incredibly diverse! It can be almost as different as night and day.

(2) I am surprised at how many people make assumptions, usually subconscious, at how spanking works in the human mind in relation to No. 1 above, and then blithely go blundering through the spanking world. At the least, they are out of touch with a lot of people who don't fit the narrow paradigm in their mind, and at the worst cause a lot of confusion and needless anxiety among those on a journey of discovery themselves. Most often the victims of these often-unintended effects are bottoms and subs.

(3) It's incredibly important to discover and know what YOU want and need from your spanking interest/kink. Until you do, you will not have the potential to be completely happy or satisfied with it. And it's not always an easy world of discovery. It can take much thought, much inner reflection, much learning about the spanking world (and perhaps the wider BDSM world), much talking with others, and more. But the pursuit of understanding yourself is perhaps the single most important thing that you will do. And when you find it, then you must not let others deter you from it.

And more, of course, but I think that catches some of the important essence of what was being touched on here.