Subscriber Services Weather

Burnett's Urban Etiquette

Friday, February 29, 2008

Spanked into freakiness

A new study from the University of New Hampshire on corporal punishment says that kids who get spanked are more likely than go-sit-in-the-corner kids to have sexual problems when they get older.

Once again, an academic study that doesn't fully make sense to me.

You don't have to like spanking or apply it to your kids.

But I'll bet if you're over 30, when you were a kid you got spanked. Tell me you didn't catch the occasional swat on the behind from your parents. Maybe it was more than occasionally. Maybe it was frequently. And maybe that swat was a full-on smack, but you get my drift.

In case you don't want to follow the link, the study says its authors surveyed 14,000 students at 68 universities in 32 countries, asking the students how many were spanked and how many of the spankees had forced or coerced a partner into sexual activity in the 12 months prior to the survey.

According to the study, four times as many male former spankees said they'd coerced sex than did guys who weren't spanked very much or at all.

Hmmm. Still seems like a stretch to me.

If spanking made you more likely to do crazy sex stuff, I'd be on some offender's list right now, or I'd have grown up and become a porn star 'cause my parents spanked me like God himself was tellin' them to do it.

And look, I'm not that crazy....he writes as one eye twitches.

I think these study authors have too much time on their hands.

I want a study on what kind of freak I should be from all those back hands to the jaw I got from my mother.

Kidding mom. Hee hee hee!

Labels: , , ,

17 Comments:

  • "According to the study, four times as many male former spankees said they'd coerced sex than did guys who weren't spanked very much or at all."

    That does not prove it caused the problems. It could just as easily prove that kids who needed to be spanked a lot as children are more likely to be troublemakers when older.
    There is just not enough data and too many variables for a conclusion such as they claim to have reached.
    Just my opinion.

    By Blogger BobG, at 2:50 PM  

  • BobG, again we agree. I don't see a clear cause and effect, and I agree maybe the forceful guys were a few smacks shy of behaving themselves.

    By Blogger James Burnett, at 3:41 PM  

  • Well, I don't care what anybody says. A judicious swat on the behind every now and then is not going to hurt a kid. I'm not talking about beatings, now. Just a swat to get their attention. I was disciplined with a switch that I had to go and cut myself. If it wasn't the right size, I had to cut another one, until I got one to suit my mother. And, I'm as well-balanced as you are. lol

    By Blogger Betty, at 4:14 PM  

  • The only spankings I get are the ones I have to pay for.

    I agree with BobG. It's entirely possible that people who are in trouble all the time as kids are in trouble all the time as adults.

    By Blogger Jay, at 4:31 PM  

  • Did you ever get the wooden spoon? I did. Oh yeah. I gotta tell ya, I coerce my partner into sex all the time. Then again, he likes it.

    All kidding aside, I agree with you. It seems like a stretch.

    By Blogger Melissa, at 4:43 PM  

  • I was spanked on my bare bottom often and hard, which was both painful and humiliating.

    It seems that if I were to have suffered problems as a result of it, I wouldn't have allowed anyone to touch my butt ever again.

    I didn't spank my own children, and they are normal, too.

    There is a lot of grant money up for grabs if one can only come up with a new idea for a study.

    By Blogger heartinsanfrancisco, at 9:13 PM  

  • There isn't enough written about the study at the link to tell much about the quality of the findings since you can't read about the experimental design, the data collection, the actual hypothesis, and of the research that lead the researchers to believe that they were researching a valid concept, etc. The write-up you sent us to is written for an 8th grader to read and really doesn't say much.

    The most I have ever read was when I read Adler (Freud's disciple) who said that both sadism and masochism were the result of 'inadequate' parenting. Does this sound like what the study was trying to prove to you? I'm just asking, I don't know the guy, never been to that University. Just sayin'.... I read Adler and a couple of others in another lifetime. You might try Open Grove Claudia from my blogroll, she's smarter than 4 and half of me.

    By Blogger The CEO, at 11:29 PM  

  • I agree that there may be other issues involved and spanking may have been a solution to ebb other behaviors shown earlier in life.

    Also, as a former teen and frat party go-er, isn't coersion a normal thing for guys that want to get laid?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:00 PM  

  • Oh yeah, I had to do the whole "pick your switch" thing. It wasn't fun, but I don't think I'm any worse for wear because of it.

    By Blogger GrizzBabe, at 8:38 PM  

  • Sometimes a good spank is beneficial to the child & the parents alike. Never hurt me, don't think it hurt either of our children either.

    Since when did 'discipline' become a dirty word? Cos there are times when it seems that way.

    By Blogger Bronchitkat, at 7:03 AM  

  • I can remember having to cut my own switch. Ouch. But whatever I got switched for, I didn't do twice. And I'm normal. Mostly, anyway.

    I spanked my kids occasionally, if I thought the situation warranted it. They're 19 and 21 now and perfectly normal. As far as any 19 and 21 year old can be normal.

    By Blogger SWF42, at 12:24 PM  

  • Betty, I'm glad we both came out balanced. My mother read that post and said next time she and my dad see me she's gonna give me a good smack to really unbalance me. I tried to tell her I was kidding.

    Jay, never pay! Just use smooth pickup lines and let nature happen.

    Melissa, I did get the spoon. That thing was more of a ladle.

    HeartsinSanFran, Mrs. B and I debate the whole spanking thing all the time. I'm for a swat if needed. She's against. When it comes that time for us, I'm sure I'll cave, 'cause I won't want to feel like the mean dad.

    Monty, while it is true that I linked to a news article and many articles, according to past academic studies, are written to an eighth-grade (or somewhere in that range) reading comprehension leve, I thought it gave reasonable detail for an intelligent reader to draw a conclusion. But just in case, here's a direct link to a synopsis provided by the university's press office. at the bottom of the page is a link directly to the authors' other spanking studies: http://www.unh.edu/news/cj_nr/2008/feb/lw28spanking.cfm

    Say It, I was sort of wondering about the whole coercion thing. I suspect they mean something more ominous. But I get your drift. Coercion when I was in college often involved begging and pleading.

    Grizzbabe, my mom used to tell me tales of her dad making her pick her own switch.

    Bronchitikat, here here!

    SWF42, you had to cut your own switch too? My mom says her dad would make her go back and cut another if she cut one that was too flimsy the first time around.

    BTW, let me be clear that I was just teasing about my mom. I got spanked, but I didn't get beaten or tortured. And I'm not writing this now, 'cause I think she'll really beat me next time I see her.

    By Blogger James Burnett, at 1:22 PM  

  • Interesting post...there's a very funny Indian-Canadian comic who did a sketch called "white people, beat your kids." Check it out, it's hilarious...and explains, in his mind, why spanking is a good thing...And I can think of loads of kids who should've gotten spanked that made school that much worse for me...

    By Blogger LallaLydia, at 12:14 AM  

  • Lallalydia, I'm going to look up that comic right now. Thanks for the tip. And I agree on the school kids thing. I wish some of my elementary school classmates had been spanked some.

    By Blogger James Burnett, at 12:15 PM  

  • Honestly, what sex isn't coerced?

    OK, I know that makes me sound like a rapist or something, but having worked in the anti violence against women's movement for years, it's a valid question. Don't we all bargain for sex? Beg for sex? Manipulate for sex? Entice for sex?

    OK, I'm not helping my cause.

    I was spanked. And I see sex and coercion as two sides of the same coin. Maybe the study is proven by my example.

    Either way, bring on the sex....and the spanking.

    Did I say that?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:20 PM  

  • Lex, you're gonna make us - me, anyway - all blushy!

    By Blogger James Burnett, at 10:35 PM  

  • a good spanking given with a hairbrush otk bare bottom will release stored up tension and when my wife spanks me until i am bawling and begging her to stop things quickly disappear and after the red botto cools off life continues with memories reminding me that another hairbrushing isnt going to happen

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:39 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home