The Cane: Not Exactly a Love Story

Since I recently shot my School Strokes interview at Real Spankings, I uploaded a couple of the photos to my Fetlife profile. I tend to do this: I like to show off what I've been up to, and I get to direct attention towards the awesome companies that I'm lucky enough to work with.

The inclusion of these caning photos sparked a small conversation: do I like being caned or not? I gave the shortest answer I could possibly give, since this conversation was being conducted via photo comments: "I have a love/hate relationship with the cane." I guess this didn't answer people's questions. I got several private messages asking me to explain what, exactly, that means. I'm choosing to do so here. :)

For one thing, caning is a lower proximity activity than an OTK spanking and is therefore less comforting to me. This is not to say that it is uncomfortable. It just doesn't carry the same warm, safe feeling that being OTK gives me. Caning also has trouble escaping its formal roots, and it doesn't lend itself to being relaxing because of this. These things place caning farther away from the circle of comfort for me and therefore, for more intense caning scenes, requires a greater amount of trust in my partner.

There's also the fact that caning lends itself well to intensity and, even when not done severely, it is usually paced in a way that feels concentrated and deliberate. The pacing does a lot for me. It makes each stroke very significant. It slows the world down, and can make a time frame of less than a minute in which six strokes are delivered feel like a very long time.

Canes hurt in a very unique way. They tend to build. A few seconds after the initial impact, there's that second, deeper pain. Individual strokes feel like pinching or biting combined with a bit of a punch instead of the traditional stinging, swatting, burning feeling of small headed implements like hairbrushes or wooden spoons (the implements that I favor) or the "knocks the wind out of you," full bodied pain which accompanies a thuddy implement like a frat paddle. Cane strokes often create welts, which may take longer to heal and which hold in the pain for a while in a way that is different than other spankings.

Is all this good or bad? Why can't you just answer the question, Alex?
It's both. I feel my heart in my chest when someone that I enjoy being spanked by instructs me to get a cane, or when he holds one menacingly between his hands, flexing it and taunting me. I've been brought to tears simply by the sound of a cane being whooshed back and forth or colliding with the mattress as a demonstration. It scares me. It intimidates me. With someone I know and trust, I like that. I like how much I don't like the way a caning feels. I like being instructed to get into position for an implement that I'd never in a thousand years select for myself if I was given a set of choices. I like it when it pleases Malignus to cane me. He went on a "kick" for a particular cane at one point, and would grab me and bring me into the bedroom for it multiple times a day, just arbitrarily, because he liked hitting me with it. As much as I didn't actually enjoy the caning (it often brought tears to my eyes), I loved how much he was enjoying doing it. Getting something which sort of scares me, which sort of pushes boundaries, which wouldn't be my first choice makes me feel wonderfully submissive. The afterglow of a caning is always filled with adrenaline, some level of endorphines and pride.

Another think which I actually like about caning is its ability to overwhelm me. This is something I've talked about before. I like it, in certain contexts, when a spanking can overwhelm me and push me beyond my usual level of resistance. I like feeling all my energy used up. I like feeling the fight go out of me. Especially when used after other implements, hard cane strokes can really do this to me. In fact, two of my most significant subspace experiences involved caning, and I'm forever appreciative towards cane-kind for that.

So, in summary, it's both. Yes, I've stomped my foot and thrown a big protest at the announcement that I was going to be caned, and no, I can't think of a time when I said "You know what I'd like? The cane!" but at the same time, I have nothing but warm feelings... especially those coming in the form of lines.

 Head over to Real Spankings to see my interview for more cane-conversation.  ♥