I used to be a fan of professional wrestling, and back in the 90s and early 2000s there was more than a fair share of the women in the federations getting spanked — sometimes by other women. It was used specifically for titillation, or to show women “getting their come-uppance” by the male wrestlers. And it still happens today.

In WWE, Vince McMahon signs off on everything. He’s known for his iron grip of control on the company. So that means he signs off on all spanking content. Does he keep including it because he thinks it’s titillating? Is it just his personal turn-on? I don’t know.

But I do wonder: is adult spanking in mainstream media still as titillating as it was even as few as ten years ago? Half of me wants to say no, because I’m not seeing it as often as I used to (except, of course, in pro wrestling, but that’s its own thing). The other half wants to say yes, because of the connotation spanking still has for lots of people. Despite the best efforts of psychiatrists, psychologists, and parenting experts, spanking is still used as parental discipline, and if an adult who was spanked growing up sees a consensual adult spanking in media there’s that instant flashback to the moment it happened in the past. (Probably. My parents didn’t use spanking as discipline so I can only go on what I’ve heard from other people who did experience that.)

For me, the flashback is to this scene from Tom & Jerry, where Tom whacks Tuffy (Jerry’s nephew) with a spatula, and then Jerry observes Tuffy’s red backside before going apeshit on Tom. That was the moment I first became interested in spanking. Somewhere deep down whenever I see a spanking in media that’s what gets triggered for me and I remember that strange thrill I got seeing that scene (and other spanking scenes in cartoons).

So yeah, I guess spanking in mainstream media does still titillate some people, if by “some people” you mean me.