My name is Loki Renard and I’m an author of romance, usually of the spanking variety. Prior to the infamous late 1980′s or thereabouts, spanking was common fare in romance novels. Nowadays, the mere mention of loving physical correction often sees a book hurled, hot potato style, into the ‘erotica’ section or beyond. I’m not alone in considering that a great pity.

Spanking and other methods of gentle domination have been part of the traditional relationship paradigm for as long as there have been people with hands. However with the misapplication of feminist thought, spanking and other acts of domination fell out of favor – and out of romance novels. The precise events that lead to many major romance publishers cutting spanking scenes are not entirely clear to me, but I’m fairly certain it had something to do with power shoulder pads and chemical fumes from the poodle perms that were so in vogue in the 1980′s.

The fact of the matter is that although domination and submission are now terms you’ll probably only hear in kink groups or on the Dog Whisperer, dominant and submissive relationships play out over and over again throughout the course of our lives and most of them will never be remotely sexual. The fact that dominant and submissive play has been pushed to the fringes of romantic relationships and commonly accepted sexual dynamics is probably somewhat detrimental to the way we see ourselves. It creates a state of perpetual cognitive dissonance that I for one, can’t get on board with. It’s fine for us to submit to a boss who wants us in at 6 am or to a government who tells us what plants we can and cannot grow, but heaven forbid we want to submit in the bedroom.
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