The 1960s was a challenging time for spanking and spanking enthusiasts. Before this decade spanking was seen as a necessary evil, just and yes fun. After the 60s it was sexy and risqué even before people began to realise that spanking and feminism can mix.

The Sixties was a time when Black and White met Technicolor, an allegory for a  clash of attitudes if ever there was one.

But during the 1960s it was still too close to home for the mainstream to be comfortable with sex and spanking and only the right wing were still pushing the ‘just but fun’ line in the guise of John Wayne and a few others.

To the youth it was seen as old hat and no swinging girl would freely admit that they were still getting spanked by their old man, married or not. Spanking was order, and order just wasn’t cool.

But still it had its champions and that primeval urge did not just go away. Here are a few snippets from that decade for some flavour.

Lady CW speaking to the Women’s Institute in 1966 said, “Mods and Rockers, I see no very great difference between them and the Teddy boys and bobby-soxers. In my day we had flappers, it is all the same. Bad behaviour is bad behaviour, and if I had so indulged in my youth, then I would have had a damn good spanking on my bare behind and I would have deserved it.”

The TV documentary Man Alive took a closer look at the problem. Interviewing some 20-somethings outside a club they asked about ‘the breakdown of society and falling standards of the young.’

“Should you be out so late do you think?” asked an awfully Etonian reporter of a woman in a black and white mini dress.

“I don’t see what’s wrong with it,” she replied in pure Essex.

“Do your parents know you are out?” he persists.

“I am over 21, I can do what I like,” she replied indignantly.

But surely this is a revolution? The upper class reporter is clearly shocked.

Then another woman, over excited by the presence of TV cuts in with, “My old man don’t know I am here.” She laughs.

“Your father?” the reporter asks eagerly, excited perhaps by an implied admission of wrong-doing.

“Me ‘usband,” she cackles, “If he finds out I’ve been to a club while he’s working then I’ll get a good hiding.” She laughs again.

“Well he might find out now,” the reporter says smugly.

“He might,” she laughs.

“Does this disturb you?” the reporter is now sounding concerned.

“Nah, he would only wallop my arse,” she reassures him.

The revolution did not end there however. Such exchanges are hard to imagine today, but the 1960s are as far removed from us now as Elvis was from Edwardian London. Here is a vox pop taken from among young women at the time. This was following a series of much publicised cases of domestic spanking.

I am not sure what recent events triggered it, but at the time there was the Helston case and the Darren Nesbit case, where he got a small fine for spanking his wife.

Q: Do you think it is acceptable to spank women?

Respondent 1: Depends what they have done I suppose.

Q: So you do think there are some times when it is justified?

R 1: Yes, there is nothing wrong with it. I don’t hold with fists and that though.

Q: Where you ever spanked, as an adult I mean?

Respondent 1: Sometimes.

Q: By your husband.

R1: No.

Q: Would you object if he did?

R1: he probably should sometimes, I wouldn’t mind, well you know, if I deserved it.

Q: How old is too old for a woman to get a spanking?

R2: I don’t know really. If she is living at home then it is up to whoever. Least that’s the way it was with us.

Q: But what about married women.

R2: Oh well that’s different, I think a man needs to take charge. Nothing wrong with a spanking to put you in your place.

Q: Has your husband ever spanked you?

R2: Yes, many times

Q: Do you think it is acceptable to spank women?

R3: No never, once a woman is over 21 she should be able to live her own life, not in this day and age.

Q: What about if she is under 21?

R3: If she is married, absolutely not.

Q: What if she is still living at home?

R3: That would depend then I suppose.

There was more of this but most of it was much the same, with opinions being split down the middle.

These Man Alive archives and UK Attitude surveys can be found online, but Google reader throws up dozens of pictures and cartoons from the time that show spanking was very much still around.

I was too young in the 1960s and my awareness was based upon an earlier age of old movies. The subtleties of the great changes that obviously went well beyond spanking was something that a I benefitted from but did not contribute to.

I do remember an interview with a bunny girl at the time who shyly admitted that her husband had spanked her with her father’s approval when he found out she had taken the job. Compare this with Miley Cyrus.