For this next entry in our Comic Strip Spankings series we have a British import named Jane, which appeared in The Daily Mirror newspaper. From what we can ascertain, Jane was a little like Skygirl - they both seemed to have trouble keeping their clothes on - but where Skygirl would only strip down to her underwear, Jane was sometimes left stark naked. Now, we've never believed America was an especially prudish or Puritanical nation, as is sometimes alleged, but it is a fact that we were always years behind the British when it came to the acceptability of nudity in popular mass media. We well remember being astonished at the time to see naked women in such 1970's British television programs as Benny Hill, Monty Python's Flying Circus, and I, Claudius. Even PBS (which was unlikely to get in trouble with its fellow government agency, the FCC) edited the nudity from I, Claudius on its American premiere in 1976, while with Benny Hill (syndicated to commercial stations) whether the naughty bits were left in or cut out seemed to depend on pure chance, and we saw the same episodes both ways.
There's no nudity in this particular episode, but the spanking is really quite nice. Jane brats the Commander, deliberately challenging him with "And what would you do if I disobeyed you, Commander?" Now when a woman challenges a man like this, it is a fact that she's secretly hoping he will respond firmly, which he does:
"You ought to be clapped in irons, but I've a good mind to spank you, instead!" Her challenge has been met - if she wants to avoid a spanking, all she has to do is be satisfied that her man's resolution has been confirmed and keep her mouth shut. If she chooses to up the stakes by challenging him further, she deserves whatever she gets.
"You wouldn't dare!" No more foolish words have ever been uttered by any woman wishing to avoid a spanking - a man simply cannot let her get away with this. To avoid being seen as weak, he has no choice but to go ahead and administer the spanking, which he does!
There's a nice post-spanking rub with stinging effect lines, too, and the only thing the writer got wrong was to have Max (apparently Jane's confidant) declare, "Physical violence is the final proof of a strong man's devotion." Wrong - spanking is not "physical violence"; when it is not pure punishment, it is the strong man's way of asserting himself in a relationship with a woman he cares about.
Artwork thought to be by Norman Pett. Posted by the Web-Ed on 01/07/2011.
