[This subject is somewhat spread out. I will add links from the
"Weekly Updates" and
"Wonder Woman" topics to this one.]
Phil,
Basically, I'm in complete agreement with you, both as to your specific spanking preferences and as to your observation that there is a wide spectrum of spanking preferences:
Personally, i don't find that a view between the spankee's legs draws my attention away from the spanking or detracts from the overall effect of the pic. in fact i think that in some cases it actually adds to the emotions i am trying to evoke. what i have noticed in my travels through the spanking world is that even though we are all spankos, we all have different ideas about what we like and don't like...................what we think is acceptable and what isn't................what we think is a turn on and what is disgusting etc.
I generally prefer spanking on the bare bottom, whether in real life or in art (the exception being that I prefer some superheroine spanking to take place over costume). It is possible to prevent exposure, as Dan suggests, by leaving some skimpy panties in place - that's one approach, but not the only one. The truth is, I've always hated thongs and other variations on the "wedgie", and I mean really
hated them! They are not to my taste at all. I prefer panties all the way up or all the way down with no middle ground. Taking the woman's panties down is generally an important part of the experience for both men and women. As to the exposure question, if I were an artist I think I'd approach it the same way
Phil does: allow it when appropriate. I might choose camera angles to avoid it at some times, but at other times as I've mentioned elsewhere, it's going to happen.
Of course, I'm not an artist, I'm the editor (web-editor, hence web-ed) of
CSR. Is there any reasonable basis on which I could issue a "no exposure" edict? After considerable reflection, I'd have to say the answer is "No". First of all, not all nudity is erotic. Secondly, nudity for erotic effect in a spanking context is entirely justifiable and, as often as not,
desirable as well. Let's consider some examples.
As I mentioned under "Weekly Updates," nudity even in mainstream comics has been around for a while now:

- Dr. Manhattan bursts on the scene, sans pants, in Watchmen #4 (Dec. 1986)
- dr_manhattan_watchmen_no_4_december_1986.jpg (226.15 KiB) Viewed 19452 times
True, this is
male full-frontal nudity, but at least it proves we're not sexists here! Now there is nothing erotic about this scene. It's neither pornographic nor offensive in my opinion, and it would have been wrong of DC to have insisted on changing it, even though it was a
mainstream book and not an underground comic (which had nudity and graphic sex going back to the 60's). Of course, I'm not out of the woods quite yet - having established, I hope, that not all nudity is offensive, there still remains the question of "exposure" in a spanking context. I think we can break exposure into three categories: incidental, non-incidental but integral, and completely gratuitous.
For a good example of incidental exposure, I would submit one of the works at the center of this controversy, Phil's
Back Side Story picture #15. Let's hear from Phil again:
i show the pic from whatever angle i think will best show what i'm trying to convey
That, to me, is exactly what an artist's attitude should be. You choose the best viewing angle you can to show the spanking, and if exposure happens to result, that's the way it goes. With bare-bottom spanking, to paraphrase
Tanner, exposure happens, and that is what I feel happened in this case: Phil's use of "exposure" was incidental to the work as a whole.
Next, for an example of
non-incidental but integral exposure, let's consider this drawing from Paula Meadows:
I term this non-incidental because it seems to me Paula chose the spankee's position and camera angle deliberately so that "exposure" would take place. To Paula, the embarrassment and vulnerability are part of the experience of being caned, and (we may infer) important to her personally when she herself is the canee. It would be unreasonable to expect an artist of Paula's caliber to suppress this aspect of the spanking experience simply because some people might disapprove of it, and it would be unreasonable of me as an editor to deprive my readers of what is an excellent spanking drawing.
That brings us to completely gratuitous exposure. I'm not sure if Dan feels all exposure is gratuitous, but he strongly disliked this Supergirl/Supergirl example from
Eric Nelson:

I admit Nelson is on much shakier artistic ground here than Paula Meadows was, for he
could have kept almost every aspect of the work as is and still avoided exposure (the very definition of gratuitous), whereas Paula could not have. I did count the "exposure" here as a negative factor. But there were positive factors too - the subject (Supergirl), the good OTK positioning, the anatomy, and the expressions - these were more than enough to outweigh that one negative factor in my view. Also, if I'm in doubt, I want to err on the side of publication, because if I don't post something on
CSR many readers will never see it anywhere else, even if it's available (which it may not be).
It it possible to avoid "exposure" entirely? Yes, of course. We have been fortunate in these forums to have been provided with a large selection of cartoons from
Dan and
b00m, and it must be admitted that they have produced some pretty damn good stuff without exposure.
Congolike would be another example. But the approach of these three artists (and more), as valid and successful as it is, is not the
only approach, and I'm not about to deprive
CSR's readers of works by Nelson, Paula, and others because they do not adhere to it. Frankly, I'd much sooner put a "no thongs" rule into place!
Does that mean there are no standards of any kind at
CSR? Of course not! I'm not going to post hard-core BDSM even if it involves a spanking element, nor will I do anything featuring excessive brutality - in fact,
anything brutal is too much (say broken skin, for example). I may err at where I draw the line, but I do draw it, and there are many pictures and artworks that have come to my attention I would never post.