W.O.S.H. Club
Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 6:29 pm
A contributor at The Library of Spanking Fiction named - or known as - Tiredny placed an interesting item in that site's Forum. I have, for several years now, been looking for the original source material that first mentions an alleged 1930s' organization called Wives Of Spanked Husbands Club or sometimes simply the Spanked Wives Club among other titles this group went by over the years. His or hers entry enabled me to link to a digital copy of the pertinent magazine. Liberty was a periodical with a decidedly conservative bent that was published from 1924-1950. Inside it was more in the format of one of the Hollywood centered magazines of the day then of Life or Time. The covers though, in the early years mostly by Leslie Thrasher, definitely followed the style of The Saturday Evening Post. Here's an example, the October 5, 1940 cover:
The July 17, 1937 issue contained a nice M/F image that was illustrating a work of fiction; I found it through a search engine but I think Harry gets credit for scanning this one: Now that I've provided a bit of the flavor of Liberty magazine I'm ready to get to the point. Let's take a closer look at 'W.O.S.H' and see what it was actually all about. The Liberty article as it appears below is complete but the format is quite different since I was unable to clip the original from the digital magazine.
Liberty Vol 13 No. 50
DECEMBER 12, 1936
SPANKED WIVES FORM CLUB
Sioux City, Ia. — I am going to ask a favor for our club, and hope that you will grant it. I am a young married woman and I organized a club of twelve other married women between the ages of nineteen and forty. We call our club the W. O. S. H. Club — meaning wives of spanking husbands. Our husbands always spank us when we need it, and we admire them for it, and we know that clubs like ours will prevent many divorces.
Most all wives need to be spanked about every so often, and it really makes them like their husbands more and brings couples closer together and also makes home life something to be proud of. We expect to have thirty members by a month from now, and we always insist that they buy a Liberty before they come to the meetings, which are held once a week on Thursday or sometimes Friday.
It was through your magazine that we got interested in forming a club. We have voted to give three dollars to the lady, married or single, who sends us the best letter about spanking. After we decide which letter is best, we will send it to Vox Pop to be printed in Liberty, and the three dollars will be sent to the winner.
We hope you will help us, as we want all the information we can get about spanking. — Reta Rae.
[We receive quite a lot of letters about spanking— it seems to be in the air — and we feel sure Mrs. Rae will hear plenty on the subject. — Vox Pop Editor.]
A lot of interesting stuff here. Of course if such an club actually existed in Sioux City it would mean that an awful lot of spanking was going on in Iowa marriages in 1936 [that would most likely be true whether a spanking centered club existed or not] and that a group of women, who were dang proud of the fact their husband's spanked them, had formed said club
Vox Pop was the name of a two page weekly feature in Liberty that seemed to be a combination letters to the editor and off-beat news. If Liberty did indeed ever publish a 'best letter about spanking' I've yet to see it. I like the fact that the editor says that the magazine receives 'a lot of letters about spanking'. I think writing letters is what spankos did before we had the internet as a playground.
More on W.O.S.H. Club history next time.
[My head says this co-ed stumbled due to skating and reading at the same time. My heart and hormones contend that she ran into a young man while being reckless and he responded by whacking her backside with that ruler, then she fell, further hurting her rear end. She seems to be staring at someone she blames for her predicament - but I digress ] The July 17, 1937 issue contained a nice M/F image that was illustrating a work of fiction; I found it through a search engine but I think Harry gets credit for scanning this one: Now that I've provided a bit of the flavor of Liberty magazine I'm ready to get to the point. Let's take a closer look at 'W.O.S.H' and see what it was actually all about. The Liberty article as it appears below is complete but the format is quite different since I was unable to clip the original from the digital magazine.
Liberty Vol 13 No. 50
DECEMBER 12, 1936
SPANKED WIVES FORM CLUB
Sioux City, Ia. — I am going to ask a favor for our club, and hope that you will grant it. I am a young married woman and I organized a club of twelve other married women between the ages of nineteen and forty. We call our club the W. O. S. H. Club — meaning wives of spanking husbands. Our husbands always spank us when we need it, and we admire them for it, and we know that clubs like ours will prevent many divorces.
Most all wives need to be spanked about every so often, and it really makes them like their husbands more and brings couples closer together and also makes home life something to be proud of. We expect to have thirty members by a month from now, and we always insist that they buy a Liberty before they come to the meetings, which are held once a week on Thursday or sometimes Friday.
It was through your magazine that we got interested in forming a club. We have voted to give three dollars to the lady, married or single, who sends us the best letter about spanking. After we decide which letter is best, we will send it to Vox Pop to be printed in Liberty, and the three dollars will be sent to the winner.
We hope you will help us, as we want all the information we can get about spanking. — Reta Rae.
[We receive quite a lot of letters about spanking— it seems to be in the air — and we feel sure Mrs. Rae will hear plenty on the subject. — Vox Pop Editor.]
A lot of interesting stuff here. Of course if such an club actually existed in Sioux City it would mean that an awful lot of spanking was going on in Iowa marriages in 1936 [that would most likely be true whether a spanking centered club existed or not] and that a group of women, who were dang proud of the fact their husband's spanked them, had formed said club
Vox Pop was the name of a two page weekly feature in Liberty that seemed to be a combination letters to the editor and off-beat news. If Liberty did indeed ever publish a 'best letter about spanking' I've yet to see it. I like the fact that the editor says that the magazine receives 'a lot of letters about spanking'. I think writing letters is what spankos did before we had the internet as a playground.
More on W.O.S.H. Club history next time.