I have noticed that I have been referred to several times as “the author of this blog” or “site owner”, which tells me that I haven’t done a very good job of using my name. I am not ashamed of what I am doing here, so I did post my name in the very first entry, but have neglected to do so in any others—I will mention it every so often from now on. I am your humble moderator, Buddy Olive. Please feel free to contact me via email at whippingdudes@yahoo.com. I get a lot of spam to that account, so let’s have the readers of this blog us a code for the subject line: write TAKE THE LASH in all caps. ;)
In a response to a comment made by Richie to the “Flogging As Entertainment” post (January 12), I asked readers to ask themselves this question—and respond with a comment: "What draws you to flogging?" Mark, a new member, wrote a fantastic response to the same post, so I encourage anyone who has a real interest in this to go back and read it.
I knew from a very young age that this excited me beyond words, but I always felt that I had to keep this interest to myself. I was especially struck by how much I am in agreement with Mark’s succinct observation:
“I used to find it almost terrifying if a flogging came on the TV and my parents were there - I somehow thought they would sense I longed for it. I used to even forget to breathe and then suddenly have to fight hard not to take a huge intake of breath. REALLY intense interest which has never gone away. “
Since I have always thought of this as an endurance test—and indeed an often unwelcome form of punishment that is nonetheless enjoyable to watch—I have always felt that nudity was inappropriate and unnecessary for a flogging. Mark is spot on with this:
“A guy needs to test his mettle - or pay the price - with his back, bared from the shoulders to the waist. Nothing else need be naked. Just the bit that is going to be flogged, caned, lashed, belted or otherwise "tested". In other words, just his back.”
Thanks to the internet, we can now create a community—right here—of people who understand this very natural desire to test ourselves and watch others get tested. But it still remains an “underground” pursuit. Mark closed his comment by noting that he had joined the WhippingDudes FaceBook page, but felt that, since friends and family can see everything he does there, he had to remove his posts to the page. I understand his concern and agree that FaceBook is probably not the best place to enhance this community, but I wanted to create a page there so that anyone who uses Facebook that likes flogging as a sport can more easily find this blog.