Spankos who make ya go "hmmm"

Three years ago, the very first comment I ever got on my blog was from Patty (and boy has this week so been deja vu of that first commented post). And through the years she has often had funny and friendly words to say which I've appreciated very much.

So, way, way back in April, Patty tagged me for the Thoughtful Spankos meme snaking its way through the spanking blogosphere, as well as listed me as one of the blogs she deemed thoughtful. Unfortunately a combination of illness and laptop woes had diminished my blog reading significantly at the time, and I missed her post and kind words. Indeed, I would have missed the post altogether had I not found it by accident one night a couple of months back during one of those all too familiar circuitous jaunts of "follow the link".

It is now time to address my dereliction of duty and attend to my tagged responsibilities.

I should say at the outset that each of my fellow bloggers at the Punishment Book would always be on my "most thoughtful" list. But listing them seems a bit cliquish.

And it's certainly not like there is a dearth of thoughtful spankos aside from them. Indeed, picking only five is very difficult. So consider the following list to be blogs that just happen to be resonating with me lately, or have resonated so much they immediately spring to mind when I'm asked by a competent psychiatric professional to list the first thing I think of when he or she says "thoughtful spanko."

I've been reading Vivian at the Disciplined Feminist for awhile and, like a number of other people, I've found her very thoughtful. I don't always agree with her, but in the process of trying to decide whether I agree or not, I do, you know, a lot of thinking.

Probably the newest blogger of the bunch is fellow Portlander, Abby, who has proved to be a detailed, introspective, thoughtful spanko blogger at The Little Red Schoolhouse . And, you know, she's local. And since I like to support local agriculture and local businesses, why not support local spanking blogging?

I have always found Raven at Skin Prayers to be a thoughtful spanko, whether commenting here or at the Punishment Book or posting on the soc.sexuality.spanking newsgroup. As a fellow practicing Catholic, I appreciate her continuing effort to blend faith and kink. As kinky reader, I also appreciate her ability to write some damn fine erotica.

Now in its first few years, it seemed that women dominated the spanking blogosphere. And while I dislike generalizations -- particularly when it's in regard to gender -- I do think women tend to share feelings and fantasies more comfortably than men.

However, in the last couple of years, more men have started blogging about their fantasies, if not always their feelings. Though as men tend (again, I cringe as I write the word tend) to be more visually oriented, their blogs have often been dominated by pictures rather than text.

But there are a few male spanko bloggers whose primary medium remains exposition, commentary and analysis.

James Stephenson is one such blogger, sharing memories and insights about his spanking kink that often remind me of my own memories and get me thinking about my own kink.

Matt Anglen, who is running a Shadow Lane Marathon at the moment, is another male blogger who freely shares his kinky observations. One of my favorite posts is this one about how being smart as a kid sort of steals your childhood in a way and spanking is a nice way of getting a bit of it back. It helped me articulate something I'd sensed (how many times did I hear from relatives and Sunday School Teachers that I was "too mature" for something even though I was no older than the other kids?) but had never properly formulated in my mind.

So, that is my very, very late list of five thoughtful spanko bloggers. And again, I should emphasize that there are a lot of other bloggers who I could just as well have listed. And if I wrote this post a couple of weeks from now, it would very well be an entirely different five. Oh and one I didn't list was Bonnie, but that's just because everybody listed her -- and rightly so.

And since this meme is at that "it's so moldy does anyone even remember what it was?" point, I couldn't possibly begin to tag people because I suspect just about everybody I'd tag has probably already done it. If you are reading this, have a blog and haven't been tagged at some point, well, go ahead, tag yourself and give us five spanko bloggers you think are thoughtful.