Well, as it turned out I didn't have to go to Hastings, but I
am still a bit short of time
and my broadband is playing up so I'm keeping this a bit short and sweet.
(Click on title to go to previous scanned letters page)
Time for another of my collection of scans from 1980s spanking mags that have influenced my ideas and writing over the years. The one one to the left is taken from the letters page of an edition of that wonderful magazine,
'Uniform Girls'. It was the reference to 'cruel exploitation' and in particular the writer's interest in punishment without crime, i.e. punishing a girl even though innocent of anything other than being attractive to his eye, that played a part in molding the framework for the INSTITUTIONALISED series, at least in part.
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More specifically, it is the writer's astute observation of that aspect of humiliation attached to the girl's knowledge of the unjust nature of her punishment, imposition or restriction, that is inspirational here (at least I think so). It is akin to that felt by the subject in her day to day obedience of the more petty of the rules and restrictions that have come to govern her life to such extent; the knowledge that such impositions are just that - petty and imposed for no other reason then to wield control over her and, worse, for the amusement of others (and / or their gain in the context of INSTITUTIONALISED).
.....
The letter to the right was taken from the same magazine, I think, but it just could have come from either 'Whispers' or 'Blushes' (both sister publications to uniform girls). Again there is this emphasis on so-called 'blameless punishment' that was so in vogue in the letters pages of such publications at the time.
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Note the mention of the humiliating aspect of the subject's required mode of dress; a theme running throughout volume 1 of INSTITUTIONALISED and that, it is planned, will be revisited throughout the series in various and hopefully interesting ways.