America's most prominent spanking fetishist—Jillian Keenan—doesn't think parents should spank kids:

Spanking is a sex act. It has been for a very long time—probably even longer than it’s been a parenting choice. A fresco at the Etruscan Tomb of the Whipping, which dates back to approximately 490 B.C., depicts an erotic spanking. In Francum, a 1599 epigram by John Davies, includes one of the most explicit descriptions of sexual masochism in Renaissance poetry. In Victorian England—well, there are way toomany examples to list them all, so suffice it to say that spanking was a constant focus of Victorian erotica.

And butts aren’t just culturally sexualized; they’re biologically sexual, too. Nerve tracts that pass through the lower spine carry sensory information to and from both the butt and genitals. Some scientists speculate that these nerves can stimulate one region when the other is provoked. There’s also a blood vessel in the pelvic region called thecommon iliac artery. When blood rushes to a child’s butt—because, say, you’re spanking him—blood rushes down that artery. But the artery splits. Some of it directs blood to the genitals. So when you cause blood to rush to a child’s butt, you’re also causing it to rush to his or her other sex organs. The other time this kind of genital blood engorgement happens is during erection or arousal.

Keenan is reacting to the Adrian Peterson scandal. Peterson, of course, is the NFL player who had admitted to whipping his four-year-old son with a switch. A lot of pixels have been spilled about Peterson after he was indicted on child abuse charges. Here's all I gotta say about his case: If I had whipped my son with a switch when he was four—leaving broken skin and bloody lash marks all over his legs, butt, and scrotum—it wouldn't have inspired a national conversation about spanking and cultural differences. It would've inspired the authorities to put my kid in foster care and me in prison.

And...

Way back when Terry and I were about to become dads I was shocked by the number of people who asked us—out of the blue—if we intended to spank. "Of course," I always replied. "But not the kid."