Filthy sex and (just a little) Femdom in classic spanking magazines

It's been a real pleasure to work my way through the archives of Janus, Februs and Fessee, picking out the artworks I haven't seen before and the stories that really speak to my interests in spanking and cuckolding.

Februs and Fessee were apparently intended to provide a more 'female' perspective, and judging by little hints in some of the articles, there seemed to be a smouldering desire among the editorial personnel to include F/M content, but such things were rarely illustrated. 'Life the Universe and Sebastian' in Februs 7 opens with this cute femdom scene at a fancy-dress party...

But then the two guests on the left leave together, and he gives her a sound spanking as a warm-up to their liaison..

By the sequel, 'Time is the Fire' (Februs 14), they are very much an item, and he's very much the one in charge...

'I'm going to cane you for fifteen minutes — and after that I'm going to play with you for five.'

And they attend a very different kind of party!

In 'Sam's Mistress' (Februs 34), a wife confronts her husband's 'mistress' to find out she is actually his Mistress...

The Mistress takes the wife as her second slave, starting off their new regime by belt-whipping them both!

Throughout the run of Februs, articles by Julie Holmes were illustrated by scenes that included F/M poses...

In Paula's Column from Februs 22, Paula fulfils her male friend's fantasy – to take him to a male disciplinarian to be caned while she watches. Then he is sent to the corner to watch as Paula is similarly dealt with, only for the janitor to interrupt them...

As well as articles by Paula and Julie, later issues of Februs featured the column 'Madeline with a Sting in Her Tail', about a very naughty lady indeed.

In Februs 46, a young wife catches her husband in flagrante delicto with Madeline (his ex), and orders him to spank her while she watches and masturbates. Then she has her husband fuck her while Madeline spanks his arse... and then they switch places!

The books advertised in the magazines sometimes featured dominant women spanking men. The blurb for 'She Spanks to Conquer' in Februs 13 describes Helga, a German maid who takes charge of two executive couples using her firm methods of effective discipline!'

Even Janus included a hint of femdom in 'The Thin Red Line' (Janus 41). Being well acquainted with her father's strap, a young lady asks for unofficial corporal punishment from her teacher rather than expulsion when she is caught lying in order to spend a night with her boyfriend.

Of course she is found out anyway, but in an interesting twist, she isn't the one to be punished by the strict headmistress...

The two-part 'Star Maker' (Janus 125 and 126) doesn't actually contain any F/M content, but Hardcastle's illustration of the protagonist as a sexy headmistress is sure to make any naughty schoolboy's bottom throb!

Already washed up at the age of 21, a young married actress is tricked into 'auditioning' for a film in which animal rights activists punish those who offend their sensibilities: supermodels who wear fur, members of the hunt, that sort of thing...

Strangely enough, their activities seem to be focused on the female members of the hunt..

In part two she dresses as a sexy headmistress to get revenge on her husband's secretary, who organised the whole thing...

The rest of Janus was of course devoted to accounts of the travails of unfortunate young ladies in a male-dominated world. In 'The Flight of the Weeping Angels' (Janus 71), senior pilots are invited aboard a 24-hour punishment flight run by the world's most exclusive airlines, where select stewardesses who only serve first-class passengers are disciplined for minor indiscretions...

These two were foolish enough to resist the attentions of powerful male passengers...

Compared to Februs, the morose tone of some of the Janus stories rather took me aback... 'Memoirs of a Spanking Enthusiast' (Janus 97, 98 and 99) is a (very) long three-parter about the eponymous enthusiast's affair with a younger woman who craves spanking.

Highlights include him scolding her publicly over breakfast (which she loves) before she is taken home and punished.

When his wife finds out about their affair, there is a suggestion that she may become involved as well... but things play out rather more realistically, and the mistress ends up married to a different older disciplinarian...

Some of the stories are hard going, and you really have to trawl through to unearth the gems. In 'Johanna and Una: Fifteen Minutes of Fame' (Janus 106) an Englishman on holiday has a rather unrealistically splendid time, giving a lusty Greek hotel receptionist a taste for the strap by using it on her as she rides him, before he conspires to have two disrespectful tour guides soundly caned...

The harshness of the Janus stories perhaps suits historical settings better. In 'Roman Games' (Janus 74) a high-born Greek maiden is taken as a slave by the Romans and treated well... 

...until she is given to a Centurion as a prize, with the lady of the house instructing him to whip her first before he has his way with her...

Of course what was considered unacceptable behaviour in historical times is quite different to the present day. At a beach resort in the 1950s in 'Bikini Line' (Janus 132), a young wife parades herself in a skimpy bikini and earns herself a sound spanking from her husband when she is caught – just as her mother advised him to do before her wedding!

And when she disobeys him a second time, he gives a repeat performance on the beach in front of an audience...

...all interspersed with plenty of suggestive descriptions of what inevitably happens after a good hard marital spanking!

I often preferred the women-only stories in Janus, perhaps predicting the more 'fun' tone of Februs. In 'Pretty Polly Punished Polly' (Janus 91) a naïve young lady is taken under the wing of an older woman and extensively schooled in the Sapphic arts. And while her new lover is very strict, she soon discovers that being punished is just as stimulating as the more obvious pleasures...

Sometimes these two worlds clash of course, and the men don't always have it all their own way... In 'Linda Jennings and Sarah Baker: Kicking the Habit' (Janus 101), two waitresses are sent to a stern disciplinarian for punishment. The first needs to quit smoking, and while she confesses that she was once caned at school and got smacked at home and spanked for truancy, she still gets quite the introduction to the cane and strap.

The reason for the second waitress's visit is less clear...

When the disciplinarian realises that she merely used it as a pretence to seduce her colleague, his fury leads him to order a fearsome riding whip to use on the pair of them!

'Crash Damage' (Janus 145) was the last story illustrated by Hardcastle before he was mysteriously replaced as lead illustrator for Janus... and it's a cracker! A hotel receptionist crashes her husband's beloved car into her boss's car, and takes a spanking from a mechanic in exchange for him fixing it before her husband finds out.

Then the receptionist's boss reveals she was caned by her own husband for the damage and demands to deliver the same treatment to the receptionist.

The older woman finds the experience so stimulating that she masturbates furiously afterwards... only to be caught by the hotel manager and caned again before being sent home to explain her stripes to her husband...

Appropriately enough, I have now shared all the new artworks and cuckolding stories I have come across while reading through the Janus archive. It has been such a thrill to read these magazines that I first glimpsed in adverts during my youth, and learn the stories behind these pictures that I have (ahem) enjoyed for so long.

Yet despite having now looked through almost every issue of Janus, and every issue of Februs and Fessee, it is clear to me that collecting every drawing from this Golden Age of Spanking Artwork is an impossible task. There are many, many other spanking magazines from the era that will probably never be seen online. While reading through, I even learned (through adverts in the magazines) that there WAS briefly a femdom magazine in the Janus stable, called Obey.

There is barely any other trace of Obey, outside the adverts in Janus and Februs. Like Sapphire's F/M stablemate, Viper, it doesn't even have an entry on the Spanking Art Wiki. Judging by these low-quality photos of the few second-hand copies I can find for sale online, Obey magazine was extensively illustrated by Hardcastle just as Janus was, so presumably there is a whole lost archive of his F/M artwork that us spankos aren't even aware of, let alone have seen... sigh...