THE DEBATING SOCIETY Ramona Forsyth was smartly turned out for the occasion. It was her turn to chair the monthly university debate, and she was bound to take pride in her appearance. It was a convention that all students attending a meeting of the debating society dressed properly for the occasion rather than the usual denim and sweatshirt uniform, but when called to be a main speaker or chairperson, they usually made that extra effort. Accordingly she wore a red jacket with matching plain red mini-skirt, a white blouse and black tights. She also wore rather more jewellery and make-up than she would normally, and generally felt very proud of how she looked. She had chaired one previous debate and had been flattered to be invited again. Initially she had been especially keen on this occasion because of the topic. However, as the time had drawn closer, the topic had begun to trouble her rather more, and a part of the reason for the extra trouble she had taken about her appearance tonight had been a measure of boosting her self-confidence. There was no time for nerves now. She rapped her gavel smartly to subdue the murmur of conversation and then stood to announce the motion. "The motion before us tonight is 'This house believes that it is better to be last in line than first in line when you are in trouble.' I call upon Miss. Loretta Gray to propose the motion." Loretta was a seasoned debater and stood up with great confidence and began her case. She was a tall cool blonde with long straight hair. She was wearing a grey trouser suit - very neatly pressed creases showing the trouble she too had gone to - and a pale blue blouse. "Madam Chair, ladies and gentlemen, I propose the motion that it is better to be last in line than first in line when you are in trouble, and in order to illustrate my case I am going to tell you of an incident that I personally experienced a few years ago. I was fourteen years old at the time and considered myself to be a young woman - I certainly considered myself to be too old to be punished by my parents like a small child. However, they saw things slightly differently, perhaps because the incident in question involved my nine year old sister as well. My parents were both doing something upstairs and my sister, Kathryn, and I started fighting over a trivial matter. It was so trivial, that I can't even remember now what it was all about. Anyway she pulled my hair, I kicked her and it all get very violent until a stray fist dislodged a vase and it shattered on the floor. We both froze in silence instantly." She seemed slightly embarrassed now at the recollection of what was to come and nervously sipped a glass of water. Ramona too was feeling a little heady and was glad that everyone's attention would be on Loretta right now. "Well, our parents came running down to see what the noise was about. My mother was really upset because the vase was valuable, but our father was livid. He demanded to know who was responsible and when I explained the truth of what had happened he sent us both up to our bedroom straight away. He didn't keep us waiting long but, as a result, his temper hadn't cooled much. He started on Kathryn first - telling her that he expected better behaviour from her than that and she was going to get something she'd remember for a long time. He didn't actually say that he was going to spank her so when he turned to me and said - 'Loretta, you disappoint me even more because you're supposed to have grown up too much to behave like that, and yet I suppose that you're too old for a spanking' I saw the look of shock register on Kathryn's face as she realised what he intended for her. Neither of us had ever really been spanked and she was pretty scared." She took another sip of water. "I made the big mistake of saying that it was all Kathryn's fault anyway, which of course it wasn't, and he knew it wasn't, but he decided that I was being arrogant and apathetic and that I needed to be taught a lesson, so he had a sudden change of heart and announced that if I was going to behave like a child, I'd be treated like one. I don't think that it registered at first what he meant but then he was grabbing my arm and pulling me face down across his lap. He was very strong and although I struggled he held me tightly. It was summer and I was wearing shorts, and he had no difficulty at all in pulling those down and taking my knickers with them. You can imagine that, at the age of fourteen I was hugely embarrassed but the shame was as nothing compared to the intense stinging a moment later as he began spanking my bottom with his hard heavy hand. I remember crying and yelling for him to stop and kicking my legs around but after a while it was so painful and incessant that I gave in and lay there blubbering like a five year old." "That was when he paused and I felt him reach forward. I had my eyes screwed up closed by now so I didn't see him pick up the wooden backed hairbrush from my dressing table, but I heard the explosive crack and felt a new searing pain as he brought it down firmly on my backside. He gave me six really blistering smacks with that before telling me to stand up. I thought that things couldn't get any worse but I was wrong." "He then made me go and stand in the corner of the room facing the wall. I wasn't allowed to pull up my shorts or knickers that were hobbling me around my ankles by this stage and I had to put my hands on top of my head. Then he began to deal with Kathryn." "She also got a bare bottom spanking - rather more than mine in fact - but he excused her from the hairbrush treatment. I invite you to imagine yourself in my position at that time. I was in real agony myself and wanted nothing more than to rub my sore bottom and try to alleviate some of the smarting. Additionally, I had been grossly humiliated and the humiliation was being continued now as I was made to stand half naked with my bare bottom on show while I heard Kathryn getting her spanking. I can assure this house that the ordeal of standing there waiting to be allowed to restore my dignity a little and try to massage away some of the pain was way and above the worst part of the whole episode. I therefore move that this personal and poignant story illustrates precisely why it is better to be last in line than first in line when you are in trouble. Please support the motion." With that Loretta sat down, glad that the lighting would hide her blushes. The audience, too, seemed slightly bemused by this startling story and there was a moment of silence before the traditional hand-clapping began. It seemed that, for whatever reason, the elegant Miss. Gray had made quite an impact on her audience and was going to be a hard act to follow, although the motivation in the case of some of the male members of the audience if they supported her would probably owe little to the debating style and more to the extremely arousing thought of her standing in the corner with her hot little bottom on show while her shorts and knickers lay around her ankles. She had certainly used an audacious and bold tactic and the result of the debate would now be very interesting indeed. The applause died down and Ramona leaned towards the microphone. She was feeling very hot and her voice wasn't too steady as she spoke. "I now call on Miss. Shona McBryde to oppose the motion." Everyone leaned forward in their seats as Shona took the platform. At that point, common consensus would have been that Shona had her work cut out to follow Lorretta's dramatic and revealing account. However, Shona was widely regarded as the man-eater of the college - a fiery red head who seemed to change boyfriends on a weekly basis and who had the looks that meant there was never a shortage of male interest, even if she had quite ruthlessly exploited so many before, and had frequently ridiculed past boyfriends for their lack of physical prowess and stamina. The aggressive character on this occasion was set off by a short black leather mini skirt, an emerald green blouse and white stockings (and yes, the lads on the front row in front of the platform could definitely confirm that they were stockings and not tights). "I am opposing the motion that this house believes that it is better to be last in line than first in line when you are in trouble. In doing so, I too will illustrate from my personal experience why this motion should be opposed." It was obvious to everyone that Shona had been forced to change her intended approach completely as she never glanced at her notes, although she also seemed to be finding some difficulty in looking straight at members of the audience. "I was educated at a Roman Catholic all-girls school which held very strict and traditional values, and where disobedience to those standards was met with a traditional form of redress. The particular instance I wish to tell you about happened when I was fifteen years old. We were due to play hockey that afternoon, and a small group of us intensely disliked the game at the best of times. The wind and rain on this day made it far from that situation. We had no choice so we went along and got changed with everyone else, but once the teacher had gone out on to the field we deliberately lingered about getting ready until everyone else had gone. We knew that the teacher was a bit batty and would never notice that four of us hadn't made it out on to the field so we settled down in a corner of the changing rooms and I produced a magazine from my bag that I had stolen from my elder sister. Without going into much detail, I shall say that this was an adult oriented magazine with a lot of colour photographs of naked men." There was some muttered reaction from the audience at this point - it certainly seemed in character for Shona to be smuggling pornographic magazines into a Roman Catholic school. "Well, there was a lot of chatter and laughter and as a result we didn't hear Sister Roberts coming in, and to cut a long story short, ten minutes later we were in the headmistress's office looking rather more crestfallen. She asked whose magazine it was and I admitted that it was mine. We all knew that we were in big trouble, and she would have found out sooner or later so it seemed best to come clean. She gave us all a very stern lecture on sin." (There was some laughter from the audience at this point). "Then she told us that we would all be caned. It wasn't very surprising, although none of us had actually been caned before. The teachers all used either a strap or slipper in the classroom and it was generally the rule that if you did anything bad enough to be sent to the headmistress, then a caning was inevitable. She also told us that if any of us were ever found with such a magazine again, we would be given a public caning. These were very rare - perhaps only once or twice a year, when a girl would be caned in front of the assembly of all the school including the teachers. Such canings were carried out by Father O'Toole and were universally feared." "Then she said that we would each get six strokes of the cane across our bottoms which was scary enough, but then she turned to me and said that, because it was my magazine, I would get a more severe punishment after the others. She didn't say what it was to be and I was frightened to death - I could well believe that I was actually going to get a public caning this time. Anyway, she wasted no more time on me there and then. She opened a cupboard and took out the cane she intended to use. It was a pale coloured rattan cane with a traditional curved handle which looked quite light, but also appeared very whippy as she flexed it between her hands in an intimidating way." "She told the first girl to go to the middle of the room and to touch her toes. Obviously frightened, she did so. School tradition was that for a caning on your bottom, your skirt was always hitched up and turned back, but that was hardly necessary given that we were all wearing our short games skirts anyway. She made quite a theatrical event out of it, waiting a long time between each stroke and whipping it down from a considerable height and with amazing accuracy into the dead centre of Christine's knickers. I noticed that when Christine was finally allowed to stand up with tears streaming down her face, the other two girls were already crying and found that I was as well. For fully ten minutes I had to endure the awful agony of watching my friends being caned in the knowledge that, sooner or later, it would be my turn. Even if I had only had to face the same as them it would have been torture to watch the obviously agonising ordeal for each girl, but I had the added worry of this threat of a more serious punishment." "Finally the time came - there were three snivelling girls standing on the other side of the room wiping the tears from their faces with the backs of their hands and probably desperate to rub their bottoms but well aware that etiquette prohibited such immodesty. I was told to come to the middle of the room and to touch my toes. I still had no idea what my extra was to be, but in a way, I was glad that the waiting was over. I had some doubts as to whether I should be glad or not when the first sizzling stroke landed, and by the second I thought my bottom must be cut in half. Somehow I managed to keep in position for the full six and then waited to hear the instruction that I could stand. Instead, Sister O'Conner told me that I was to recive one extra stroke for bringing the magazine into school. I tensed waiting for it but there was a delay and I heard the cane clatter down on her desktop. Curious as to the delay, I didn't have to wait long to find the reason. She stepped up behind me and in one swift movement pulled my knickers down to my knees. The sensation of cool air on my hot smarting bottom was odd, but I was also very embarrassed at having her see my bare bottom like that." "She was clearly going to make sure I really remembered this experience for a long time. She picked up the cane again and lined it up on my bottom. The thin bamboo was cold to the touch but pressed against the very sore area that she had already inflamed, it was certainly not comforting. Then she lifted her arm and I heard a whistle before it cracked loudly across the target. I swear she used more force on that one stroke than on the other six put together, and I couldn't stop myself from yelling out." "Then I was allowed to stand with the others while she made an entry for all of us in the official school punishment book. By the time that was done, I had recovered enough to be able to listen to what she said although I couldn't imagine sitting down for a week. She told us that we had all behaved disgracefully, and as an additional punishment we would all be in detention after school on the next Thursday, and that I would be in detention the week after that as well. Finally I was allowed to pull up my knickers and we all paraded out of the office." "Looking back, I don't think any of us got more severely punished that we would have expected although it was quite awful at the time. Nevertheless, the thing I remember most, the thing I will always remember most, was the waiting and the having to watch everyone else getting punished first. I may not have been transformed into an angel overnight, but I made very sure I never got sent to Sister O'Conner again. I therefore conclude that actually being first in line is sometimes better than being last when you are in trouble and I urge you to oppose the motion." There was tumultuous applause as Shona took her seat and that gave Ramona a few seconds to try to control her own voice before she opened the debate to the floor. The debate from the floor was particularly poor although there were a couple of brave souls who also related brief anecdotes of times they had been in trouble, but more of the time the male members of the audience made pointless remarks just as a vehicle to allow them to refer to either Shona's or Lorretta's story. Finally, Ramona decided to move to the vote and, for once, she felt relieved to be on the platform in the chair as this excused her from voting. A show of hands was too close to call, so she organised tellers and took the vote again. Finally a piece of paper was handed to her with the official count. Her hands shook visibly as she read it, and her voice was more quivery than ever. "In support of the motion, 56 votes. Against the motion, 56 votes..." Pandemonium - clapping and cheering broke out all around. She clicked the microphone off for a second or two, glad of the respite, but all too aware that she would now have to use her casting vote, and very publicly choose a side. Ridiculous, she told herself, the audience will never know why - they'll assume I'm voting on the standard of the arguments. "I cast my vote..... against the motion. The motion is defeated." The pandemonium intensified. *** Walking back to the halls of residence with her boyfriend, Ramona was annoyed that he wanted to keep on talking about the debate and especially about the two opening addresses. But she was more perturbed when he moved to the subject of her voting against the motion. "I was surprised - I thought Lorretta's case was better argued and you've never liked Shona either. What made you vote against?" "You're obviously forgetting that Shona wasn't the only one to go to a Catholic school aren't you." she snapped, instantly regretting what she had said and what it implied. He was silent in thought for a while as he thought through the ramifications. Then his hand slipped down from around her waist to rest on the back of her red miniskirt where he could feel the shape of her buttocks as she walked. "I think there's something you'd better be telling me when we get back to your room...." he said.