Asking for punishment
Asking for punishment is to require from a delinquent to verbally ask for their punishment before it is given. It is a sometimes employed method of humiliation that requires, and strengthens, obedience, penitence, discipline and cooperation with the punishment.
In a larger ritual, the person is first required to admit their guilt and the wrongness of their offense, then to agree that the offense requires punishment (and perhaps, specifically what kind of punishment), and finally to ask to be given the said punishment. In the case of corporal punishment, the person may also be made to fetch the implement and hand it to their disciplinarian. Further ideas behind the ritual might be that it suppresses resistance and perhaps also to reduce guilty feelings on the side of the disciplinarian.
Asking for punishment as a pre-spanking ritual is often associated with Victorian era discipline, but is probably much older and found historically for example in religious institutions such as convent schools. Today the technique has largely fallen out of fashion in Western countries, but is still alive in spanking fiction such as spanking stories and videos.
The counterpart to asking for punishment is thanking for punishment.
"Asking for it"
All right, Miss Vanessi... you asked for it and you're going to get it!
– Famous quote from the musical Kiss Me, Kate
"Asking for it" is also a phrase used whenever a child behaves particularly cheeky or naughty in the presence of a parent or other authority figure, or in a situation where they will be easily caught, despite the fact that they should well know their misbehavior will result in due punishment. Psychological explanations for such behavior can be, for example, that the child wants to test their limits, is rebelling against authority, or wants attention so much that even punitive attention is welcome.
"Asking for it" is also sometimes applied to the behavior of adults.
In spanking art, film and literature
In the spanking comic Jade growing up again, asking for punishment is a recurring theme and is the third of the Four Steps.
See also
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