In pre-Christian mythology, one of the personifications of temptation was the Siren. Although the descriptions of the creatures often changed with the telling, Sirens were seducers of man.

Although there never have been any literal Sirens, their equivalents dominated political thought in the Western World for much of the twentieth century. However, unlike the Sirens of mythology, these seducers preyed on women as well as men.

While one of their enchanting songs claimed that women did not need men, another is more germane to this forum. It was that, despite the cumulative wisdom of the ages, spanking was not necessary.

In various newsgroups, internet forums, and books, the latter day Sirens sing their song. In each instance, the words are remarkably similar - spanking is not necessary; there are alternatives.

Even where spanking seems to be permitted, it is often so watered down as to be ineffective. Then, that seems to be the intent.

The latter aspect of Siren's song is of particular interest because, during the early years of our marriage, I was truly ignorant that, despite all the talk about a *kinder gentler* husband, there are simply those times when a woman expects an old-fashioned bare-bottom blistering! Otherwise, she will come to despise the man whom she once promised to love.

Over the years, one pattern has emerged in tales of adultery. Typically, there is an undisciplined wife looking for a man able to handle her. This fact may explain why spanking is more common in second marriages than in first marriages.

The penchant for adultery in undisciplined women may be as much a biological urge to find a dominant mate, as it is a personal choice. As much as anything, it explains the predictability of the phenomenon after a few years of unfulfilled marriage to a weak or timid male.

At times in human history, survival of the species has depended on the woman's ability to find a dominate male. Despite the trappings of a *modern* and supposedly *civilized* society, this instinct is still resident in the female mind.

Merely spanking a woman is not the same as *disciplining* her. It has to be more than going through the motions. Nor is ineffectiveness in spanking necessarily age specific - as the following insightful instance illustrates.

When asked what lesson she learned after her mother - by then a thoroughly exacerbated but nevertheless certified professional child expert - finally bent her irrepressible daughter over to supposedly straighten her out, the unfazed preteen quipped, "Mom can't spank!"

According to the Sirens, in their calculated *war on spanking*, the ridiculous outcome exists as proof that all spanking is an ineffective disciplinary tool. Obviously, even the preteen knew better.

Along the same lines, my wife confessed that - early in our marriage - she often wondered when her husband was going to finally get it through his silly head that he was not *getting through* to her. By that, she meant that she could not understand why my spanking her with my hand on her bare buttocks was not as effective as intended.

In time, my wife had to explain to me that women require a paddling - or equivalent - of their bare buttocks if the experience is going to reach their brain. It was not that I did not know how to do it; I was oblivious of what women consistently expect.

Initially, women understand spanking much better than do men. It is, after all, very much a *girl thing* after a certain age.

This is not to say that post-pubescent boys never can be paddled. However, the way they process the *pain in their posteriors* does not lend itself to repeated applications. They tend to rebel.

On the other hand, girls *internalize* the experience and incorporate the *lessons* learned as a guide to future behavior. This specific difference in gender responses is what makes *domestic discipline* possible.

How much of her intrinsic and experiential knowledge a woman is willing to share with a man often determines the outcome of the marriage. As one well-educated trophy wife put it: It is not how to spend the money or how often to have sex that determines how the marriage turns out; it is what to do when the wife needs spanking.

Moreover, the woman added, the spanking had to *hurt* to be effective. It was her way of saying that the application had to reach the woman's mind.

Despite the Sirens' song, spanking is necessary - even desirable. Privately, women acknowledge the fact.

Traditionally, women have expected men to figure all of this out for themselves. It was a test of suitability for mating.

Now, however, in a world of only children raised by single mothers and forced to attend feminist-dominated public schools, young men have trouble understanding what women really expect men to do when they test them.

The result of this ignorance - largely created by the Siren's tempting song - is the cause of much of the family instability and dissolution that troubles the United States today.

If men and women are going to survive the present *turbulence*, they are going to have to ignore the allure to the Siren's song and, much as their ancestors did before them, do that which is sometimes necessary to make the marriage work.

That, despite politically correct propaganda to the contrary, involves a panties-down paddling that leaves the woman's bottom sore, but her mind clear and calm. This really is not something that a woman can do for herself. Nor can another woman even do it as effectively!

As women have pointed out, both physically and psychologically, females were made to be spanked by a man. Despite the latter day Siren's song, it really is in the genes.