It’s Difficult To Admit That Childhood Spankings Can Be Sexual Assault

By Noah Berlatsky

Jillian Keenan’s Sex With Shakespeare is a rollicking memoir about Keenan’s dual passions for the Bard and spanking. It includes daring readings of Shakespeare, a lot of kink, and many, many laugh-out-loud funny moments (the revelation of the Obi-Wan Kenobi discipline fan fiction may be the high point).

But along the way, Keenan also talks about more somber topics — including, centrally, child abuse. Keenan knew she was a spanking fetishist from the time she was very young — which means, when her mother spanked her, she experienced those spankings as sexual assaults.

This is a highly charged issue, and one that Keenan is passionate about. But it hasn’t been much covered in the extensive online discussion of her book. And so we embark on the real story, the behind-the-scenes conversation that’s largely being ignored about spanking, fetishes, and sexual assault.

Noah Berlatsky: You said that there’s been little coverage by media outlets of your discussion of child abuse. I was really surprised by that.

Jillian Keenan: It has been astonishing to me how little. I’m so confused! I’m trying very hard to start what I think of as an important conversation; I thought that it would be easier to get the ball rolling…