Punishment Series 8 — Sophie

A Thursday special post — an interview with Sophie Fennington, naturally. From Janus 60.

Once again, when shooting CP Tease (Janus 53, 54) we based the character of the chastisee very closely on that of the young lady who played the part. In casting our photo fantasies we seek not to impose an invented persona on the blank canvas of a model, but instead whenever possible to base the story on elements we discern in the model herself. Which is why taking part in a Janus photo session has often been a revelation for the girls involved.

To all intents and purposes, the truth of the model who portrayed Sophie Fennington in CP Tease is one she shares with her character. The young man who appeared with her as her husband, Christian Fennington, is her real-life husband and the couple are dedicated practitioners of the CP art. The one big difference between Sophie and the real girl is that the latter has much more experience of taking thrashings — and provoking them.

In this authentic interview she explains how this came about, and issues a challenge to all other females who enjoy receiving chastisement.

JANUS: Can you tell us a little bit about your background?

SOPHIE I was born in Gloucester, then I moved abroad to Malta with my father. he was in the Service. I went on to Hong Kong and various other places and then came back to England. I ended up back in Gloucester for a few years. I don’t really remember much about my junior schools, but my final school was a boarding school in Shropshire. The boarding house was completely separate to the school, which was mixed. The boarding house was just for girls.

JANUS: Did any of the schools that you went to around the world use CP as a punishment?

SOPHIE: Yes, the last school I went to used the cane. The cane was also used at the boarding house: either on the hand, or sometimes a couple across your bottom.

JANUS: Did you ever have any punishment at school?

SOPHIE: I didn’t at the school, but I did at the boarding house. This was part of the school, but about a mile away. I actually was in trouble at the school, but because I was a boarder I had my punishment at the boarding house.

JANUS: What were you punished for?

SOPHIE: Well. it was because of my father. He wouldn’t allow me to have my lessons with the mixed group. I had to have them separately, and he also wouldn’t allow me to go out into the playground as it was mixed. My father had wanted me to go to an all-girls’ school, but because he could only get me into the boarding house I was not to mix. I broke this rule.

JANUS: I should think that was an unusual situation, wasn’t it? Were there many other girls in the school who were also not allowed to join the boys?

SOPHIE: Only me and one other girl. We used to sit in the same classroom together, just the two of us.

JANUS: I’d like to take this a little further as I find this interesting. Did this affect your attitude to the opposite sex, was your curiosity aroused more than a would otherwise have been? Did it have any effect at all?

SOPHIE: Um, it did. It made me feel that I was the odd one out, but I think it was more due to my parents splitting up. My mother ran off with my father’s best friend. He made me responsible for that. I wasn’t allowed to mingle with boys.

JANUS: Did you resent that?

SOPHIE: Not really.

JANUS: I presume you got into trouble for talking to the boys, then?

SOPHIE: The Headmistress summoned me to her study and reminded me of this order from my father. She said I wasn’t to do it and that I already knew about it, and that the Matron from the boarding house had seen me breaking this rule.

JANUS: How bad was it? Did you simply mix?

SOPHIE: Well, no, I just went out into the quadrangle with this other girl.

JANUS: And you got punished for this?

SOPHIE: Yes, I got three strokes of the cane on the hand.

JANUS: Did they hurt very much?

SOPHIE: Yes, but I didn’t cry because I’m stubborn and I didn’t want anybody to see that it hurt me. I gritted my teeth.

JANUS: Was that your first experience of CP?

SOPHIE: No. My father was a bit heavy-handed with canes, or sticks.

JANUS: But at this stage, you didn’t get any enjoyment or think you might like CP, did you?

SOPHIE: Oh no, I was dead against it, I used to hate it.

JANUS: Apart from the caning you received at school, what experience had you had of Corporal Punishment up to the time you met Christian?

SOPHIE: I met Christian when I was about 18. Before then I lived with someone else. I took him home with me one day. My father’s religious and at home you can’t say things like ‘damn’ and ‘blast’. I said one of these words and my father dragged me from the lounge to the kitchen to beat me.

JANUS: Whilst your boyfriend was there?

SOPHIE: Yes. But that was stopped, due to him being there. But if he hadn’t been there, I’d have got it. That was when I was 17.

JANUS: How would he have beaten you — with his hand?

SOPHIE: It could have been with his hand across my face. But he has sent me with my brother down the garden to get a stick so that he could beat me with it.

JANUS: Your father was an old-fashioned disciplinarian. Do you think he was over-strict?

SOPHIE: Yes.

JANUS: Did he often punish you in this way, or only on rare occasions when you transgressed what he considered to be certain limits?

SOPHIE: It happened quite a lot. He did not stop punishing me in this way until I was in my late teens.

JANUS: Can you tell us a bit more about an incident that happened in your life with your father to give an example of the extremity he went to in CP?

SOPHIE: Well, there was one occasion where my brother’s bedroom had been decorated and at 3 o’clock in the morning my father went in to check on my brother and he found that a small piece of paper had been chipped off the wall. So he got my brother out of bed and sent him to get a stick and I came in to see what was happening and I started calling my father all these names and I was told to take my brother’s punishment for being so rude.

JANUS: What form did the punishment take?

SOPHIE: He told me to bend over and pull up my night-dress and he gave me the stick.

JANUS: Can you remember what kind of stick it was?

SOPHIE: It was a thinnish stick. An ordinary garden stick. It wasn’t a cane. My brother had to go down to the garden to get it.

JANUS: Was it very severe? Did it hurt you a lot?

SOPHIE: Oh yes. It hurt. He didn’t believe in holding back.

JANUS: The particular punishment you’ve just described was in your brother’s bedroom, I presume. Was your brother there when you were punished?

SOPHIE: Yes, he was there. He was in bed. He was facing the wall.

JANUS: Were you aware of him listening to your punishment, if he wasn’t actually watching?

SOPHIE: At the time I wasn’t even aware that he was there — it just all happened so quick.

JANUS: Do you think it was your father’s policy to react so rapidly as a deterrent, or was it just spontaneous?

SOPHIE: I think it was spontaneous. And if the situation arose again and my brother was in the room, he wouldn’t send him out but if he wasn’t there, he wouldn’t call him in either.

JANUS: What were your first experiences of CP outside the home or school?

SOPHIE: My first experiences were with Christian. He was helping me move house. I was moving into a room, my first room after leaving my first boyfriend. Christian was helping me move in and he was carrying my suitcases and bags and I said, ‘Oh don’t do that, you wally.’ And he turned round and said, ‘Don’t call me a wally, or I shall spank you.’ So I was intrigued, so I continued to call him ‘Wally, Wally, Wally.’ And he took me over his knee and spanked me!

JANUS: In what way were you spanked?

SOPHIE: Well he was sitting on the bed and he pulled me across his knee.

JANUS: What were you wearing?

SOPHIE: Jeans, so he started to spank me over my jeans. Then he took them down and spanked me using his hand. He gave me about six.

JANUS: Did they hurt?

SOPHIE: They weren’t too bad.

JANUS: Did they stimulate you?

SOPHIE: Yes, they did.

JANUS: What happened after the spanking?

SOPHIE: Well, we ended up having nookie and he went home!

JANUS: Was that the first indication you had that you were getting into it? You obviously liked it. Was that the first time you enjoyed Corporal Punishment?

SOPHIE: It was the first time I liked it and the first experience I had where it turned me on a little bit, but I was aware that Christian was into CP before I got involved with him.

JANUS: Did that fill you with any forebodings, knowing that Christian was into CP before it happened? Because you’d had CP on not a very pleasant level, up to that point.

SOPHIE: No. I was wary of it, but up to the first occasion when it actually happened I knew that I was safe with him.

JANUS: Didn’t you have any anticipation before it happened? Did you want it to happen, were you not sure you wanted it to happen? Were you excited by the prospect or were you worried?

SOPHIE: Yes, I was worried. I wasn’t quite sure what was going to happen, how hard it was going to be or if it was going to be painful or if it would remind me of the past, until I actually tried it.

JANUS: After the first experience with Christian, how long was it before you had a second experience? Was it something that you had to make a decision about, as to whether you wanted to be part of it?

SOPHIE: Well, because it was a new relationship and I was attached to him, the following day he came round to see me. It was a Sunday, and an occasion came up where I had been naughty or done something minor, and I got spanked again. So it happened quite quickly after the first occasion.

JANUS: Can I just ask Christian something there? Did you feel at that stage that Sophie was somebody who could get into CP or did you know anything about her background? Were you worried about introducing her to this subject? Were you concerned that it could damage your relationship, or did you think it might cement it?

CHRISTIAN: I knew a lot about her background because her biggest boyfriend was a friend of mine, so I knew about her anyway. On that first occasion when she goaded me into spanking her, I knew she was a girl who was already interested in it before I ever came in on the scene.

JANUS: Did that confirm your suspicions? You were definitely sure of it?

CHRISTIAN: Oh yes.

JANUS: And the second time, was it on the same level or did it gradually build up to something more severe? Because this is something that is now very much a part of your life. Did you feel at that stage that it was going to be, or did you just think it would be a pleasurable thing occasionally?

SOPHIE: At that time it was very slight, not at all hard or severe, but I knew that it would get a little bit harder and take place on a regular basis.

JANUS: The first time he spanked you was by hand. When was the first time he used anything other than the hand on you?

SOPHIE: A couple of months afterwards. We’d moved into another room at the beginning of the year.

CHRISTIAN: You’re forgetting the severe ‘shoeing’ I gave you at the beginning of the year. And that was severe.

SOPHIE: Oh yes, we were watching a film.

CHRISTIAN: You had an armchair in the room and I bent you over it and spanked you with it, a trainer.

JANUS: Did you find you needed an excuse or could you actually indulge in this without an excuse, or was the excuse a sort of mental balm to both of you?

CHRISTIAN: I always felt I needed an excuse. I still do, I think it’s much better.

JANUS: You can’t just do it simply because you both want to?

SOPHIE: You need an excuse. But I think when you’re having nookie, and you get a few hand slaps on the bum, then you don’t need an excuse!

JANUS: You did mention the shoeing and that intrigues me. You said it was bent over the armchair during the course of watching television together and some minor indiscretion occurred. What happened? Was it as severe as Christian suggested?

SOPHIE: I remember that it was severe, but I can’t quite remember the reason why. My bottom was black and blue for days. I think he took a few pictures.

JANUS: We’ve now established that you have to have an excuse. What kind of things provoke CP?

SOPHIE: There was one time when we had had a really terrible quarrel. It went on for a long time and at the end of it, Christian went out and bought a cane and came home and he put me on the bed and he caned me very severely. My legs, my arms, my back. Everywhere. And then he broke the cane in half after he’d finished.

JANUS: Did he break the cane in half whilst using it on you, or as a symbolic act as completion of caning?

SOPHIE: As a symbolic act. And I got the two halves and I taped the pieces together and I still keep it.

JANUS: Why?

SOPHIE: Because it was at a terrible, terrible time when we kept fighting, and it reminds me that I’m not to fight and argue.

JANUS: Did you at any time feel, when you were getting it that severely, that maybe CP wasn’t something you enjoyed after all, or did you get enjoyment out of that also?

SOPHIE: I got enjoyment, I got pleasure, I knew that it was the end of our fight and that it wouldn’t be discussed again. It was like a story, with a beginning, a middle and that was the end.

JANUS: Do you feel that this process of punishment and atonement has come to fruition in your relationship, that it has made a great difference to you both?

SOPHIE: Yes.

JANUS: Wonderful. Can you give us some kind of idea of what you go through, of the variations you go into? As you’re both so heavily involved, you must be trying different things all the time. Can you tell us some of the things that you’ve done, the instruments that you’ve tried and the different types of punishment?

SOPHIE: Well, we’ve used the cane quite often. Also shoes, brushes, Michael’s belt — Michael’s a friend of ours. He’s also on occasion been in the same room when Christian is punishing me. Actually the first day we met him, it was a Sunday, we’d been to the pub and had a drink and we’d gone back to his place. He’s got a really fabulous penthouse and we’d spent all afternoon there, drinking, talking and getting to know him. Christian went out on to the balcony with me, and then Michael took some pictures of me bent over Christian’s knee and of Christian spanking me. My bottom was getting redder and sorer and then Christian put me up against the fireplace and Michael went out of the room and got some shaving foam and massaged it all over my body in front of Christian. And this was the first day of knowing him!

JANUS: Did you enjoy it?

SOPHIE: Yes, I did.

CHRISTIAN: That was the first time you challenged him that he wouldn’t get a cry out of you, no matter how much he whacked you.

SOPHIE: When that happened, I was over the hatch, with Christian holding me down. Michael put all his energy into hitting me and in the end Christian had to take over. I just wouldn’t scream.

JANUS: You seem to take some pride in your ability to absorb these punishments. Do you?

SOPHIE: Yes, I do. I’m very stubborn, I won’t give way.

JANUS: Just how much can you take though?

SOPHIE: Christian has never been able to get more than an ‘ow’ out of me. I mean, I’ve gone quite a long way. Christian has had to give up thrashing me before I will ever give in.

JANUS: Do you think you can take it harder than any other girl we’ve ever used in Janus?

SOPHIE: Well, I wouldn’t mind having a competition.

JANUS: What would happen in a competition? Do you think you’d win?

SOPHIE: Well, I’d put money on myself to win.

JANUS: Can she really absorb that amount of punishment, Christian?

CHRISTIAN: Sophie can take a phenomenal amount of punishment. She can take more than I can give her. I’ve used every ounce of strength to cane her and really caned hard, and she can take it.

JANUS: What sort of marks does this kind of punishment leave on your bottom?

SOPHIE: At first it used to mark easily, but less so these days. Given about six or eight medium strokes with the cane, it’ll take its time to come up and will stay for a couple of days and go down. The bruises will linger for a couple more days. Any more than that and it’ll be bruised even more and will start changing colour, start off purple and end up yellow. But dramatic marks don’t come up at once, even if I’m caned very hard. I think my bottom has definitely developed a tolerance!

JANUS: Do you ever play games, enact little scenarios, or do you receive CP only when you have committed some minor indiscretion?

SOPHIE: We don’t actually stage anything. Sometimes Christian will tell me to go and stand in the corner or fetch the cane, but we don’t actually act.

JANUS: You don’t dress up?

SOPHIE: Yes, we do dress up.

JANUS: What form does the dressing up take?

SOPHIE: Stockings and suspenders, nurse’s uniforms, schoolgirl uniforms.

JANUS: But is this sort of ‘play’ CP, or does this come after a transgression?

SOPHIE: It’s like a bit of a build-up, but we don’t go through any acting.

JANUS: So, if you did something like burned Christian’s dinner, would he tell you to go and put the nurse’s uniform on?

SOPHIE: Well, if I’d burned his dinner, I’d know I’d be in for a caning later. I’d probably put a uniform on. He may tell me to go and put it on, but he wouldn’t say, ‘Because you’ve burned my dinner I’m going to cane you.’ It would be something I’d just do.

JANUS: Do you enjoy dressing up?

SOPHIE: Yes, I like it.

JANUS: Do you have any favourites?

SOPHIE: Schoolgirl — it makes me feel young.

JANUS: So CP Tease then, did affect you in some way? How close was it to being the real you?

SOPHIE: Very close. Astonishingly close.

JANUS: What intrigues you about working for Janus? What motivated you to apply to us?

SOPHIE: Christian asked me if I would do it. After reading the magazines and looking at them and deciding how good they were, I decided to do it.

JANUS: When you worked for us, did you get any pleasure from the fact that you were being photographed? What were your feelings?

SOPHIE: Well, I enjoyed being photographed, it’s like being a proper model which I’ve never done before. It was also enjoyable having people like yourselves actually watching me being caned, and that you could see what I could take.

JANUS: Are you very proud of the amount of punishment you can take?

SOPHIE: Yes, very.

JANUS: Can I ask you, Christian: how much can she take?

CHRISTIAN: She can take an incredible amount. I’ve known a few girls mildly into CP, but this one can take an enormous amount.

JANUS: What strength do you use when you cane Sophie?

CHRISTIAN: Its according to whatever misdeed that she’s been involved in. I’ve caned Sophie on a number of occasions as hard as I can and she doesn’t flinch.

SOPHIE: And I won’t say ‘ow’.

JANUS: Do you ever cry?

SOPHIE: Once, when I was feeling emotional after the end of a row.

JANUS: Is there anything you’d like to do in the future that would give you pleasure — any fantasies or unfulfilled wishes?

SOPHIE: Yes, I’d like to be tied up and whipped. I’ve never been whipped.

JANUS: Are there any psychological aspects of CP that you’d like to try?

SOPHIE: The Story of O. We have the film on a video at home and I like watching that. She’s whipped and put under a lot of pressure and she has to have it against her wishes, and even if she’s done absolutely nothing wrong she gets whipped.

JANUS: So what you’re saying is that you wouldn’t mind CP on a basis where you never knew if you were going to get punished at any time?

SOPHIE: Yes, it would be exciting. I’m intrigued by it. I’m not sure if I’d like it or not, but I’m intrigued. I’d like to find out. I wish that I’d been ‘O’.