Trading licks

Trading licks, or - blows, - shots, etc., is an endurance test in which the participants (usually two boys or young men) take turns, alternating administering a blow to an opponent and assuming the agreed exposed position (e.g. bending over an object or grabbing the ankles) to endure the next one, using the same implement (e.g. a fraternity paddle), until only the winner can still bring himself to endure the gradually increasing pain in the progressively tormented target-part of their anatomy (usually the posterior - then it is a form of spanking - or the cheeks), which in the interest of fairness should either be bared or only covered by a common uniform. As the blows are not given by the same person but by the parties themselves, the strongest-armed one actually has an unfair (but not always decisive) physical advantage.

Such rather macho display of willpower restraining the instinct to avoid pain can have various finalities, including:

a physical punishment, especially for quarreling, possibly the origin of the practice (this ritualised alternative to a more disabling or even lethal duel should also make them realise the futility of physical aggression)
a motivation test, especially as part of an initiation process, such as hazing
an obedience test, as in certain paddle games (possibly really an excuse for the rather sadistic amusement of the seniors)
a duel, either personal or as champions representing similar, especially rivaling, groups; in certain fraternities, refusing such a challenge may result in exclusion from the membership, even for an alumnus
as a game, either to display one's tenacity 'proudly' (often to impress some audience) or in the pursuit of a sadist and/or masochistic, erotic or pain-addicted, kick.

Sources and references

game in a scout troop in St.Louis, Missouri in the 1950s- scroll to "the Baker paddle"

(This entry in the BDSM Dictionary incorporates text from the Trading licks article in Wipipedia.)

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