Why Does Being Whipped Hurt?

It is self-evident that being whipped hurts. But why? Pain is the body's way of saying something's bad for you and it wants you to end it.

Guess what? The Gringe is back. Of course he is isn’t after me, too benign. Evil only harms the ones you love. All options – including doing nothing – make it worse. On several occasions I woke up in the middle of the night, dreaming how I beat that asshole into a bloody pulp with a baseball bat. 

For some absurd reason – distraction perhaps – it made me wonder why whips hurt. Simple question, ain’t it? Well, it is not. Search for it and you find a long list mainly about why whips crack. Apparentely people are intrigued by the sound of it. Whether or not a whip hurts more than a plank is a different question altogether. I’ll save the nature of pain for another time. Let’s first try to find out why a whip hurts.

Most astounishing is an article that explains why “pressure mounts to ban whips as new study indicates horses feel pain when whipped”  As if anyone ever doubted.

Physiologically a whip’s impact is detected by the body’s nerve endings, that are located just under the upper layer of the skin. Nerve endings are nothing but sensors. Whatever they record, they send to the brain for interpretation.

Evil nurse
Remember that nasty nurse with the painful needle? Apply the same force you apply to put a needle in your arm to a brick and it doesn’t work. The difference is the size of the area to which the pressure is applied. Spread the force over a large area and you end up looking foolish. Apply it to just a small the force to a small piece of skin and the needle  breaks the skin. That is because all of the pressure is focussed on a tiny area. With more pressure than the skin can sustain, the needle slides in but not the brick.

That only tells you more pressure per square inch equals a stronger sensation. It still doesn’t explain why being whipped hurts. Somebody who is trying to push a brick to penetrate your skin looks just plain silly. After the experiment your skin may show a few scrathes but basically nothing bad happens. Nor is there any significant pain either. But swap the brick for a needle or whip and we’re talking something entirely differently.

It's bad, baby
An needle pokes a little hole in you skin. Damaged skin is bad for you. The skin serves as a barrier to entry for all kinds of bacteria and other unpleasantries. Once broken, they can enter the body freely. As the body fights the intruders, the skin heats up - fever. Most of the time your body wins, but the outcome is never guaranteed. Now think whip instead of needle and the damage done to your body with such an instrument of torture in skilled hands is manifold that of a single needle. Your body screams out in pain. It is trying to warn you what is happening is not a good thing and you should stop it if you can. In other words why we feel pain is to protect the body from injury. It is a mental red flag.

It’s not very scientific but basically being whipped hurts because the damage it does is bad for you. Pain is the body’s way of forcing you to stop whatever is happening it by sending pain signals to you mind. It is not just mistress who knows what is good for you, your body knows too. Good thing then they invented bondage.