Right, here we go.
I got smacked as a kid from my parents. The preferred form was a shoe or slipper over the bare arse. More degrading than painful, although it was fucking sore as well. Corporal punishment was administered at school from the age of eight for losing my place at reading.
I genuinely don't hold any grudges against my parents - they didn't know any better, it was the done thing at the time ("spare the rod, spoil the child* - what an utterly ridiculous saying).
We have two children, both now in their twenties.
The oldest got a skelp round the backside (we didn't know any better either) when she behaved badly - never the humiliating bare bum with an object. We soon realised that this only happened when we had lost control of the situation and decided to ditch the smacking. The younger kid didn't get smacked. He has grown up the more couthy of the two - both great kids but one with a nippy temper and one without.
The bottom (sorry) line is, you don't need to inflict physical pain and degrading treatment on your kids to bring them up well...