My fraternity did have a paddling ceremony, it was only one swat per person.
It started with the pledges hitting their big brother, then the pledges got beaten.
Most of the pledges in my class were going easy on their big brother hoping he would return the favor.
When it got my turn, I was thinking BS, it’s only one swat can’t hurt that much, so I hit my big brother as hard as I could, after that it was on.
Some of the others decided to go bare ass, blood was drawn that night, great fun it was...
First night, we call it (since the turn of the 20th century) called the “jukebox” in our frat. Because once the music turns on, there will be lots of “hits” (wink). This historical reputation on fraternity row scares off a lot of potential plebes lol and they’re free to go to the other wimpy ass frat down the street..
We didn’t haze but we had one member who struck a couple of people waiting for the ritual. Someone informed him that he had slapped “Mad Dog” and that Mad Dog would be waiting for him at the house. I never saw the guy at the house again because Bobby Lee was waiting on him.