What is the difference between “spanking” a child and beating them?

I am not here to offend anybody, just a curious question. I always hear people on this app who are pro corporal punishment say that there is a difference between spanking and beating. People who are anti corporal punishment usually belive that spanking is beating or something very similar. This is hard for me to understand. It seems like a very thin line and subjective. One person’s idea of a “spanking” could be another person’s idea of a “beating”. Growing up, my parents used spanking as the only punishment. I was whipped with a belt, a fly swatter, a hickory switch, and their hands. I was spanked almost every day for every small thing. There were a few occasions where I had small bruises from the belt or welts from the hickory switch or flyswatter but this did not usually happen unless I was hit very hard because I do not bruise easily. The humiltiation of being spanked was worse for me than the pain because my parents would sometimes would make me strip naked to be spanked, sometimes in front of relatives. My mother would strip me and whale on me with her hand as hard as she could. I am very confused if this is considered spanking or beating. I was also slapped accross the face as punishment as a kid and scratched. I have been told that I am to soft for being against spanking or for not wanting to spank my kids. My parents were very offended and angry when I described their “spankings” as beatings. I do not know for sure if my parents spanked or beat me. I have been gaslit by them my whole life.