I have been doing a lot of traveling and visiting during the Covid “reduction” which is now back on the rise. I will soon have some interesting comments I have have been told over these past several months. One involves a woman, just a couple of years older than I, about how she now assumes her late husband was a closeted gay person and how after he died she found several notebooks and the like containing hundreds of drawings he made of boys being spanked.
Sexual preferences are a very personal thing and there would not often be a reason for mentioning them here. However I can entirely understand why you have done so in this context. I would though say that unless the lady concerned has other evidence she should not necessarily assume that her deceased husband was gay on the basis of drawings of boys being spanked.
Many years ago when I joined the Forum there were a substantial number of male contributors who, like me, were quite interested in the topic of girls being subjected to SCP. A rather smaller number of male contributors were interested in the topic of boys being subjected to SCP by female teachers, or in being so punished themselves, also like me.
Today many of the contributors from that era no longer post and a new generation of largely male contributors provides much of our input. I don’t think I would be doing these new contributors an injustice if I say that they are largely interested in males being subjected to CP, either themselves when young or other boys who were their contemporaries.
And when it comes to boys being specifically punished by female teachers, or a wish to have experienced this, or better still to have been caned by a female prefect,
I am now practically a lone voice crying in the wilderness.
But I think it would be very wrong of me to assume that because these new male contributors are largely interested in boys being subjected to CP, often CP administered by other males, they are predominantly gay. I would be absolutely amazed if that was the case!
Women who experienced SCP tend I think to consider it as a punishment. A fair or unfair punishment, or possibly even something delivered with a sexual motivation. But not as something in which they take pride and from which they or other girls accrued status in their peer group.
For males however being subjected to CP, and indeed seeing or knowing of other males being so subjected is (or was) often a matter of considerable interest involving battle honours of a sort. Self esteem peer esteem and esteem given to peers could all hinge on the question of who was whacked and how. I repeat, I simply don’t think that inferences regarding sexuality should be made as a result of an interest in boys being subjected to CP!
Women who experienced SCP tend I think to consider it as a punishment. A fair or unfair punishment, or possibly even something delivered with a sexual motivation. But not as something in which they take pride and from which they or other girls accrued status in their peer group.
I’m sure that’s true in general, but there are exceptions. One was “B”, the girl who I saw being slippered in class when she was seven or eight years old. Three years after that incident, when we were ten or eleven, we were in he school assembly one morning when the headmistress announced to the school that she had been “forced to chastise” a girl who had been warned repeatedly about misconduct. We were all sitting on the floor at the back of the hall, and B turned to her neighbour and said “that’s what I got”. She was clearly expressing pride in having been punished, and expected her status to be enhanced.
This scenario happened in Huddersfield at Greenhead High School in the mid-1970s. My wife was in the penultimate all-girls intake before becoming a mixed sixth form college in 1973 but the female head resigned/retired in 1971 so it had an interim male headmaster before a permanent headmaster took charge in 1973. Thus the number of lower school girls was reduced year on year until the final intake left school or went into the sixth form, but for four years or so girls being sent for the cane were dealt with by one or other of the headmasters.
However being a “posh” girls school I am told this was a very rare event and only the few out-and-out rebels would face the cane (on the hand, of course). But it did occasionally happen. (This was explained by my wife and I talking to a friend about school standards and my wife referring being “sent to the headmaster”!
based on the comments on historical groups when school CP is brought up, I don’t think caning of girls was all that rare in the sense of not being permitted, just not a first resort with girls like it often was with boys. “Posh” all-girls schools tended to use shame, humiliation and letting the school down. Greenhead was a rare example of an all-girls school having a male head, but because it was in transition to a sixth form college. In most mixed schools with a male head the head would often but not always delegate CP to a senior female member of staff.
A good friend of mine did the deed in reverse, she was a fairly senior mistress and was cornered into caning a boy on the hand at a school in Liverpool. I’ve never dared ask whether she later made a habit of it, I think not as she said she was quite unhappy at having to do it.
there are many reported instances of girls being caned but in my experience these have usually been in mixed schools. or pre 1955 As far as I am aware the cane was never used in Girls only grammar schools in London after the mid 50s . Although I understand 1st and 2nd year junior girls were not exempt from a couple of taps with a slipper. Especially in gym class.
Hay Currie ,a tough East London mixed secondary school with a high caning reputation, banned the caning of girls by teachers other than the Headmaster in 1958 and this subsequently very rarely occurred, possibly not at all. ,. I also understand the majority of mixed schools in Essex completely banned the caning of girls during the 1970s.
Do not dispute there were exceptions, e.g. Miss Dimes and those instances reported by good wife but still believe the use of the cane in all girls schools was very very rare after he mid 60s. Of course I would have no objection to being proved completely wrong.
Just came across this “memoir” and was intrigued by the fact that there was a photograph. Also wondered whether the lady depicted would pass muster as a disciplinarian with our most esteemed contributor Another Lurker.
I perfectly remember this photo of Miss Brown, the Headmistress. It was taken during our graduation party on 1975.
There was a buffet with some snacks, drinks and fruits punch but some of the boys added a bit of rum on to the bowl, to make the party a bit more amusing. Not being used to drink alcohol, the drink went straight to my head.
I gathered the courage to ask the Headmistress to dance with me and she agreed to it. While we were dancing, my hand went a bit lower over her back than it should have gone.
Suddenly, she stopped dancing and in front of everyone, she grabbed my ear and dragged me towards her office where I received a dozen of the hardest strokes of the cane I had ever suffered along my all school years.
What a painful and lasting hangover I had!
It is true that one of the lady’s many talents is that of Animatrice, which apparently means animator, leader, trainer, educator. However although she specialises in training young people I don’t think she is involved in the sort of training and education which involves SCP. The only consolation is that if she was she would probably use a martinet. Seldom described and discussed here, and for boys traditionally delivered with the recipient bent over and on the bare, so it would have made a good story for this estimable Forum!
She is in fact a French actress, singer and animatrice, born Frédérique Hoschedé, but known professionally as Dorothée. She is seen here in the full version of your picture taken, allegedly, in December1985 when she was aged 25 and published currently on a French celebrity site ‘Purepeople’
Most of the article is now gone, Originally there was a series of photographs from the same event showing her with various celebs, but only this orphan, captioned ‘dorothee-a-l-age-de-25-ans’ remains. From other caption fragments it is possible to deduce that the event was in 1985.
Now one should never comment on a lady’s age, especially a French lady. However there appears to be a slight discontinuity between date of photograph and the age given. She was born in July 1953, so if the photograph was taken in December 1985 she was actually aged 32. Be that as it may. She wasn’t old enough to wield a punitive implement when I was at school. But in 1985 at the time of the picture, well.
the martinet, a very French implement for juvenile corporal punishment. They were readily available in hardware shops and general stores. I remember seeing them whilst holidaying in the Loire Valley, Saumur I think, in around 1970. There was a stack of about a dozen on a general store shelf, they had no wrapping or indication of their intended use.
For those unware of such implements, the martinet is a short ‘whip’; a wooden handle of around 25cm with about ten leather thongs similar to leather boot laces at the business end. From what I have read they were used by many French parents in the past. As to its M O it was intended, I believe, to be used on disobedient children in the traditional spanking position – bare bottom over the knee. I don’t know if any French schools used the martinet, in fact I know nothing of French SCP!
I can think of no readily available English equivalent purpose made item for family spanking use. I have, of course, read of school punishment canes being on sale in educational suppliers. Other British implements were slippers/plimsolls, table tennis bats, wooden spoons and trouser belts, etc. None of which were sold explicitly for CP.
The name martinet originates from the name of an 18th century French Lieutenant Colonel, Jean Martinet, known for his strict military discipline.
Once again I have not referred to our old Scottish friend the Tawse. Something I know little of although I understand variants were used in the North of England schools notably Manchester and in the Midland town of Walsall.
Should anyone else here have more knowledge or indeed experience of the French Tawse, I for one, would be delighted to learn more of it.
I fear that I obviously blew the gaff rather too soon on Miss Brown, hard caning headmistress and Dorothée, elegantly long skirted French actress, singer and animatrice who sadly probably didn’t wield a martinet (or a cane). But once I got the bit between my teeth, the thrill of the chase, the scent of blood etc., etc. Just like the old days trying to work out whether it was the users, operators or engineers who had caused the computer to crash and cost the company £thousands. It was never the system programmers of course, perish the very thought!
Martinets seem to be in fashion in this thread at the moment, but first a warning. The following link leads to a page which, in addition to the intended target of the link, contain, ahem, ‘adult content’. Please do not click on it if you are under age 21 or likely to be offended by such material.
So, by way of compensation for my spoiler activities, here is a picture of Miss Lacourt. If you scroll down you will see that she is described as an ‘estimated’ French teacher. I rather think that should be ‘estimable’ but anyway if you read on you will see that Miss Lacourt’s speciality is wielding the martinet on naughty boys in the traditional French fashion, with the recipient bent over her desk, bottom bared, for 30 or so stinging lashes from the lanières of her martinet. Since there are usually 9 or 10 lanières that’s a lot of stinging stripes!
Now, can anyone tell me the fantasy school for young ladies at which Miss Lacourt was employed as a teacher, the name she used there, the subject she taught, her height and physical statistics? The information may be obtained from various sources and anyone linking naughty pictures of Miss Lacourt’s sometimes eccentric dress habits in the classroom while teaching there will be referred to her for a demonstration of the martinet!
As regards the lovely Mademoiselle Estelle Skornik, aka Nicole, I think any discussion will probably be Lotta free. Your link is of course to a page from an early version of the ‘Spanking Facts and Research’ site, which may be revisited via the various links on your linked page. I didn’t realise that SF & R had a site at Geocities. I had a couple of sites there myself early in my webmaster career.
Miss Skornik says that her bare bottomed over the teacher’s knee spanking occurred at her first school. I don’t know at what age children then started school in Paris, but I think we are probably looking at an early primary school punishment. Rather like Another_Lurker’s smacked leg. Memorable for the recipient, but of little import to the spectators. Now if an irate dissatisfied Clio purchaser had rushed onto the set and exacted revenge for his disappointment on Miss Skornik in the same fashion.
I really don’t think we should regard the martinet as a tawse. I have never experienced either but I believe they are significantly different in style and effect. The tawse is effectively a strap with the striking end split into two or more tails. It generally had a significant degree of stiffness, being made of quite thick leather or other suitable material. Probably most used on the hands but if used on the bottom it had more than sufficient weight to be effective through normal clothing, although for severity it was used on the bare instead of the birch in some Scottish Court jurisdictions and was reputedly greatly feared by miscreants.
The martinet however is a multi-tailed light whip, with a rigid handle and several relatively light lashes, generally very thin leather strips. It is said to be relatively ineffective over other than very thin tight clothing. As you note in #40 the name of the martinet is said to derive from 18th century French Lieutenant Colonel, Jean Martinet, as indeed is the general term martinet for a very strict person. Malicious historical rumour however claims that Colonel Martinet was the commander of a French military academy and sought a punitive implement which would specifically require his officer cadets to be bare bottomed for punishment. Serves ’em right for le vice Anglais!
The traditional martinet, famously made by an elderly lady in Morvan, was quite light and didn’t do too much through the clothing. Used on the more sensitive bare leg, the effect was rather like a slap with the hand, not deeply painful but sore and prickly for a short time. I am not aware of heavier martinets being used in French schools, I think they were mostly used for younger children.
I did see a picture of a martinet-style whip with thicker tails that was allegedly from the German army, but I never saw a real example, although I did see some similar implements in the adult market. Where implements have a number of tails, the force is distributed across a larger area, rather than being concentrated as it is with a cane, so the effect is quite different.
I always felt that a tawse was relatively less effective on the backside than on the hands. One reason is the friction caused by the contact between the leather and the bare skin. Typically, the rougher underside of the tawse is applied to the palm, rather than the smooth upper side. As with the martinet, because the force is spread across a wider area, the tawse on the bottom causes a sensation more like the slipper and doesn’t deliver the sharp, concentrated pain that is typical of a cane. Although it seems counter-intuitive, a narrow tawse can be more severe than a wider one.
