Implements of Correction and the Country they are Associated With

Some implements are associated with specific countries.

England, the cane and slipper;

Scotland, the tawse;

USA, the paddle;

France, the martinet;

Ireland, the strap.

I was slippered many, many times and caned growing up.

What was/is the favoured implement in other countries, and were you ever on the receiving end?

The “Vermont” bath brush that I gave to my wife! Immediately she found that she got WET from spanking ME & I got HARD.

For fore play & punishment! For punishment i HATE/LOVE even the most severe brushings!

In the early 1950's here in the USA: hand (if you consider it an implement), back of a hair brush, and last a man's pants belt….

According to stories my parents told, "the switch" was popular in the US for Gen X.

Dad was ex Cavalry in the Winnipeg Rifles. He kept his riding crop and put it to good use on our backsides. Diapers or not it hurt like hell.

In the back lands of NH in New England, occasionally the hand came to play on a clothed or bare backside. In most households (this is in the ‘50 and ’60s) the razor strop was most popular….by dads anyway….again, for our clothed and bare backsides. Nothing crazy or excessive, but you sure knew you'd had your head turned around by dad.

The tawse really stings a lot. It's almost unbearable.

The tawse really stings a lot. It's almost unbearable.

@sundaybrunch Did you get the tawse on your palms?

@sundaybrunch Did you get the tawse on your palms?

No, it was on my bare bottom, as adult spanking.

No, it was on my bare bottom, as adult spanking.

Painful indeed. I imagine it caused bruises.

Canada had the school strap (mostly for school use but they occasionally found their way into homes). The common one was 3-Ply industrial belting - Length 15 1/2" (+/- 1/8") by Width 1 1/2" by Thickness 4.5mm (+/- 0.2mm)[roughly 3/16 inch] and Weight 71g (+/- 4g)[2.5oz] with 3/16" hanging hole.

In schools this was almost always used exclusively on one's hands (there have been cases where the principle would use it on a students backside, but that being a rare thing), I never received it in school, but i have numerous times as an adult had it used on my bare butt.. It can easily be very painful.

Hand, belt, and switches were all fairly common in Canada… with more than a few schools strap alternative being made by some parents.

Painful indeed. I imagine it caused bruises.

Not bruising, but some small welts.

Add to my previous post - a switch.

Czechia: belt, wooden spoon, electric coord, dog leash.

Poland: belt, electric coord.

@blanka That's interesting because over here belt is the most popular among implements. However, if one admits to punishing a child with an electric cord, one must expect that people will openly show their contempt towards such person. Even among corporal punishment supporters, electric cord is considered inhumane and way too dangerous. Obviously, I am sure that it has been used in some places but I wouldn't call it popular or associated with Poland.

Obviously, I am sure that it has been used in some places but I wouldn't call it popular or associated with Poland.

@DressedInWhite

Isn't CP completely banned in Poland? So nothing can be popular…

But, well, I know the cord more as a threat than an regularly used implement.

Yes, it is and also it is openly criticized in both - media and discussions. There are some people of moderate opinion like “Well, one spank with a hand can be helpful when you are trying to explain your child, why running straight into a roadway is so wrong. Better spanked than dead.” But I was making reference to my childhood and what people say. A belt is associated with CP for childreen (whatever statistical Pole thinks about CP) but cord falls into “pathology” category in Poland. BTW. I can't imagine how traumatic and how scary it must be to be hit with a cord as a child. Seriously, even now it freaks me out.

A belt is associated with CP for childreen (whatever statistical Pole thinks about CP) but cord falls into “pathology” category in Poland. BTW. I can't imagine how traumatic and how scary it must be to be hit with a cord as a child. Seriously, even now it freaks me out.

@DressedInWhite

Looking into Polish internet, I can easily find memes like this, showing the cord: https://demotywatory.pl/4775464#comments

One of upvoted comments:

Cable for prodiż in double insulation sheath, 3x2.5mm cross-section, used to connect prodiż to 230V alternating current commonly found in Polish electrical installations. The cable was also used as a tool for taming disobedient children in some households. Or it was commonly used for rewarding kids after prior consultation with the class teacher on the so-called interview. However, its main application was the above described connection of the device to the electrical grid, and it is interesting to note that the cable was often damaged, the symptom of which was overheating as a result of excessive baking of all kinds of cakes such as murzynek, babka, or even a rarity of Polish grandma, biszkopt. Cable was, at one stage of its popularity, a very valuable commodity, difficult to obtain and a prized and scrupulously guarded item in most homes. In December it added to the Christmas atmosphere and in June to the school atmosphere, especially just after the awarding of certificates ;-)

Prodiz (remoska in czech republic) is the device using that cable. Is this just a fantasy or it just changed over years?

I remember (90'-00') fathers using belts only, but mothers sometimes spanked with cable. But only older ones > 10 yo, for younger wooden spoon was used mostly.

However, if one admits to punishing a child with an electric cord, one must expect that people will openly show their contempt towards such person. E.

It will go beyond contempt. In 1980 we took in a foster child, 2 years old, who had been removed from custody of his single parent mother for among other things, beating him with an electrical cord. For months we couldn't let him see us vacuuming by pulling out the electrical cord from the machine. It wasn't difficult to figure why he would cower and hide.

People who use an electrical cord also commit many other outrages undoubtedly. If found out, they rightfully risk losing custody. At least that is how it went here. And to this day, almost 40 years later, his biological mother is dead to him.

Yes, as I wrote before it could happen in some places and the meme that you pasted looks more like a sort of black sense of humor. As I said before, from my personal experience, even those who speak in favour of CP, contempt using cords. What I am trying to point out is that original post was an inquiry about an implement associated with a country. And if you ask random Polish people of similar age, or older than me, they will say that the belt is on the top of the list - a leather one or sometimes a military one. But cord, spoons, or anything wouldn't top the list.

I grew up in the U.S., primarily out west. My dad used a belt. My mom, a hairbrush. My uncle, a razor strop. The school principal, a wooden paddle. None were fun (not as a kid, anyway), but the razor strop burned like bloody hell!

Switches (which are essentially a birch for you European folks) were used by my Southern/Appalachian “Scotch Irish” granny and her generation on my parents (greatest generation) and me (baby boomer). It is much more of a stinging sensation than a paddle or spanker of some sort.

What I find a bit odd, is that in erotic fiction, especially in pre-WWII French material, whips are often used in punishment imagery. And this mean something we might call a bullwhip.

However, and thankfully I would add, I haven't read about whips being actually used for corrections or punishments, not in real life and apparently not even in amateur photos/imagery either.

Would this be because an actual whip is just too painful by far and capable of inflicting long-lasting/permanent scars?

Yes.

France….guillotine.

Not many repeat offenders.

I lived in USA and my parents used wooden spoon and paddle.

In the Czech Republic at the beginning of the 90s, it was a wooden spoon and a leather belt. I think that most of my peers tasted one or the other at least once in their childhood.

I was never spanked with a wooden spoon. My mum had one but she never used it for that. My dad spanked me with a leather belt a few times, but both my parents usually used a slipper.

My father used a leather belt when younger but moved over to a wooden paddle when I was about 11 or 12. My mother never spanked me, it would always be, "wait till your father gets home".

I have heard the opinion that a wooden spoon is a tool preferred by mothers, while fathers often unbuckle the belt. It may be related to the stereotype of a woman in the household and a man who wears trousers, but I personally believe that it is a matter of individual preferences and perhaps also the experience that parents have with a specific instrument from their own childhood. For sure, I can only claim that my own mother did not hesitate to threaten me with both a wooden spoon and a belt, slightly in favor of the wooden spoon, from about the time I was 7 years old. But sometimes, despite the above statement, I wonder if she didn't include a belt in her arsenal of educational tools as a symbol of paternal authority, which I apparently lacked after my parent's divorce. Maybe she tried to see if she would have a greater effect on me with the belt in her hand, but I imagine that in the end she didn't see any significant difference.