November is “National Novel Writing Month”. A forum’s been set up for writers to exchange ideas, and in the section entitled “Character and Plot Realism Q&A”, Mary asked, “Anyone have parents who used physical punishment.”

justBetsy shared her experiences:

” Father spanked over the knee with his hand or a belt. Switched to the “I’m disapppointed talk” at age 12. He always said ahead of time why he was spanking and how many “licks” we were to get. His punishments were usually later (“wait till your father gets home!”)

Mother, on the other hand, did “on the spot” punishment. But she rarely said what it was for, and often we didn’t know. Frequently she’d make us line up and spank all of us. She beat us standing up against the door. She used a yardstick, a flyswatter, or a switch she’d make us go cut in the yard. She also would wash our mouths with soap, or do other worse things. She wouldn’t stop until she was tired or until she broke whatever she was beating us with (and sometimes not even then).”

Angelfreak84 wrote: “For me it was a “wait until your mother gets home” kinda thing. She’d assign the punishment, but it was usually my dad that dealt it out. We had one of those leather straps that I guess it used to sharpen a straight razor. That was the spanking implement as my sister and I got older. Otherwise, it was a belt or bare hand. I think the last time the strap was used, I was about 13.”

KleenexCow described about her mother’s experiences: “her dad would make her go out into the yard and choose a “switch” from a tree. The temptation was to choose a smaller branch, but those were usually greener and hurt more than the larger, stiffer branches.”

Alicorne137 from Oklahoma explained: “My mom always spanked us with my father’s belt. (The leather part, not the buckle.) I wasn’t in trouble much, but I think it was pretty much immediate punishment and usually just one swat standing up. At my grandmother’s house, it was, “Go get a switch off the peach tree.” I think my parents would have said anything that left a mark would have been excessive.”

(From this free caning gallery)

In an outraged article on 1 October, a writer from Ghana recalled an incident from his schooldays in which a group comprising at least one girl received the cane for looking at porn:

It has halted host of potentials. It has destroyed prospective dreams. It has robbed many of character and stripped myriads of moral discipline. It is gradually reducing both the youth and adults into what I call moral degradation.

‘Porn’ they call it normally or ‘Porno’ is sexual intercourse advertently designed to excite or better still arouse people. They appear in various forms basically books, pictures and films.

In our J.H.S (then J.S.S.) days some obstinate colleagues use to bring pornographic magazines to school.

I recall one of them (a girl) fortunately was caught together with colleagues who went through the magazine. Do you know what transpired the next morning?… All of them received strokes of cane at the school assembly. As if not enough, they were compelled to bring their parents to the school. They were even stretched to the brink of dismissal. Can you imagine the shame? I only hope they took a million lessons out of that.

(From this free caning gallery)

From the Cutting Edge News, on 19 October:

In lawless Somalia, the Al Shabaab—“the Youngsters”—Muslim terrorist group has sent its gunmen into the streets of Mogadishu to gather up women who appear to violate Islamic law for wearing bras that they claim are “deceptive.”

According to locals, Al Shabaabi round up women who appear to have firm bosoms and then inspects them to determine whether that firmness is natural or not. If the firmness is the result of wearing a bra, they are ordered to remove it and shake their breasts in the presence of the Al Shabaab men.

Al Shabaab—many of whose members appeared masked when in public—have forced Somali women to wear full veils. They whipped two girls on October 15, as other women have also been whipped, for wearing bras. Al Shabaab believes that women’s breasts should be firm naturally, or lie flat.