I'm fascinated by the reaction of other people when witnessing someone being punished. I went to school in the dark ages leading up to the abolition of corporal punishment in the UK - in fact I was about three years away from leaving school when my school decided on abolition although this was a number of years before it became a legal requirement. For serious offences, the guilty parties would be sent off to the headmaster or deputy headmaster to be dealt with, but I also witnessed plenty of spontaneous "classroom" punishments, usually with a slipper (plimsoll), stick, ruler or something else that came to hand (I should explain at this point that I'm talking about an all-boys school).
The person on the receiving end was expected to look serious but stoical but everyone else seemed to quite enjoy the spectacle - I can remember one lad being called to the front for misbehaving and the teacher asking if anyone could lend him a plimsoll - not only was there almost a stampede of offers but the one who got there first told me afterwards he'd got new trainers (it was early days of those and they had a rather rigid polyurethane type of sole then) so it would have really stung a lot more than usual.
In the sort of things we see on film, whether mainstream or scene, there rarely seems to be this sort of perverse pleasure (there are one or two exceptions in Xerotics productions) - on the contrary there seems to be either fear ("might this happen to me?") or sympathy ("it could have been me").
Has anyone else any experiences to share here? I can understand that pleasure may not be to the forefront of someone's thinking if they know they're probably going to be next but in mainstream films where corporal punishment is being dished out at school we see much more wincing than surreptitious grinning.
2 comments:
I have to agree.
I went to an all-boys school in the 60's and there was very little sympathy from other pupils! Far from it!
If there were a slippering or caning in class then it was generally seen as great entertainment and the harder the whacks the greater the amusement.
If a boy were sent from class for caning by the Headmaster his return was usually greeted by sarcastic comments from staff and pupils alike!
I can clearly recall being de-trousered in the playground after receiving six of the best so that my stripes could be admired by other boys!
Absolutely. At my boys school in the 60s we took great pleasure in watching other boys get whacked. It was seen as huge fun to watch a classmate touch his toes for a good thrashing with a plimsoll and some of the masters played to the gallery as they knew they were entertaining the rest of the class.
The most appreciation went to the masters who could whack the hardest. We loved the sound of the plimsoll and the site of well-aimed blows smacking the sweet spot of an upturned bottom.
Ahh. Happy Days.
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