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I Got The Cane Or Slipper In The Sixth Form

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I Got The Cane Or Slipper In The Sixth Form

I was caned twice during my sixth form years in the early 1960s, once for skipping school and smoking and once for an offence which embarrassed the Headmistress – an agonising six of the best on both occasions. At my school the girl’s age seemed irrelevant when she was to be disciplined. It was entirely the nature and seriousness of your offence that determined your punishment. It mattered not whether you were a trembling 11 year old or a hardened sixth former - a caning offence was a caning offence. The only thing that changed was that the canings became more severe as you got older. The other change of course was that as you matured and became more worldly-wise, you were much more careful to stick to the rules (a plus in favour of corporal punishment) but equally rather more careful to avoid being caught when you did misbehave. So from memory, there was a significant decline in the frequency of canings as we progressed, and by sixth form, it was becoming much more of an ‘event’ when one of us was caned.

Few, if any, of the girls would have avoided the cane in their seven years at the school, but I think only a minority of us sixth-formers got the cane.

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MaryWat · 70-79, F

@Lynda70 I agree with both Lynda and Sharon; there was no need to mention it - it would have been virtually impossible to hide the fact you had been caned, so the better approach was to be quite open about it - maybe even putting on a bit of bravado you certainly didn't feel . But I think in many ways these post punishment rituals - trying to show stoicism, exposing or comparing stripes - did actually help getting through what for most of us was a genuinely painful and (for many of us) traumatising experience. The "admiration" from classmates at the intensity of your welts did give you a weird sense of pride..

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Sharon · F

@MaryWat Exactly. As Lynda70 said, being stoic earned us the respect and admiration of the boys.

NortiusMaximus · M

@Sharon @MaryWat The boys I knew always had the utmost respect for girls who took their punishments without making a fuss. We had no time for silly little cry-babies who tried to escape punishment by pretending to be upset and crying "...but I'm only a girl". Other girls didn't have any respect for them either.

Rebecca54 · 70-79, F

@MaryWat There was no way you could hide the fact that you had been caned in my school. If you were seen standing outside the head's office just after lunch everyone would know why you were there and it was often common knowledge amongst your class mates that you were being sent for a caning anyway.

There was a sort of status amongst your peers after you became "a girl that had been caned" and many of us proudly showed off our stripes in the showers. Very few girls made a fuss - I can just think of one that became hysterical when told that she was going to be caned - it didn't save her and she spent the afternoon in the sick bay afterwards.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@NortiusMaximus
This sort of thing never happened to me, thank goodness, nor do I know if girls were caned or slippered at my school, where CP was rare anyway.

However, I can understand Lynda, Mary and Sharon here in their brave faces and black humour, and Alfred22's remarks, as this is a way of dealing with horrible experiences.

I wonder if there was a certain erotic excitement too in showing the effects or seeing them on others, once the worst pain had subsided.

Sharon · F

@ArishMell There was a certain erotic excitement for me when I compared marks with my peers, especially as I got older.

MartinII · 70-79, M

@Rebecca54 There was certainly no hiding the fact that you had been caned at my school. A typed notice was pinned to the headmaster's noticeboard afterwards - "Martin II has been beaten for smoking" or whatever.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@Sharon
In both the showing and the seeing, I take it!

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@MartinII
As a warning to others or to add to the victim's humiliation? Or did it give him a certain kudos the HM had not intended?

Sharon · F

@ArishMell Of course. We were careful to ensure each other got a good view, not only of the marks. ;)

MartinII · 70-79, M

@ArishMell I don't know what the reason was. Pour decourager les autres, I suppose, perhaps even in the interests of transparency. I have never heard of the same thing happening elsewhere, though I think in some schools canings were announced in assembly. One thing that intrigues me about my school's notices is that the verb was always "beaten", never "caned".

Rebecca54 · 70-79, F

@Sharon I can still remember proudly showing off my stripes in the gym changing room after I received my first caning on my bottom!

Sharon · F

We used to go somewhere quiet at break so we could show off and compare our stripes or slipper marks with the boys.

Rebecca54 · 70-79, F

@Sharon I went to an all girls school - but there was a sort of status attached to those of us who had received a caning. I did show off my stripes to my then boyfriend shortly after I was caned in the 6th form and he was most impressed and "excited"

Sharon · F

@Rebecca54 I'm glad my education was all in mixed sex environments. I think it's better both academically and socially. From what I've seen, single sex education leaves some people unable to function effectively in mixed sex environments like workplaces.

My boyfriend always got "excited" when he saw my stripes, just as I did when I saw his. It was different from comparing stripes with other boys.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@MartinII
I wonder if using "beaten" was some hangover from the school's past - was it one established centuries ago?

HowardP · 80-89, M

@Rebecca54 I hope no one minds if a man injects an experience here, but like your boyfriend, Rebecca, I recall the first time a girl friend showed me her welted bottom from a school caning, as one of the most erotically explosive moments of my life! "Excited" does not do justice to the moment!!

MartinII · 70-79, M

@ArishMell Very likely. 1532!

MartinII · 70-79, M

@Rebecca54 I always believed that there was no caning at local girls schools. Sadly, no young lady ever showed me evidence to refute this belief. 😒

Rebecca54 · 70-79, F

@MartinII There certainly was at mine - not excessive - but I had 3 experiences of it over 6 years or so

NortiusMaximus · M

@Rebecca54 There was at mine too. My older sister got the cane there before I started. During my time there I lost count of the number of times I saw girls get the slipper in class and I saw or heard several girls getting the cane.

MartinII · 70-79, M

@Rebecca54 I'm not at all sure my belief was correct. Certainly it was based on prejudice, or gender conditioning, or something like that, rather than evidence.

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Chris58 · 56-60, M

@MaryWatDid they ever came you in England on the bare?

MaryWat · 70-79, F

@Chris58 Not in my experience as a female in the state schools system, and I think that would be the general female experience. In the private sector, anecdotally it was different and there are authentic accounts of girls getting canings on the bare in boarding schools, and even some private day schools, in particular in religion-based institutions. This is the school experience. It would be different in most homes.

MartinII · 70-79, M

@MaryWat It seems, though, that caning on knickers was common and was your experience. I believe it was usual for boys to be beaten over trousers, though no doubt there were exceptions. I suppose it’s easier to lift a girl’s skirt than to require a boy to remove his trousers, but even so ...

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