This is how brutally women were punished throughout history

A little too loud, a little too self-confident, a little too different from what the norm requires. All of these were reasons to punish women back then. And we’re not talking about fines or prison here. Especially in the Middle Ages, but also before and after, women were indeed punished in horrific ways, often for things that were actually completely harmless.

Today we present these cruel old measures and begin directly with a punishment that literally left women speechless. Specifically, it concerns the so-called Skullz Bridle, a particularly insidious form of a shame mask. In 16th-century England, sometimes it was enough for a woman to speak too loudly or simply too confidently to be declared a censor.

As punishment, the women had an iron cage placed over their heads, often with a metal tongue inside that pressed down their tongue and made it almost impossible for them to speak. In some cases, there was also a gag with a metal plate studded with spikes, which was intended to literally keep the tongue in check. To make matters worse, the women were then paraded through the streets in front of everyone, put on display and publicly humiliated.

Next up is a somewhat newer punishment, but no less cruel: the so-called Ugly Carnival. But what exactly does that mean? For this, we go to the middle of the 20th century, more precisely to the period after the Second World War, when occupied France was free again and many people were still severely traumatized by the Nazi regime.

Many French people wanted to vent their anger at that time, and since the Nazis were gone, they took revenge on all those who had collaborated with them, including the so-called horizontal collaborators, i.e., the women who had relationships with German soldiers during the occupation. In the eyes of the French population, they are considered traitors, even when the women themselves had no choice and had to work as cooks or domestic help for the Germans in order to protect themselves and their families. Those who entered into romantic relationships with Germans or even had children with them were especially despised. After the war ended, a cruel fate awaited these women.

Their hair was publicly shaved off, often while an excited crowd cheered enthusiastically. Afterwards, they were chased through the streets and beaten, spat upon, or even pelted with excrement. Some women even wore swastikas branded onto their foreheads at the Ugly Carnival. In particularly brutal cases, such as in Paris, women were sometimes simply killed in the street.

Next, we come to another punishment that was completely invisible, but was feared by women just as much as physical torture: the systematic exclusion of so-called old maids. In the 19th century, especially in England, marriage and having children were considered the central life task of a woman. Anyone who was still unmarried by the age of 30 or older was called a spinster or an old maid. A term that was meant to be both contemptuous and compassionate. This word was used to deny women their femininity and even their mental health. But if you think these women were simply confronted with derogatory remarks, then we unfortunately have to say that it went much further, because one old maid was literally excluded from normal society. These women were sometimes even hidden in cellars by their own families, and in very religious communities such women were even banished and forced to live on the streets. For many women at that time, marriage was therefore vital for survival and often had little to do with romantic love.

Let’s continue with a form of punishment against women that, unfortunately, cannot be said to be a thing of the past: so-called honor killings. Honor killings are and never have been punishments in the sense of justice, yet they remain deeply rooted in the traditions of many cultures. But what exactly is an honor killing? In fact, this is a murder committed by a family against its female members for completely senseless reasons. For example, honor killings are carried out because women have been unfaithful to their husbands, or simply because they reject the partner intended for them. In such cases, the women are usually coldly eliminated by fathers, brothers, or other male family members who invoke the so-called restoration of family honor.

“What do you mean by ‘to save face’? How can I understand this? For example, I’ve left now, my relatives are talking about it now, they’re saying to my father, you’re not a man, you’ve lost face because you can’t control them. So he has to kill me to make people stop talking.”

Honor killings are therefore one of the most brutal punishments imaginable for women, as they always end fatally. In 2018 alone, an estimated 20,000 women worldwide were killed in honor killings. Unfortunately, such cases happen every day in Germany.

“We are not the first, and we will not be the last, to whom this has happened. The topic of honor. This is completely misrepresented.”

Next up is a punishment device that simply leaves you speechless. And it’s about the Spanish donkey. This is a type of wooden beam with a sharp triangular top edge, onto which the punished person is placed with their legs spread. As if this idea wasn’t painful enough, weights were often hung on the legs to further increase the pressure on the beam. In addition to the pain, this method primarily served the purpose of public humiliation, as those affected were usually also unclothed. This punishment particularly affected women who were accused of adultery or immoral behavior. Above all, however, a specific group of people was punished: women who were considered witches. In the so-called witch trials, the Spanish donkey was often used to get the women to talk about their alleged dark magic and how they secretly cursed people, for example.

The next punishment is one of the darkest in history, and it concerns the so-called Magdalene Laundries. These were reformatories located within monasteries and churches, intended to free women from their sin. The women sent to such homes were mostly prostitutes, unmarried pregnant women, or girls considered to have behavioral problems. Even unmarried women over 30 were forcibly committed, simply because they were considered a threat to married men. In Ireland, especially unmarried mothers were forcibly committed, because an illegitimate pregnancy, regardless of the circumstances under which it occurred, was considered a particularly great disgrace. Incidentally, it was not uncommon for underage girls to be sent there as well.

And although the whole thing was officially considered a place of protection or rehabilitation, degrading conditions prevailed in many of these homes. The women were mainly forced into hard, unpaid forced labor, sometimes having to work 15 hours at a time in laundries. There were even actual prisons within these homes, in whose cells women were locked if they behaved badly or refused to work. Some of the women, as well as their illegitimate children, were also partially abused for vaccination studies and other medical experiments. And it was often common for the children to be put up for adoption with their mother after only a few years. If you think that all of this must have happened a long time ago, you’re mistaken. Even though the first Magdalene homes were opened as early as the 18th century, the last known nursing home in Ireland was only closed in 1996. Therefore, there are still survivors of these homes today who are now speaking out and fighting for justice.

The final punishment is also one of the most notorious torture methods of all. This refers to the so-called Pair of Anguish, which in German means something like “shame pear” or “torture pear”. It is actually a pear-shaped metal device consisting of several segments that can be spread apart with a screw. It dates back to the late Middle Ages and was used to punish witches or so-called adulteresses. The torture instrument was inserted into body openings such as the mouth or genital area and then slowly widened to cause extreme pain and internal injury. It is even said that the jaw was dislodged, and many people who were tortured with the Pair of Anguish were permanently changed afterwards. And not just physically, but especially mentally.

“Yes.”