Currently my lunchtime reading at work is Trainwreck: the women we love to hate, mock, fear…and why by Sady Doyle. It is a most excellent book of nonfiction about why we gleefully love to rip women celebrities apart and make fun of them for their mistakes, addictions, emotional breakdowns, relationship break-ups, cellulite and generally being human. There are all sorts of reasons that we do this and all of them are very specific to the fact that they are women and not men.
One of the things we don’t like is that these women dare first to be public and then to speak in public! *Gasp!* And if a public woman has the nerve to criticize anything perceived as masculine, then she is likely to be attacked for it. Much blame gets placed on culture, but did you know there were laws too?
In Europe and the United States, there were crimes of speech — like being a ‘common scold,’ an ‘angry woman who, by brawling and wrangling amongst her neighbours, disturbs the public peace’ — that only women could commit. Common scolds were punished by being made to wear a gag called a ‘scold’s bridle’ in public; it was made of metal, and sometimes lined with blades or spikes, so that moving one’s tongue at all would cause injury. For those who felt that the bridle was too cruel, there was also ‘ducking’ —repeatedly submerging a woman in a lake or river, or (if all else failed) a horse trough, to simulate the feeling of drowning — which, as you may have already noticed, is basically identical to the punishment we call ‘waterboarding,’ and regard as a form of torture, in the present day. Don’t worry, though, Common scold laws in the United States were ruled unconstitutional. After a New Jersey woman was successfully convicted of the offense in 1972.
Yup, you read that right. Common scold laws were not declared unconstitutional in the US until 1972. So much for our proud freedom of speech! Britain abolished the law in 1967, so things weren’t much better there.
Here’s a short bit of history with pictures of a scold’s bridle for your personal edification:
Oh wow, I did not know about the scold’s bridle or the scold’s law. Women being threatened on social media for speaking up is like a hangover from these draconian laws. Our culture has internalised the idea of scold even though the laws are gone. Thought provoking. Thank you.
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A reminder that misogynistic politics did not start with Trump. I wonder how that 1972 case was covered by the media of the time?
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Ian, it started way back in Greek and Roman times according to Doyle. Curious about your question I looked it up. I found a couple articles reporting about it in the NY Times. The woman, Marian Dunlevy, had several disputes with neighbors and in addition to the common scold charge was also charged with assault and a couple other misdemeanors. She appears to have been a very outspoken woman. The local court convicted her of all charges but on appeal everything was overturned. The Times treated it as being an outrageous charge. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything from a more local city or county paper.
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Kathryn, you got that right, and a very bad hangover it is!
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My first thought at being reminded of the scold laws was that women never seem to stay in their place for long. On the other hand, right now I wish that everyone would learn to moderate their speech to avoid having to swallow their own words in disgust. I would love for politicians and the media to use reason and logic to discuss issues instead of ad hominem attacks on the person rather than the position. I know where I would apply the scold laws and who I’d muzzle–from FB, to the media, to the White House. :O
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jenclair, there is speaking your mind, speaking truth to power and speaking up for yourself, and then there is what we have now in so many cases. Sigh.
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Thanks so much Stefanie for bringing this up. Timely reminder to enjoy and get full use out of the hard-won rights we have – oh and to defend them too!
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maggie, definitely! That we even still have to defend them is really sad and that some women in the world still don’t have the right to speak in public is horrible.
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Ugh. 1972, eh? So very progressive we are! I have heard of scold’s bridles and seen what they look like, but I wasn’t aware of the ‘crime’ that called for them. Such nastiness. Isn’t it amazing how good at thinking up nasty ways to treat people we are?!
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Danielle, amazing, isn’t it? Yeah, the things we do to our fellow human beings is sometimes inconceivable to me.
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I hadn’t heard about this book before but now I’m gonna have to add it to the TBR. Hard to believe that we still had common scold laws on the books till 1972!
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Laila, it’s a great book and making me feel rather guilty for making fun of Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton and the like. Will definitely think twice about these things in the future!
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I didn’t know about “common scold” laws! It’s sad to see how those norms persist even without those laws on the books.
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AMB, I didn’t know about them either and was shocked to find out they were on the books for so long.
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Today these scolds would probably end up on a daytime tv program
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BookerTalk, it is entirely possible! 🙂
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