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| Sexual aspects |
| Autoandrophilia · Autogynephilia Feminization · Pinafore eroticism Transvestic fetishism Sissy · Transgender sexuality |
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| Books |
| My Husband Betty She's Not The Man I Married |
Petticoating, also called pinaforing, is a type of forced feminization that involves dressing a boy in girls' clothing to punish him humiliatingly or to change his behavior. The term also describes the literature, erotic fiction, and roleplaying fantasies involving the practice. While this practice is rare in modern society (because the humiliation of children has become socially unacceptable), it has occasionally been observed. However, the terms "petticoating" and "pinaforing" nearly always describe the sexual fantasy, not the actual practice.
There is some evidence that "petticoat punishment" has occasionally been used as a form of discipline, with credible stories of such going back at least to Victorian times.[1] "Pettycoat punishment," as a sexual fetish interest, involves imagining or reenacting this scenario. However, as a fetish interest, these activities are usually heavily exaggerated and sexualized, including elaborate humiliation and public nudity.[2] They often involve the male being feminized into a sissy (the term used to describe a feminized male) by a powerful female presence (often a mother or aunt) in front of his cousins, sisters, or in some cases, girls of his own age whom he had offended by his boorish behavior.
Petticoating roleplay may include being forced to wear makeup and to carry dolls, purses, and other items associated with girls.[3] Sometimes, boys were made to perform tasks that they considered to be "girls' work" and to appear in public in girls' clothing with their mothers, who occasionally dressed in matching outfits. Some people claim that for the mothers, pinaforing sometimes had a sexual context, and many mothers who disciplined their sons in this fashion either had long wanted daughters or found it erotic to feminize their sons.[4] In addition, according to the folklore of people with this condition, this type of castigation is found in the history of some of those who later develop Transvestic fetishism.[5]
Petticoat discipline also occurs in the context of some marital relationships, as a means by which a wife may exert control over her husband. This may involve various items of feminine clothing or underwear in a variety of contexts, ranging from the husband having to wear a feminine apron around the house whilst performing household chores, to the wife insisting that the husband wear a brassiere on a full-time basis[6] under ordinary male clothing. In all such circumstances, there is a strong reliance on the element of humiliation, whether actual or potential, should the husband's secret be discovered.
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This fantasy/roleplay revolves around the male frequently being made to appear nude, before being dressed as a girl, either in front of his mother, his sisters, or, in some cases, girls of his own age whom he had offended by his boorish behavior [7]. Somewhat related to CFNM.
Spanking was also sometimes added as a pinaforing component to punish the boy further[7].
Stella Gonzalez-Arnal of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Hull sees pinaforing as a "politically incorrect form of sexuality" in which "women's clothing and women's traditional occupations" are regarded "as inferior and humiliating; reinforcing undesirable stereotypes by characterising females as submissive, passive, helpless and subservient". She adds "I will argue that petticoating is a politically ambiguous form of sexuality which can have positive readings. I claim that it can be educational and therapeutical and that it can subvert our notions of masculinity and femininity."[8].
A number of erotic novels of the Victorian period contain accounts of pinaforing.
In Gynecocracy: A Narrative of the Adventures and Psychological Experiences of Julian Robinson, by "Viscount Ladywood" (1893)[9][10][11], the author recounts his punishment as a boy at the hands of the governness to whom he is sent, along with three female cousins, after having taken indecent liberties with a household maid. Forced to wear girls' clothing as his ordinary attire, Julian, as Julia, is subjected to frequent flagellations, as are his cousins, one of whom he later marries, submitting to her dominance through continued forced feminization and crossdressing.
The Victorian classic, My Secret Life [12], contains an account of pinaforing in which the main character, Walter, witnesses the birching of a wealthy middle-aged man by a prostitute while the man wears feminine attire.
The Pearl, A Journal of Facetiae and Voluptuous Reading, a Victorian pornographic magazine, also contains an account of the flagellation of a victim dressed as a woman, although, in the strict sense, this account does not represent pinaforing per se because the man, Frank, is not petticoated as part of his punishment but has, rather, dressed in ladies' garments to disguise himself as a woman: to avenge herself, Lucretia persuades Frank to pose as his sister and to join a ladies' private whipping club, the qualification for admission to which is the applicant's receipt of a whipping.
For a greater and more detailed of literary accounts of pinaforing, see "Petticoat Punishment in Erotic Literature" by Peter Farrer [7].
Farrer is the editor of nine books containing material on pinaforing consisting mostly of extracts from British magazines and newspapers from about 1840 onward, listed below. "The Regime of the Stay-lace" contains the highest percentage of material on pinaforing.
For those who are interested in pinaforing, MacDonald recommends the following books: