TYPES OF HUMILIATION
Punishment or interrogation tactic
Humiliation of one person by another (the humiliator) is often used as a way of asserting power over them, and is a common form of oppression, bullying or abuse used in a police, military, or prison context during legal interrogations or illegal torture sessions. Many now-obselete public punishments were deliberately designed to be humiliating, e.g. tarring and feathering lawbreakers, pillory, "mark of infamy" (stigma) as a means of "making an example" of a person and presenting a deterrent to others. Some of the states in America have experimented with humiliating or shaming lawbreakers by publishing their names and indicating their offense (e.g., with soliciting prostitutes or drinking and driving. The Chinese government routinely humiliates lawbreakers by parading them in public with a sign around their neck indicating their offense. Humiliation activities such as stripping a prisoner naked or having them simulate sex acts, as done by US Military Police in Iraq at Abu Graib, are often contrary to policies in police or prison settings. Nevertheless, these humiliation tactics have been used by secret police and military interregators as a way of eliciting cooperation or breaking down the resistance of a prisoner. Although in the past humiliation was relegated to those having wealth, it is frequently used these days in places like offices where people with power and status abuse their position by humiliating their colleagues, seniors etc. There has been a growth in frequency of such cases.
Voluntary sexual practices
However, it can also be a consensual sexual practice, as part of an agreement with a sex partner to engage in erotic humiliation as part of bondage and domination activities. This is a type of psychological humiliation in a sexual context, whereby one person gains arousal or erotic excitement from the powerful emotions of being humiliated and demeaned, or of humiliating another; often (but not always) in conjunction with sexual stimulation of one or both partners in the activity. The humiliation need not be sexual in itself, as with many other sexual activities it is the feelings derived from it which are sought, regardless of the nature of the actual activity. It can be verbal or physical, and can be relatively private or public. Often it can become ritualized, and unlike some sexual variations it can also be easily carried out over a long distance or online. The distinction between humiliation and dominance in an activity such as erotic spanking is that the sought-after effect is primarily the humiliation; the activity is just a means to that end.
Whilst mild or moderate humiliation is not an uncommon part of BDSM or other sexual roleplay, humiliation play can be taken to a point where it becomes emotionally or psychologically distressing to one or the other partner - therefore, erotic humiliation in the context of BDSM is best approached with clear awareness of the effects. Erotic humiliation can become extreme enough to be considered a form of edgeplay, that some consider may best be approached with advance negotiation and use of a safeword. This is a highly subjective issue, and depends greatly on context. The person being humiliated is often called a bottom, and the person who humiliates them is often called the top, (though these are standard terms used in general dominant/submissive role play and are not specific to humiliation interests) or if female, sometimes humiliatrix. Other common names are slave or sub/submissive for the bottom, and Master/Mistress or Dom/Domme for the top.
Humiliation is not the same as dominance, as the devotee is not necessarily seeking to be ordered about. Humiliation comes into its own as a sexual force when the devotee seeks the humiliation over and above the means; for example, when being spanked is primarily valued because of the belittlement involved. Sexual humiliation is very open-ended. Broadly, it can be divided into verbal and physical aspects. Verbal aspects might include verbal belittlement, such as "slave", "boy", "girl", "missy", "pet"; insults and verbal abuse, such as "fat", "ugly", "stupid", "worthless". Degrading references, such as "slut", "tart", "bitch" and "whore"; slighting of body parts or behaviors, such as disparaging or cruel references to breasts, facial appearance, genitalia or genital size; having to ask permission for everyday activities. Activities may include detailed punishments for a variety of 'infractions' or misbehavior, such as having to stand in a corner facing a wall for several hours, flogging or whipping, being restrained with cuffs or wear a gag. Humiliation play is also connected to sexual fetishism, in that non-sexual activities may become sexualized by association with arousal.
Hazing rituals
Hazing is an often ritualistic test and a task, which may constitute harassment, abuse or humiliation with requirements to perform random, often meaningless tasks, sometimes as a way of initiation into a social group. The definition can refer to either physical (sometimes violent) or mental (possibly degrading) practices; it may also include an 'erotic' element (notably nudity). Often most or all of the endurance, or at least the more serious ordeal, is concentrated in an orgiastic collective session, which may be called hell night, or prolonged to a hell week and/or retreat or camp, sometimes again at the pledge's birthday (e.g. by birthday spanking), but some traditions keep terrorizing pledges (a common term for the initiation candidates; alternative terms include newbie, rookie, mainly in athletic teams, and freshman) over a long period, resembling fagging. Hazing is often used as a method to promote group loyalty and camaraderie through shared suffering (male bonding in fraternities), either with fellow participants, past participants or both.
Hazing has been reported in a variety of social contexts, including sports teams, academic fraternities and sororities (see fraternities and sororities); high schools (in the sense of secondary education); college and universities; groups, like competition teams, fan clubs, social groups; secret societies and even certain service clubs; competitive sports teams; and armed forces. It is a subjective matter where to draw to line between "normal" hazing (somewhat abusive) and a mere rite of passage (essentially bonding; proponents may argue they can coincide), and there is a gray area where exactly the other side passes over into sheer degrading, even harmful abuse that should not be tolerated even if accepted voluntarily (serious but avoidable accidents do still happen; deliberate abuse with similar grave medical consequences occurs, in some traditions rather often). In military circles hazing is sometimes assumed to test recruits under situations of stress and hostility. Although in no way a recreation of combat, hazing does put people into stressful situations that they are unable to control, which allegedly should weed out those weaker members prior to being put in situations where failure to perform will cost lives.
Reported hazing activities can involve all kinds of ridicule and humiliation within the group or in public — many of which could easily be considered abusive if a candidate were not a consenting adult — while others are quite innocent, akin to pranks. Examples of hazing, often performed in combination, include Spanking; being hosed by sprinkler, buckets or hoses; covered with dirt or with (sometimes rotten) food; engaging in lengthy, tedious cleaning of toilets; waiting on others; being made to eat or drink too much (to the point of intoxication and vomiting); wearing humiliating clothing such as diapers, underwear, an apron, jockstrap, loincloth or duct tape; performing calisthenics and other physical tests. In the May issue of the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, Michelle Finkel, MD, reported that hazing injuries are often not recognized for their true cause in emergency medical centers. The doctor said hazing victims sometimes hide the real cause of injuries out of shame or to protect those who caused the harm. In protecting their abusers, hazing victims can be compared with victims of domestic violence.
Public humiliation was often used by local communities to punish minor and petty criminals before the age of large, modern prisons (imprisonment was long unusual as a punishment, rather a method of coercion).
Shameful exposure
This involved a variety of methods, most often placing a criminal in the center of town and having the local populace enact a form of "mob justice" on the individual. The punishment of public humiliation could range from anything to an offender being forced to relate his crime (Such as by exaggerated physical parody, a 'shame flute' for a bad musician or a giant rosary for someone late to church (Applications of the 'poetical justice' principle of mirror punishment).) or just of condemnation (schandstenen (Dutch: "stones of shame", worn at the neck)).
The offender could alternatively be sentenced to remain exposed in a specific public place, in a restraining device. The arsenal in the Low Countries included the schandstoel ("Chair of shame"), the kaak or schandpaal ("pole of shame", a simple type of pillory), the draaikooi, customary for adulteresses, and the schopstoel (A scaffolding which one is kicked off to land in mud and dirt).
In the more extreme cases being subjected to verbal and physical abuse from the crowd, which could have serious consequences especially when the hands are not free to protect himself. Some sentences actually prescribe additional humiliation, such as shaving, or combine it with painful corporal punishments, see below.
- In Colonial America, common forms of public humiliation were the stocks and pillory, imported from Europe. Nearly every sizable town had such instruments of public humiliation, usually at the town square. Historic public humiliation displays can still be seen in the historic Virginia town of Colonial Williamsburg.
In pre-World War Japan, adulterers were publicly exposed purely to shame them.
In recent times, judicial use of public humiliation punishment has largely fallen out of favor since the practice is now considered cruel and unusual punishment, which is outlawed in the United States Constitution. Yet, this is not clearly defined, so some judges do use shaming as a form of punishment, whereby an individual may have to parade in public with a sign explaining their behavior and misdeed.
Just like painful forms of corporal punishment, it has parallels in educational and other rather private punishments (but with some audience), in school or domestic disciplinary context, and as a rite of passage. Physical forms include being forced to wear some sign such as donkey ears (simulated in paper, as a sign one is--or at least behaved--proverbially stupid), wearing a "Dunce Cap", having to stand, kneel or bend over in a corner, or repeatedly write something on a blackboard ("I will not spread rumors" for example). Here too physical discomfort or even pain can be added, such as having to hold heavy objects or kneeling on an uneven surface. Like physical punishment and harsh hazing, these have become controversial in most modern societies, in many cases leading to legal restrictions and/or (sometimes voluntary) abolishment.
Painful humiliation
Apart from specific methods essentially aiming at humiliation, several methods combine pain and humiliation or even death and humiliation.
In some cases, pain or at least discomfort is insignificant or rather secondary to the humiliation, as school children made to kneel facing the blackboard, possibly on a hard object. In other cases they are roughly matched, as assuming such position while holding heavy objects.
Especially in judicial use the combination often results in a very severe punishment.
Public punishment
The simplest is to administer painful corporal punishment in public - the major aim may be deterrence of potential offenders - so the public will witness the victim's fear and agony. This can either take place in a town square or other public gathering location such as a school, or take the form of a procession through the streets. This was not uncommon in the sentences to Staupenschlag (whipping or birching, generally on the bare buttocks) in various German-speaking states, till the 19th century. A naval equivalent was flogging through the fleet on a raft taken from ship to ship for consecutive installments of a great total of lashes, that could even be lethal.
- The humiliation is generally intensified if the victim is unclothed (either partially or completely) as the exposure leaves the victim feeling vulnerable and helpless.
Parents are considered to be a humiliation to their child/children. Children have been mad at their mothers and fathers for days on end because of parents humiliating them in front of a person whom they love.
- Sexually promiscuous women and girls were sometimes punished by having their pubic hair cut short or their genital areas shaved bald.
- Crucifixion was used by the Romans to add public humiliation to a death penalty. The crucified were also ridiculed by the soldiers, and the mob. People were crucified naked, and often ended up crying, and vomiting and defecating on themselves before dying. Crucified bodies were left to decay on the cross for weeks, and crows would come to feed on it, which can be seen as post-mortem public humiliation.
Torture marks
- The humiliation can be extended - intentionally or not - by leaving visible marks, such as scars, notably on body parts that are normally left visible. This also serves as a virtually indelible criminal record.
- This can even be the main intention of the punishment, as in the case of scarifications, such as branding. It invariably is essential in forms of mutilation, such as (ear) cropping, though the functional loss is even greater; pain may even be intentionally minimized as in the case of surgical amputation, eliminating the risk of accidental death
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