In the Middle Ages, women viewed as gossips or "scolds" faced public humiliation
In the Middle Ages, women viewed as gossips or "scolds" faced public humiliation
, sometimes at the hands of their husbands, when they were forced to wear a torture device called the Scold's Bridle. Fitted with a gag to silence the wearer, this iron muzzle was usually strapped onto women who were brought into public so townspeople could jeer and throw things at them.
, sometimes at the hands of their husbands, when they were forced to wear a torture device called the Scold's Bridle. Fitted with a gag to silence the wearer, this iron muzzle was usually strapped onto women who were brought into public so townspeople could jeer and throw things at them.
In 1789, a farmer put a woman in a Scold's Bridle to "silence her clamorous Tongue" and paraded her around town as local children "hooted." Apparently, "nobody pitied her because she was very much disliked by her neighbours." But the bridle wasn't only used on "scolds." In 1655, a bridle was used on a Quaker named Dorothy Waugh as punishment for preaching in the marketplace.
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