A-frame

This article is related to BDSM

An A-Frame is an item of spanking furniture used for flogging, birching, or caning. It is typically found in judicial and prison corporal punishment.

Design

It consists of two strong wooden bars, 2 to 3 meters long, erected in an "A" shape at a slight angle that holds the spankee in a leaned standing position. A padded "crossbar" is often provided as a support for the delinquent's pelvis. The "A" construction is supported by a third bar, like an artist's easel. Depending on the construction, the delinquent's legs and/or arms will be more or less spread (see spread legs or spreadeagle), and restrained by ropes or straps.

Flogging triangles

When an A-Frame was used for floggings, e.g. with a cat o' nine tails and typically on the delinquent's back, was also known as a flogging triangle.

Same or similar A-Frames were also used for birchings. Birchings were applied either to the bareback or the bare buttocks. In the latter case, the position would either be the same or the delinquent would be made to bend over the padded "crossbar"; his wrists were then secured to the base of the A-Frame's third leg, at the rear.

Caning frames

When used for caning, the A-Frame is known as a caning frame, caning rack or caning triangle. Caning frames are still used for judicial corporal punishment in countries like Malaysia or Singapore. According to the law, the canings are always given on the offender's buttocks, never on his back, and only to boys and men, never to females. The offender's buttocks are bared, but his kidney and genital area is protected from accidental hits by a torso shield, a kind of padded but bottomless shorts. The judicial canings given on these racks are very severe (up to 24 strokes with a heavy and long rattan cane given by an experienced corrections officer with full force) and often break the skin of the delinquent.

There is an original construction drawing of an official Singapore prison caning frame that made its way to the Internet. If you make a visit to Malaysia, you can also see an original caning rack exhibited in the former Pudu Prison (located in Kuala Lumpur) which is now turned into a museum. Pudu Prison also shows visitors a video of how a judicial caning takes place in Malaysia.

Another variant, used in Singapore, is called caning trestle (see also trestle). This type became known to a wider audience in the West in 1994 when an American teenager, Michael Fay, was arrested, convicted, and caned in Singapore for vandalism.