Pinafore eroticism
Petticoating or pinaforing, is a kind of role play or sexual fantasy that revolves around a male being dressed as a girl in front of his mother, sisters, or in some cases, girls of his own age whom he had offended by his boorish behavior.
There is evidence that forced feminization, where boys are made to dress as girls, has occasionally been used as a form of discipline. However, within petticoating roleplay, this is usually heavily exaggerated, including elaborate humiliation and public nudity.
Petticoating roleplay may include being forced to wear makeup and to carry dolls, purses, and other items associated with girls. 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. 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.
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 the husband having to wear a feminine apron around the house whilst performing household chores, to the wife insisting that the husband wears a brassiere on a full-time basis 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. Techniques
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 .
Spanking was also sometimes added as a pinaforing component to punish the boy further.
Political incorrectness
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" .
Petticoat Discipline Monthly
Petticoat Discipline Monthly featured letters ostensibly written by pinaforing mothers and articles on such topics as:
- The History of Petticoat Discipline
- Petticoating in Australia
- Little Lord Fauntleroy
- History of Corsets
- Petticoat Punishment in Erotic Literature
- Helping Mummy in the Kitchen
- Petticoat Punishment or Petticoat Pleasure?
- Panties Week
However considerable uncertainty exists regarding these and similar letters at comparable websites as to what extent they are factual letters describing real situations versus fantasies of the writers (or website hosts).
Literary accounts
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, 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, 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, another Victorian novel, 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.
Additional information
For a greater and more detailed of literary accounts of pinaforing, see "Petticoat Punishment in Erotic Literature" by Peter Farrer [10].
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.
- Men in Petticoats: Selection of Letters from Victorian Newspapers (1987)
- In Female Disguise: Anthology of English and American Short Stories and Literary Passages (1992)
- Borrowed Plumes: Letters from Edwardian Newspapers on Male Cross Dressing (1994)
- The Regime of the Stay-lace: Further Selection of Letters from Victorian Newspapers *(1995)
- Confidential Correspondence on Cross Dressing: 1911-15 Pt. 1 (1997)
- My First Party Frock and Other Contributions to the Glad Rag 1985 to 1991 (1997)
- Confidential Correspondence on Cross Dressing: 1916-20 Pt. 2 (1998)
- Cross Dressing Between the Wars: Selections from London Life 1923-1933 (2000)
- Cross Dressing Between the Wars: Selections from London Life: 1934-1941 Pt. 2 (2006)
For those who are interested in pinaforing, MacDonald recommends the following books:
- The Rise and Fall of the British Nanny
- A History of the English Public School
See also
External links
- The Art of Petticoat Punishment
- Petticoat Discipline Quarterly
- Petticoat Pond
- Forced Sissification (A pay site)
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