In 'The Regime of the Stay-Lace' [Liverpool: Karn Publications Garston (1995)] I explained, through the evidence of children’s literature, memoirs, and correspondence in newspapers,  how the idea of dressing boys as girls as a punishment had developed in the nineteenth century and  beyond.  I did not go into the effect of the punishment on erotic literature, or on its representation in such literature. This is what I want to do now.

In 1893 a clandestine publisher brought out a flagellation novel with an entirely new  twist: the hero/victim is dressed as a girl. This was Gynecocracy: A Narrative of the Adventures  and Psychological Experiences of Julian Robinson (afterwards Viscount Ladywood) Under Petticoat-Rule, written by himself, in three volumes, Paris and Rotterdam, MDCCCXC111.  I will say more abut the publication process itself in the next chapter.

An ill-disciplined youth, having failed to settle down at school and having recently behaved indecently to one of the maids, is sent away to be educated with his three girl cousins under the control of their governess. Shortly after his arrival he is compelled to wear girls’ clothes as his normal attire. After much flagellation of all parties except the governess, and sexual interaction with all the women of the household, Julian marries one of the cousins, but continues to wear corsets and to remain under her dominion. A similar work, entitled The Petticoat Dominant, or Woman’s Revenge, appeared in 1898, possibly by the same author.

The flagellation of a youth by a woman is, of course, a familiar theme in erotic literature. What is entirely new is that the youth wears girls’ clothes. There is no trace of this reversal of costume in any of the classic writers of erotica: John Cleland, the Marquis de Sade, or Leopold  Sacher-Masoch.  In  de Sade’s  The 120 Days of Sodom there is much chastisement of men by both sexes, but none of the male victims is dressed  in female attire. There is only one situation where female disguise comes into the punishment, and that is when the male client asks to be beaten by a man dressed as a woman. On the Eighteenth Day, the first 'Storyteller', the courtesan Duclos, whose function it is to describe from her experience 'The 150 Simple Passions', tells of the activities of her assistant, Justine, who

'...has a strong arm for whipping her clients, but it was impossible to exercise her arm  on the champion who presented himself this time. This extraordinary man would have nothing of the feminine, except womanish dress: the wearer of the costume had to be a man; in other words, the roue wanted to be spanked by a man got up as a girl...I raised no objections and, having prettily disguised a young lad of eighteen who sometimes availed us of his services, and who had a very attractive face, I presented him, armed with a handful of switches, to his opponent'.

This becomes a homosexual encounter, kisses alternating with lashes. The female clothes, however, are not seen as involving any shame to either party [The Marquis de Sade: 'The 120 Days of Sodom' and Other Writings, compiled and translated by Austryn Wainhouse and Richard Seaver (New York: Grove Press, 1966) pp. 456-8].
 
In Sacher-Masoch’s  Venus in Furs  (1870), the hero is, of course, beaten by his mistress and by his successful rival, the handsome Greek, Alexis, and he acts as her and their servant, but he is not dressed as a woman or as a maid for this purpose. Such an idea is quite foreign to Masoch’s writings, where the climax of the story is not just being whipped by a woman, but by being finally rejected by her. No, it is in fact the successful lover who wears women’s clothes:

'This man is like a woman, he knows he is handsome and behaves accordingly; he changes his clothes three or four times a day, like a vain courtesan. In Paris he showed himself twice in public in woman’s attire, and men pelted him with love-letters'.

The female masquerade merely serves to emphasise his successful beauty, and is a matter for congratulation and pride rather than shame or embarrassment.

Even more significant is the fact that no instance of female clothing being worn as a punishment, with or without  corporal punishment as well,  is recorded by Henry Spencer Ashbee (1834-1900) in his bibliographies of erotic literature, Index Librorum Prohibitorum (1877),  Catena Librorum Absconditorum (1879), and Catena Librorum Tacendorum (1885), all three published before 1893. This work  has been reprinted in three volumes  under the overall title of Bibliography of Prohibited Books by Jack Brussel, Publisher, New York 1962.

In erotic literature published before 1893, I have only been able to find two examples of female clothing being used in the context of punishment (apart from the de Sade case), and in both cases the costume is worn during corporal  punishment, not just as a shaming technique. The first occurs in 'Walter’s' erotic autobiography My Secret Life. A prostitute friend arranges that Walter should witness or take part in an erotic scene staged for the benefit of a client. This person, a wealthy man in his fifties, is to be  birched by  prostitutes while partly dressed as a woman, and he wishes  his degradation  to be witnessed by a stranger.

'At our next visit the flagellation came off. As H., who’d only her chemise on, and I, my shirt and wearing a mask, entered the room, there was a man kneeling on a large chair at the foot of the bed, over which he was bending. Over the seat and back of the chair was a large towel to receive his spendings. He had a woman’s dress on tucked up to his waist, showing his naked rump and thighs, with his feet in male socks and boots. On his head was a woman’s cap tied carefully round his face to hide whiskers - if he had any - and he wore a half mask which left his mouth free'.

This event probably took place around 1870. Perhaps as a boy this man had been birched in front of witnesses while dressed as a girl and this experience had been sexually arousing at the time. So much so, that  to re-enact it with the help of prostitutes  became his greatest source of sexual pleasure in adult life. [Cited by Steven Marcus  in The Other Victorians: A Study of Sexuality and Pornography in Mid-Nineteenth Century England,  London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson (1966), pp. 125-6]. Following Marcus’s quotes from it, My Secret Life, originally privately printed in Brussels from 1888-92, was reprinted in two volumes by Grove Press, New York in 1966, and from January, 1967 each of the eleven original volumes was published separately in a large paperback format by Collectors Publications, California. The passage quoted above comes from vol. 11, chapter 2,  pages 2195-98,  [Vol. II of the 1966 edition].

The second example is also quoted by Marcus (but not identified or dated) and comes from  a poem about flagellation. It includes these lines, supposedly spoken by a woman chastising her son: 

A boy is birched when dressed as a girl in Letter IX of  'Miss Coote’s Confession', which appeared in The Pearl, A Journal of Facetiae and Voluptuous Reading, vol. II, no.1 (Jan. 1880), pp.87-95. The Pearl was reprinted in one paperback volume by Amour Publications, London in 1975. But the reason for the disguise was simply deception. In order to  revenge herself on her boyfriend  Frank, Lucretia persuades him to dress himself as his sister and present himself as an applicant to join her secret ladies’ whipping club, not realising that this involves a whipping for the  novice. When his sex is discovered, the punishment is even more rigorously applied.. But the clothes are his disguise, wearing them is not part of the punishment.
 
Meanwhile, mainstream  writers, although envisaging the reversal of sex roles, did not bring male cross dressing into their satirical or progressive work. In The Revolt of Man [Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons (1882)] Walter Besant depicts a political and social sate of affairs in the future  in which women have obtained complete sovereignty over men. There is, however, no exchange of clothing between the sexes. Clothes are mentioned as beautiful or serviceable, but no details are given and  the women do not dress as men. The 'revolt' of the book begins when Lord Chester, an eligible young bachelor of 20, refuses to marry the eminent Duchess of Dunstanburgh, aged 66. The revolt succeeds, and the old order is restored.

In Gloriana; or the Revolution of 1900 (1890) by Lady Florence Dixie, Gloriana dresses as a man and becomes Hector D’Estrange  in order to infiltrate the masculine world. She achieves her political aims and  becomes Prime Minister. Apart from hers there is no other cross dressing in the book, and, as with Besant, the possibility of the reversal of dress for men is not entertained [see Ann Heilmann, (Un)Masking Desire: Cross-dressing and the Crisis of Gender in New Woman Fiction, in Journal of Victorian Culture Vol. 5.1, Spring 2000, pp. 83-111].

Another famous fanciful  book of the period is the poet and humourist John Davidson’s A Full and True Account of the Wonderful Mission of Earl Lavender etc. (London: Ward & Downey, 1895). In the course of the story the hero is admitted into a whipping club in which men and women take turns to whip each other. Both sexes wear long flowing robes for this purpose. There is therefore much chastisement, but no female dress for the men.
Peter Farrer

This is the first part of an essay by Peter Farrer, the world's foremost authority, at least in the English language, on the subject of petticoat discipline. Further parts will be published in issues of Volume 2 of 'Petticoat Discipline Monthly'.

Peter has made several brilliant contributions to this magazine since it began publication. His website, from where copies of his books may be obtained, is at http://members.tripod.com/~PBFarrer/KARN/KARN.html
I strongly advise readers who are interested in the historical development of petticoat discipline to read his meticulously researched books. I understand that a volume examining petticoating letters from the classic publication 'London Life' (which ceased publication in the 1940s) is to appear soon
Susan