Of Bridles and Burnings: The Punishment of Women

Of man's inhumanity to man there are many chronicles, but his inhumanity to those he is supposed to love and cherish has been less well-recorded. In remedying this deficiency Of Bridles & Burnings relates a tragic history of punishment which should have been documented long ago. The authors describe how and why over a thousand years, by both law and custom, British women were pilloried, executed and transported and made to undergo a host of savage humiliations contrived by masculine ingenuity. In tracing the roots of these punishments and the ancient prejudices against women they reveal why man chose to inflict such suffering on those without political or economic power, whose 'crimes' often resulted from society regarding women as mentally and morally inferior. This book is of wide interest to anyone who questions why, as the year 2000 approaches, and despite the vote and laws supposedly outlawing sexual discrimination, the legal system may still treat women more severely than men.