About Petticoat Parenting

Introduction

Perhaps readers of this blog are familiar with the concept of Petticoat Punishment or Petticoat Discipline. The latter is concept is even defined in Oxford’s on-line Dictionary:

“petticoat discipline: (In sadomasochism) the humiliation of a male submissive by a (usually female) dominant in which the submissive is dressed in women's lingerie and made to endure various degrading actions.”

A related concept, Pinafore eroticism, has a Wikipedia page:

“Pinaforing, also called petticoating, is a type of forced feminization that involves dressing a man or boy in girls' clothing. While the practice has come to be a rare, socially unacceptable form of humiliating punishment, it has risen up as both a subgenre of erotic literature or other expression of sexual fantasy.”

An interesting critique is given by Dr. Stella Gonzalez-Arnal (Dept of Philosophy, University of Hull) in her contribution entitled “The ambiguous politics of petticoating”:

"Petticoating is a form of cross-dressing usually practiced in the context of heterosexual sadomasochistic encounters. The submissive in a petticoat feels humiliated by having to dress as a woman and by having to behave as a woman. Petticoating has all the ingredients of a straightforward politically incorrect form of sexuality. It considers women’s clothing and women’s traditional occupations as inferior and humiliating; reinforcing undesirable stereotypes by characterizing females as submissive, passive, helpless and subservient. From a feminist perspective it is a practice that should be avoided. I will argue that petticoating is a politically ambiguous form of sexuality which can have positive readings. I claim that it can be educational and therapeutical and that it can subvert our notions of masculinity and femininity.”

Although the details of her contribution are not known to me, I find the last two sentences very inspiring. I do not object against the traditional genre of petticoat punishment, as fiction, but I have always been wondering whether a soft and sweet alternative would be possible.

Petticoat Parenting

Petticoat Parenting could be considered as a politically correct form of petticoating. Still, boys are introduced to the life of girls, both physically by letting them wear girl’s clothes, and mentally, by doing activities that are traditionally female. An important difference with Petticoat Discipline is that female clothes and activities are not considered as inferior, and that the purpose is not to humiliate the boy. The rationale behind Petticoat Parenting is that there are too many restrictions in a boy’s life, such as e.g. the limited options to dress up. So, skirts, dresses, heels, makeup, jewelry should be considered as new options for regular boys. Petticoat Parenting wants to break these walls and expand the ways boys can express themselves.

Of course, there is still some reluctance. Acting girly still seems a no-go zone for many boys, but in a Petticoat Parenting program the boys are trained to overcome these inner hurdles. The idea is that there is a girl inside every boy, and that it is important for a healthy mental development to allow that girl to be let out. Besides the inner constrictions, there is society that still does not accept girly behavior from a boy. So, there is a risk that others will ridicule them, but in the program they learn to deal with that.

Here are some comparison charts to further illustrate the philosophy of petticoat parenting.

Another important difference with traditional petticoating is that the goal is not to turn the boy into a girl, unless it is his voluntary wish. At the end, the boy chooses how he wants to express himself, and that can be at any point in the spectrum between boyish and girly. A girl’s name is only given if he wants so. Choices are his, and not his parents’. What counts, is that the child is happy.