Restrict 'Petticoat Discipline' to Protect Human Rights

To Whom it May Concern,

'Petticoat discipline' is the practice, particularly by some women, of forcing (by intimidation or domination) spouses and/or older, healthy children with no medical problems, to wear (and wet and soil) nappies/diapers and baby clothes (often extremely feminised clothes). These 'victims' will usually be male. They may also force them to sleep in cots, talk like a baby, drink from a bottle/breastfeed and be spoonfed, and other baby activities. In some instances they may force the victim to appear in public against their will in nappies or drinking from a bottle etc. with punishments such as spanking or further humiliation should the victim disobey, protest or rebel in any way.

Often the practice will be progressive, beginning with the introduction of forced nappy/diaper wearing for progressively long periods. From there it will progress to forced wearing of baby clothing before moving onto forced use of other baby equipment, usually with ever decreasing discretion and modesty. Finally the victim is forced to behave like a baby on a continual and permenant basis, and there may even be a name-change once all procedures become permenant. It is not uncommon for the symptoms of Stockholm syndrome to appear in such cases, with the victim ceasing to protest and even to use their new name, their new equipment and behave like a baby voluntarily.

The goal of this endeavour is for the female or other person instigating the 'discipline' to achieve complete domination by making the victim feel/look helpless, undignified and babyish, and teaching submissiveness and dependence upon the female as a habit. More information, as well as websites concerned which contain written accounts of such behaviour, can be found by entering the term 'Petticoat discipline' into a search engine such as google.

We the undersigned believe that such a practice, with these objectives and procedures, and without the consent of the victims involved, is a form of abuse/assault and bullying, and thus infringes the victim's human rights and privacy. We believe it is different from other restraint fetishes in that the victim involved usually has no desire to partake and has no choice in the discipline, nor do they give informed consent at any time. We call upon the UK and US governments to carry out investigation into this degrading and humiliating practice and set specific laws in place with regards to 'Petticoat discipline' for the dignity and protection of those that fall victim to the practice.

Such laws might include:

- The right for witnesses/appropriate authorities (e.g. social workers, police) to intervene should they have reason to believe that unlawful petticoat discipline is being carried out.

- A ban on disciplines such as any of those described above being used on children over four years of age.

- The inclusion of unconsented, unwanted adult petticoat discipline of the nature of, or containing the components, described above, as a form of assault, akin to, though not on par with, sexual assault.

- The inclusion of unconsented, unwanted adult petticoat discipline as a valid reason for putting in place a restraining order against a person.

- Agreement on the procedures to be undertaken by authorities in the event of unwanted, unconsented petticoat discipline.

- A restriction upon the material published online endorsing this type of discipline.

We the undersigned thank you for taking the time to consider this petition.