The situation was rather different in schools where corporal punishment was administered to both boys and girls.
Some former schoolgirls remember receiving the cane or slipper as almost an initiation into an unofficial club.
When somebody received corporal punishment for the first time, friends might jokingly welcome them to “the club”.
For certain girls, there was even an element of equality involved. If boys were expected to endure punishment without making an enormous drama of it, some girls felt determined to demonstrate that they could do exactly the same.
Others wanted nothing whatsoever to do with this peculiar competition.
One woman recalled that corporal punishment was simply part of school life. She did not find boys who had been caned either more attractive or less attractive because of it.
Personality mattered far more.
There were troublesome boys whom she liked enormously and equally troublesome boys she would have crossed the road to avoid.
The cane did not magically transform either variety.
