On Corporal Punishment
The recent story about a child abuse victim (discussed here) who was forced by his mother to drink hot sauce has once again brought the debate on corporal punishment to the forefront here in America. So, as having experienced a fair amount of this sort of discipline myself, my views on corporal punishment are not good. I oppose all forms of corporal punishment. My reasons follow.
Supporters of corporal punishment claim that moderately violent forms of discipline are okay as long as no physical harm comes to the child. Perhaps. But a bowling ball is harmless as well, until you conk someone on the head with it! So you can’t justify conking someone just because bowling balls don’t normally hurt people.
Corporal punishment is child abuse. But it’s not the hot sauce or the slap itself that makes it child abuse. Rather, the domineering and bullish way that this Jessica Beagley (the one who disciplines her son with hot sauce) essentially rams the stuff into his mouth. This is just like a rapist, imposing his will, via his larger and stronger physique, on his victim. Now if you think about it, is this forced hot saucing really any different than the objectionable forcing that happens in rape? I think not, particularly given this child’s screams of distress while this mother bully hovered over him. My view on corporal punishment is that can easily become just as domineering and intimidating as rape. Even when no physical injury occurs, the mental damage associated with corporal punishment indeed qualifies corporal punishment as one of the most egregious forms of child abuse.
One woman noted that hot sauce can indeed damage a child’s mouth, like mint, which can be too strong for tender gums. So hot saucing could indeed cause physical harm. I thanked her thus, for this additional ammunition, which furthers the argument that Jessica Beagley’s hot saucing is even more ridiculous. As the hot saucing case illustrates, corporal punishment can easily get out of hand; especially when the motive of the parent becomes the venting of anger, rather than just teaching the kid right from wrong.
When will people like Beagley finally understand that negative reinforcements like soaping, hot saucing, and hitting just do not work very well? These blatant forms of corporal punishment are ineffective because they teach children the wrong lessons, fail to teach the intended lessons, needlessly traumatize children, and endanger them. Corporal punishment can socially hobble children for life by teaching them to overly fear authority figures, or to needlessly fight against authority. Corporal punishment often creates more rebellion than submission. Boy, no wonder kids that suffer this wind up fighting their parents once they gain enough size and strength to do so.