Dear Sir,

When I was a girl I had a cousin who was brought up under 'dress discipline' such as described by 'Jill' in Accord recently (Vol.2, No. 9 ). As in the case she describes, my aunt was left to bring up her son single-handed and adopted this form of punishment to counteract his growing unruliness after unsuccessful attempts to tame him by other means.

The first time I saw Peter in his 'correction costume' as my aunt called it, he was about eleven years old and I was a little older. My mother and I arrived on a visit to find my cousin, his face a study as he attempted to hide his blushes, dressed in a cotton frock, short white socks and patent leather shoes. My aunt explained that this was now his usual attire while at home and that its purpose was to help train her son into more decorous habits. I was surprised and quite amused to see my cousin dressed in this way, and he was obviously not enjoying the experience a bit, as his bright red face showed!

During our visit, my cousin was most subdued and indulged in none of the tiresome tricks I had come to expect from him. It was clear that dressing him as a girl had had exactly the right effect and it was a delight to see the change in his behaviour. At that time he had been under dress discipline for only a short time, but was already showing the influence of his costume, and I could hardly believe that this was the rude and annoying boy who had plagued me on previous visits. My Aunt told us that although he hated wearing his correction costume and still tried to rebel at times, he was beginning to get used to his new role and becoming much more amenable as a result. I could see his changed demeanour for myself, and quite enjoyed our visit under these different circumstances.

After that, whenever we visited my aunt, Peter was always dressed in his 'correction costume' and he remained under this form of discipline well into his teens. For our visits he always wore either a frock or a skirt and blouse, and my aunt went to some trouble to see that he was nicely turned out, adding new refinements as time went by. I remember being delighted to find him wearing long stockings after a while, and as in the case described by 'Jill' they really made a difference to his whole appearance.  Putting him into stockings also had a noticeable effect on his behaviour, and I believe that for dress discipline purposes, nothing could have been more effective. As any girl knows, wearing nylons involves constant care to avoid snags, and Peter was as careful as any girl in looking after his new stockings, which was an ideal way of training him to be orderly and decorous in his movements, as well as keeping him well-reminded of his petticoated condition. I was not averse to teasing him a little and on this occasion he blushed redder than ever when I remarked how nice he looked, to the great amusement of my mother and my aunt.

Having to put up with being teased in his way was a feature of petticoat discipline he particularly detested, but it was very effective in conditioning him into submissive ways. A few judicious compliments about how nice he looked, or how well suited he was to girls’ clothes could be  relied upon to have him utterly mortified in no time at all, which was, of course, what my aunt intended when she adopted the petticoat treatment for her son. She had other ways of keeping him in his place: he had to wait on us at mealtimes, and she insisted on him treating us with deference and politeness at all times. Eventually he became as obedient and submissive as anyone could wish, and no girl could have been neater or more polite in carrying out the duties he had to perform.

I am sure that dress discipline had great value in teaching my cousin the virtues of patience and deference and I noticed that in time he came to accept his petticoated condition without demur and even to welcome the approval it brought him. He certainly became obedient and co-operative in a way I would never have thought possible, and having learned to respect and defer to female authority became an excellent husband to a liberated and rather dominant wife. This seems to suit both of them, as Peter is well-adapted to the submissive role which petticoating accustomed him to and marriage to a woman who desires the upper hand provides the ideal situation for them both.

Now the traditional position is being reversed, perhaps liberated women ought to favour a return to petticoat control as an obvious preparation for living in the future world of female supremacy. It would be interesting to hear the experiences of other Accord readers on this topic and I hope there will be some suggestions from other ladies who, like my aunt, have found ways of controlling their unruly charges through 'correction costume'.
Yours faithfully,