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Name of the town: Gentle Hollow.
Population: Near 25,000 people.
Funded: More than 2 centuries ago.
Era of the universe: Modern, maybe 100 years old after our current.
Magic: No
Social hierarchy:: Girls are the lowest status, followed by boys, women and men.
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Context:
It is the year 2100. The past century has been labeled as the most challenging for humanity. The crisis that affected the entire world threatened not only the established order but also the very survival of mankind.
The 21st century was hard on many levels: too many times the world was on the verge of World War 3. The moments the global conflicts weren’t spiking were either because of social conflicts or pandemics. Climate also became unstable, making great movements of persons across countries, putting even more strain on the already complex problem of cultural coexistence.
All those problems, combined with the rise of prices and the stall of salaries, pushed people out of cities, which were becoming more and more insecure every week. Those who ran away returned from where their great-grandfathers came: towns. The rural life experienced a sudden explosion, and the once-forgotten towns returned to life, with new voices that filled the void that once reigned.
That movement was called the “Great Ruralization,” and it was most popular among the lower and middle classes, those who had no means to live in the once big and crowded cities. The first years were tough, since there was a lot to do, like adapting the towns to technology and such. But soon, most of the rural areas decided to leave some of that technology behind and opt for a much more vintage approach. The traditional works became once again popular, manual work got a spike in contracts and sales, and, for some years, things seemed to go almost flawlessly.
Still, there was one problem that the Great Ruralization didn’t solve. Coexistence. Crime rate, to be precise. It seemed that, when the exodus to the countryside came, those who were petty criminals, small delinquents, not too serious to involve large police operations but enough to be an annoyance, moved too. This sparked a debate about how to act.
Soon, laws changed, allowing police to use more force, lethal and non-lethal. The aim of the laws that were passed was to decrease criminality. But, while crimes seemed to go down, they never valleyed enough. There were always a certain number of crimes per month that didn’t seem to be cut. Like a hard frontier, a minimum number of crimes that seemed impossible to decrease.
After many years of study, finally, the solution came from a psychologist. A juvenile psychologist, to be more precise. Doctor Ryan Getling. He worked with children and teenagers, and he had discovered that the behaviors that ended later in probable criminal attitudes began arising in childhood. What was more interesting was that while in boys those attitudes seemed to arise around 10 years old, in girls the age lowered to a critical point of 5 years old. While this was a total surprise, science quickly got an explanation: since girls developed much more mature behavior sooner than boys, it was quite logical that some behaviors arose also earlier. The finding was consistent among the experiments, so now the question was, how to ensure girls and boys didn’t get influenced by bad behavior patterns? Or, how to ensure they were kept on the good track?
And the answer came from another psychologist, Doctor Amber Mauve. The woman was an expert in psychology and history and was a former researcher at Dr. Getling's behavior lab. She found some clues about when the criminality rates increased in small towns. Contrary to what it was, though, it wasn’t during the 21st century. It was much before, in the last half of the 20th century. Examining the data, a link was clearly established: the criminality rates spiked right after some changes in education were introduced. The clearest indicators were two: the introduction of “positive parenting” and the elimination of corporal punishment.
Those findings caused a shock in society, since they carried quick implications that soon were followed by laws. In less than a year, a myriad of studies were done, replicating Dr. Mauve’s findings. Local governments then made a brave movement, one that seemed to put people back two centuries. They unbanned and even started studying corporal punishment on children.
The laws were passed, and people started implementing discipline methods that included corporal punishments. Again, after that long time, spankings returned to the houses and schools; parents who had kept spanking were no longer ostracized or threatened but encouraged and seen as role models, and teachers and psychologists worked together in carefully recording how those actions were impacting society. In 5 years, the first longitudinal study came, and the conclusion was clear: the dreaded number, the minimum number of crimes per month, had decreased for the first time. They were on the right path.
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About GentleHollow:
GentleHollow was one of the first towns to implement corporal punishment procedures. It was also one of the towns that did more research, and when nearby places started implementing the same ideas, they offered assistance and guidance.
GentleHollow is a small town that was once founded in a natural valley in a mountain area. The town experienced two great population explosions, one when the Great Ruralization came and another when they implemented the corporal punishment measures. Many people went to live there, almost duplicating the population.
Today, the town is a lively place, with many schools, high schools, and one of the first pediatric clinics with the “corporal perspective,” where doctors researched and helped parents to maximize the outcomes of their discipline.
The new methods also help the town’s industry, since many paddles, switches, crops, and even punishment furniture, like bed straps and high chairs with rough or bumped seats, were manufactured in the town.
They were also pioneers in the design of the “parental helping rooms,” spaces in shops, restaurants, and malls where parents could go and use shared implements in case of need. Those rooms were typically small spaces, like a public bathroom, a main common room, and then small ones with closed doors where parents could enter and spank their children if needed. The implements were in the main common room, and the only requirement was that the parents had to take care of them and report if something was broken. Often, those rooms also had individual “stay rooms,” small cabinets where children could be made to stand, closed door and monitored by an infrared camera, for short time-outs.
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Some laws and norms from Gentle Hollow:- All underage girls who are 4 or older can be spanked until they are considered adults and they leave their home. (If a girl is 18 or more but still lives at her parents’ expense, it is considered underage for discipline purposes.)
- All underage boys who are 9 or older can be spanked until they are considered adults and they leave their home. (If a boy is 18 or more but still lives at his parents’ expense, it is considered underage for discipline purposes.)
- It is mandatory that the spanker be an adult. For siblings taking care of a younger sibling, if they are both underage, the older one has to get an authorization from their parents.
- Refusing to take a spanking is considered a serious offense and must be dealt with accordingly.
- Girls between 4 and 18 and boys between 9 and 13 must submit to regular maintenance to keep them on a good track. Failing to submit is considered refusing to take a spanking, and punishment is given accordingly.
- All people who are of spanking age must carry at least one spanking tool when they are outside of home.
- People who are of spanking age must stand up on public transport, leaving the seats to adults.
- All people who are of spanking age must do housework and community service when commanded.
- In case of conflict between a foreign adult and a child, the adult will always have reasonable credibility; hence, the child will have to produce actual evidence to prove the adult wrong.
- Medical doctors may prescribe or adjust corporal punishment doses, and those will be mandatory.
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Punishments that are allowed in Gentle Hollow:
The town has some legal limitations about what can be done and what can’t. While there is not an exhaustive list, those are the most frequent punishments used in the town since the laws were passed:
Corporal punishment ones:
- Spanking: perhaps the most widely used. Spankings are very common for punishment, and typically, a spanking is done on a bare bottom; however, it is legal to spank legs and even the soles of the feet. Many implements and positions can be used, and there are books that talk only about spanking.
- Face slapping: another popular option, often for a quick corrective; however, moderately long slapping sessions of 5 to 10 slaps can be done without legal consequences. The punishers, however, have to ensure no dental pieces are broken.
- Ear pulling: used also for carrying naughty girls and boys.
- Hair pulling: used similarly to ear pulling.
- Cold water showers: used mostly to calm a bad child before another punishment.
- Forced chores: chores that are demanding or forced exercise to cause mild muscle pain.
- Use of enemas with stinging solutions.
Non-corporal punishment ones:- Time-outs, either sitting on hot surfaces, normal surfaces, or kneeling on rice or similar: to cause some pain while in time-outs. Often, those are called boring time, since the idea is to bore the child to make them reflect on their actions.
- Dark time confinement: either on a bed, crib, or even a wardrobe. Similar to time-outs, but adding darkness and solitude.
- Changing food for a more unpleasant one, like changing normal food for baby food or for food presented in foul textures. Never withhold a meal, since the nutritional needs of the punished must be attended to.
- Writing repetitive sentences or an apology letter, often combined with other punishments.
- Stinging nettles: the use of the stinging nettle leaves directly brushed over the bottom or legs causes a painful rash that stings. It always must be checked by a doctor to ensure there are no allergies.
- Exposure to discomfort, like having to get to a garden with their spanked bottom on display, or making them wait on the outside with something that indicates they have been bad.
- Removal of toys or privileges until they behave, and they can be restored.
- Diapering: In some cases diapering can help when combined with other punishments for a temporary regression. Must be checked by a doctor.
A helpful diagram for the punishments:
[To be continued]
[verse]Gentle Hollow
