The Scold’s Bridle They called it discipline. It was really a cage. Between the 1500s and 1700s, in Britain, Scotland, and parts of Germany, women who spoke too loudly, too boldly, or too freely were punished with an iron device known as the Scold’s Bridle — or the brank. It locked around the head like a mask. Inside waited a cold metal plate… sometimes sharpened. It pressed down on the tongue. Every word became pain. Every attempt to speak became blood. The crime was not violence. It was a voic

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Did you know? One of the most brutal examples of the scold's bridle was the "Forfar Bridle," an iron mask with spikes on both the top and bottom of the bit, designed to pierce the tongue and palate. #glamiscastle #scottishcastles #scottishhistory #scoldsbridle #visitscotland | Glamis Castle

The scold’s bridle, also known as a brank, was a punitive device used primarily in Europe from the 16th to the 18th centuries to publicly humiliate and silence women, accused of gossiping or speaking out of turn. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the offenses of being a scold, a whore, or a witch were considered equally severe. During this period, female speech was often disparaged as ‘yapping’ or ‘barking,’. The primary goal of the scold’s bridle was to suppress women’s speech and maintain societ