I think public shaming falls under the grounds of cruel and unusual punishment. It also falls against the unwritten write to privacy traditional in the US justice system. Someone committing a crime should be punished, but doing something that may ostracise them from their community isn't fair.

Are you taking this less seriously because it's primarily used as a punishment primarily for men? The circumstances I've heard used for public shaming are solicitation of prostitution, and this case. If you're willing to subject men to this, do you also believe prostitutes should be publicly shamed? How about someone helping to illegally traffic a minor across state lines that's getting an abortion? Doing things like public shaming may be a slippery slope; don't forget who's in power right now (or may be in the future).

Who says I'm pro-public shaming? I posed the question because I don't think it's effective, reasonable or fair.

Public shaming works great. My twin is an elementary school teacher and swears by the technique to correct student behavior.

Mike, this happened in India, not in the US, where it is not illegal (at least not in CA) to go to a porno theatre -as long as you don't (heaven forbid) rub one out while you're there.

Isn't India the place where the Kama Sutra was born? I find it rather surprising that they have turned into such prudes. I suppose ten sit-ups is nothing compared to what some have been subjected to in Iran (or China) in terms of public punishment.

I agree that it is messed up that police officers in the US shame Johns using billboards and TV programs to out them. Prostitutes have been shamed for years as well though.

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/sitehead.asp?page=/content/pol/media/pressrelease/042503MassageArrest.htm

Note the end comment about the jpegs being sent to media outlets. I've seen others as well, but didn't feel like looking for them (there are plenty of others on the source linked).

Shame is a great motivator. Shame is the painful feeling arising from the consciousness of something dishonorable done. If there are no feelings of guilt by a person then they won't experience shame.

If men soliciting prostitutes are more ashamed of their families and friends finding out than they are afraid of law enforcement, this is the lever necessary to change their illegal, harmful behavior. Isn't the shame of committing rape what feminists ask feminist-friendly men to cultivate among other men because laws against rape are failing to protect women where men's internal sense of guilt (aka, shame) should be kicking in?

Okaaaaaaaay.....So when in the past I was ashamed of masturbating in private because I was taught it was wrong, it was because it was? And when I was ashamed because I voted for a Democrat while still allowing my family to think I agreed with them about their Republican views, I should have been a Republican? Oh yeah, and when I felt shame over same-sex crushes, that made them wrong? Damn, or that time I felt shame about eating a whole hamburger when I was trying to get back to a size four, that made the hamburger wrong and not the pressure on me? And what about the shame that gays and lesbians feel about who they are--their fault, clearly, because shame is a positive emotion and not a method of unjust social control, right?

Amanda, the examples you describe sound more like you were in the wrong social group than there being a problem with shame. Shame is a good thing. It keeps social groups harmonious. Shame drives an individual to either conform, trading in individual desires for the benefits of membership within the group, or drives them to leave the group and find a new one. It sounds like you, at certain points in your life, were driven to find a new social group. Which is fine. You are probably happier now, and the social groups that you left are probably happier without a disruptive member.

Public shaming certainly works - at least under some circumstances. After all, shunning, which is a form of public shaming, works just fine for the Amish.

I think the issue isn't so much whether it works, as when it's actually appropriate to try to publically shame someone.

Amanda, shame is a tool. It has no agency. When we shame people for doing something that's "wrong",* we're right to use shame. When someone shames women for something there's nothing "wrong" with, they're wrong to use shame. That the shamed person accepts the shame is a measure not of the metaphysical correctness of the values in defense of which shame is marshalled, but merely means that the shamed person recognizes the authority of those norms.

Terpiskore, I'm generally with you on this one. Shame is a necessary quiver in the arsenal, and the way to move towards social norms where abusing women is not accepted.

Shame is a tool of domination and as such will generally be used by those who feel comfortable dominating. Generally speaking, those are people who love power trips and passing judgement. Guns can be used in defense, but mostly they are a tool used for murder, thus the anti-gun argument.

That said, I see the point about shame, but public shaming by relying on an outside form of shame instead of just pointing out that behavior X is wrong and therefore shameful strikes me as deeply wrong. For instance, shaming people by making them do sit-ups in public, which is unrelated to the activity, strikes me as a dominanting act that has no relation to the behavior of the punished.

Exactly. And hey, I need to exercise. I think doing 200 sit-ups in exchange for reading a copy of On Our Backs isn't the worst thing in the world.

Put the seat down yourself. What, are you crippled?

shame is a method for control true enough, but those whishing to abuse it for the wrong reasons are just as bad if not worse than those who have comitted the so called crime/act... In view of the current initial discussion and not the sidebar of gender psudo comments toward a type of "molding of another gender to a form for which is more or less being demanded" it serves a purpose which should be using the action not to be just a destructive motivator but a constructive motivator as well. This would allow for a person to be punished but at the same time serve a productive function towards a common social goal; which does not bandstand thier act of self satisfaction that is not publically accepted. moreover it allows them to reflect upon the act. Allowing them time to find someway :thru other activities: to curtail the actions being comitted thus bettering the social situation as well as self healing that which is commonly not accepted. no gender bashing comments just clear conscise reasoning and not faltering on the listed discussion

I think Amanda makes an essential point: shame is a tool of coercion. Now, if you're comfortable using that form of coercion to a certain end, well, who am I to say you're wrong to do it? I'm not, however, comfortable seeing it enshrined in the laws of the land (thought I live where, thankfully, "naming and shaming" hasn't really caught on). Efficacy aside, I think the privacy issues are scary enough that I'm not comfortable with it.