Big little people whipping boy

CEBU, Philippines - One of the saddest memories I have of my childhood was when I was spanked (a slight smack on the bottom) by my beloved grandmother for something I didn’t do. It didn’t hurt a bit, but my heart broke into pieces, because I took the blame for my playmate’s misdeed.

Of course I can laugh about it now, but can you imagine how I felt then?

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Being punished for the mistake or fault of others is a terrible thing, isn’t’ it? Especially if you are not given the chance to explain your side at all.

When I was older and my grandmother was very old, I told her about the day she spanked me for the first and only time. I had the opportunity to explain exactly what happened in great detail.

Alas, she was already hard of hearing and maybe a bit senile, too, so she looked at me with a blank look as though I was speaking in a foreign language. “What are you talking about?” she asked.

She had totally forgotten what I thought was a very important issue!

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Now can you imagine what a “whipping boy” must have felt?

Yes, there was such a thing as a whipping boy a long time ago—in the 15th and 16th centuries in royal households. A whipping boy was a young lad who was hired or assigned to a young prince. He was punished when the prince misbehaved or fell behind in his schooling. 

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This position or job was created because of the divine right of kings. People in those days believed that kings were appointed by God, and therefore, nobody but the king was worthy of punishing his son.

Since the king was always out of the palace or rarely with the prince, he couldn’t punish his son when necessary. So the spoiled, privileged prince would give his tutors and governess a lot of headaches—they couldn’t impose rules on the prince at all!

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That was when the idea of a whipping boy came about. When the prince failed to do his school work, the whipping boy was spanked. When the prince did something wrong, the whipping boy was punished. 

But because the prince and his whipping boy grew up together, they usually became playmates and very good friends. So when the prince saw his friend being whipped or punished, he felt very bad. 

The prince therefore became more behaved, careful not to do anything wrong so his whipping boy would be spared.

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Today, when we say whipping boy we don;t mean literal whipping. We refer to someone who will take the blame for another. In offices, people of lower rank normally take the blame for their bosses’ wrong decisions before clients or customers. 

A mother sometimes takes the blame for what her children did wrong to protect them from being jailed or punished.

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The best image of a “whipping boy” that comes to my mind—and which I am most familiar with—is Jesus. He took the blame for the sins of mankind. He was whipped and suffered terribly, to the extent of dying on the cross for sins he never committed. 

How about you? What do you think of when you hear the term whipping boy? It was an ancient physical practice which I hope will never happen again!

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