Punishment
Seamus Heaney, a Derry poet, draws unsettling parallels between the tar-and-feathering of women in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and the Scandinavian “bog body” of an adulteress who was brutally beaten according to tribal customs. Heaney presents a character who actively self-identifies his voyeurism and objectification of women as well as the desire to see tribal justice and brutality done in his own community. Women were most often tar-and-feathered for consorting romantically with British soldiers, which was seen as a violation of their assumed sexual allegiance to Irishmen. In this way, the decision to not only tar and feather but also shave the head of female victims was intended to remove any claim to femininity, shaping the public’s perception of what a woman truly is (ugly and unfeminine) after her punishment vs. what she seemed to be (beautiful, alluring, etc.) when she was desirable to a British man.
Tar-and-Feathering as Emasculation
While tarring is used primarily as a method of discipline against women, there is a prominent minority of male victims, usually targeted for offenses that suggest cowardice and unmanliness like theft and supplying drugs to children. The obvious implication is that a further component of humiliation is present in the decision to punish men using a feminine method. By contrast, male sexual crimes like rape are often retaliated with pitbull attacks, kneecapping, and beatings with metal bars and bats. This practice of emasculation in male tar-and-feathering and the methodology behind it account for victims who exile themselves from their community as a result of their torment, as opposed to women who typically choose to stay despite being targeted.