In “Bardot: a personal biography” there’s a chilling passage about a particular punishment the actress got as a child:
One day when her parents were out and the maid was looking in the opposite direction, Brigitte, who was seven at the time and playing cowboys and indians with her two-year-old sister, pulled the tablecloth from under her mother’s favourite vase which went crashing to the floor and shattered into pieces. The scene which followed is etched painfully in her memory. There was a terrible gallic row followed by several cuffs around the ear. ‘We children were then banished from the family circle. That is to say we were told to address our parents formally as vous, not tu from then on, because we weren’t worthy to be their children. I was also given fifty whacks of the cane…’
The forced formality is frightening, but to me, quite appealing. I wonder if there’s a way to replicate it in English for our own scenes, without reverting to “thou” and “thee”. Hmm.
The forced formality is hot but 50 cane strokes for a 7 year old?!
There are some other languages that use those formalities… !
And just to be the obnoxious pedant than I am “thou” and thee” were the more familiar versions for a while there. (Before that it was simply a matter of plural vs singular.)
“The previously plural “you” was used in the singular to signify politeness and respect, which left “thou” and “thee” for all the other singular uses, ranging from endearing intimacy to bitter rudeness. Eventually, the politer “you” drove out nearly all uses of “thee” and “thou”; they survived mostly in poetry and religion.”
http://alt-usage-english.org/pronoun_paradigms.html
Poor little Brigitte, though.
Vousvoyer-ing your parents because you’re not worthy to be theirs – boo!
Calling them Sir and Ma’am rather than Dad and Mom for a period of time, to indicate that you are under punishment and that your relationship has entered a formal mode – yay!
I think it would have to be a scrupulous sir-ing and ma’am-ing, in the old school style, i.e. I would want to hear sir or ma’am with most sentences, and certainly yes/no sir/ma’am at all times. Also, standing when Mom or Dad enter or leave the room, or get up from the table.
When J makes me call him Master, it postively sends delicious shivers up and down my spine! I love the formality of it, and it makes a scene even more sexy!
I would have loved to have caned Bridgette Bardot when she was one of the reigning queens of International moviedom. Yes her bare bottom would have been most voluptous then, and giving her a taste of the cane would have been most erotic.