A couple of days ago I posted (a version of) this photograph I took last month in a Slovakian town, and asked what you thought the cage had been used for (despite the continued wide influence of the Catholic Church in the town it is apparently no longer in use)
IMG_0073cage

Yes it's a 'shame cage'(soy), it was used for 'miscreants and the misbehaved'(grrl)... that is, 'depraved'.

But only for women.

In the eighteenth century, according to a nearby plaque in English (written in a style which hinted at no irony or criticism), it was used to cage 'recalcitrant, immoral' women.

Recaltritant, immoral men had apparently nothing to be ashamed of in this town.

But alleged prostitutes, adulterous wives, girls who slept around, witches perhaps... The priests and male burghers would cage and shame them outside the cathedral.

Just thought you would like to know.