Straightjacket
What is it?
Straightjacket is a jacket used to set people straight if they act out. It looks more or less like a regular jacket, with “I <3 girls” written on it. Of course, the jacket is straight, but don’t worry, you don’t have to be.
History of straightjackets
Much like with most things originating from pre-apocalyptic times, the history of straightjacket is somewhat grim. It has always been used for setting people straight, but unlike today this also meant in an “non-gay” way. You see, one of the things ancient people seemed to be obsessed with was extreme conformity and making everyone to be the exact copy of each other. While today “acting out” means things that actively harm yourself or others, in the ancient times anything that was slightly different from the norm was frowned upon and needed to be “fixed” - and one of these things was not being straight. According to ancient documents, ancient people had whole therapies to fix that. Presumably they would put you in one of these jackets (that were back then specially designed to prevent you from being able to move) and make you watch straight porn until you changed your mind on your sexual orientaton. These therapies and use of straightjackets in them are presumably where the straightjackets got their name from in the first place.
Of course, these were used for a wide variety of things, basically to “correct” any kind of behavior considered to be “out of line” by ancient people, which was, as far as we can tell, pretty much anything. Often straightjackets were paired with other forms of horrifying treatments such as even removing parts of one’s brain with an icepick. If you were lucky you would only get tied down to a bed. People in ancient times really did like to restrain each other, either literally, or on a more metaphorical level.
Straitjackets today
Today we know that such barbaric treatment isn’t helping anyone, and there are many things that don’t need to be “fixed” to begin with. For extreme behaviors that do need to be kept in check the ominous reminder of what might happen to you if you don’t act right seems to be just enough. That, and the fact that if you did try to escape the mental hospital while wearing one of these, people might think that you are in fact straight, and the thought of such embarrassment is enough to keep people in their place.
However, putting someone in a straightjacket is in no way to be considered a cure or a treatment for anything. It's used only to set the person straight just enough for them to calm down from their problematic behavior and be more ready to participate in actual treatment with a trained mental health professional.
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