USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The forcible feeding of hunger striking suffragette prisoners between 1909 and 1914 was an abuse of women’s bodies. The prisoner was usually held down on a bed by female wardresses or tied to a chair which wardresses then tipped back.

Detailed explanation-2: -A hunger strike ultimately produces physical consequences requiring medical attention. Prison authorities have only two choices: do nothing and allow the prisoner to die or force feed the inmate. Different societies have dealt with the problem in differing ways.

Detailed explanation-3: -Alice Paul, American women’s rights activist and suffragette, describes her hunger strike and subsequent force feeding in Holloway jail in this 1909 newspaper article. Paul sentenced to seven months in jail after being arrested for demonstrating at the Lord Mayor’s banquet in London.

Detailed explanation-4: -Force-feeding is the practice of feeding a human or animal against their will. The term gavage (UK: /ˈɡævɑːʒ, ɡæˈvɑːʒ/, US: /ɡəˈvɑːʒ/, French: [ɡavaʒ]) refers to supplying a substance by means of a small plastic feeding tube passed through the nose (nasogastric) or mouth (orogastric) into the stomach.

Detailed explanation-5: -In September that year the government decided against early release of suffragettes who were refusing food and began the practice of force-feeding them, which involved strapping them down and forcing a tube through their nostril or down their throat and into their stomachs.