Talk:Washing out the mouth with soap

WTF is up with that picture?
That kid is practically a baby. Who in their right minds would punish a child that young by washing their mouth out with soap?

Subject name
The common phrase is "wash your mouth in soap" or some varation. I've never heard the term "mouthsoaping" used before. "Mouthsoaping" isn't listed in any major dictionary. I propose we change the title to "Wash your mouth in soap". Samw 22:41, 3 March 2007 (UTC)
 * The word mouthsoaping is used in popular culture, in books, and in movies. At my local library the huge dictionary has mouthsoaping in it. The variation is spelled as mouth-soaping. The title if it were changed it would be mouth-soaping. I think it is better to stick with a single word instead of a phrase. Just find good sources and add it to the article. --69.85.161.116 23:29, 3 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Can you please cite the dictionary? Google shows maybe 5000 hits combined for "mouthsoaping" and "mouth-soaping".  The top hits are specialized bondage sites.  I reassert the common phrase is NOT "mouthsoaping" but some variant of a wordier phrase.  Wikipedia should use the most common phrase possible.  Samw 01:12, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Agreed, it isn't a word, even in the Webster unabridged. It's been several months since this anon user wrote this, I'll move it Epson291 08:19, 29 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks. However, Google, shows much more hits for "Wash your mouth out with soap" than the current phrasing.  Does anyone want to take a stab at the most common phrasing? Samw 13:03, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Agreed. I made a guess at what sounded the best without using a pronoun, plus I added a lot of redirects. Epson291 22:56, 29 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I added many more redirects so that more people with be able to find this page more easily. I also cleaned up the article a little.  Andrea Parton (talk) 11:14, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I just added some info on this topic in the main article about soap and created some more redirects to this page, because so many phrases have been used to describe the practice discussed in this article. I think that the current article title is as good as any other would be and I strongly feel that the titles of encyclopedia articles should not contain pronouns.  Just my thoughts.  Andrea Parton (talk) 11:30, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

Hmm, I just noticed how many redirects there are. That certainly solves the problem of people not rememerbing what the title is, but I wonder if perhaps this should just be renamed to something like soap as punishment ?  — Soap  —  14:25, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

"scrubbing"?
Using the term scrubbing in the article makes it sound more like an assault instead of a punishment. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.32.193.80 (talk) 21:05, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20131104195356/http://www.denisebotsford.com/projects/2011/Mary_B_-_George_Walker_Bush.pdf to http://www.denisebotsford.com/projects/2011/Mary_B_-_George_Walker_Bush.pdf

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WP:POPCULTURE
The Wikipedia guidelines state that there is no place for bald lists without reference or interpretation. Therefore the "In popular culture" section has been deleted; not only had it no references but there was no mention of the episodes cited in the WP articles devoted to them. The "Notable Cases" subsection also contained a great deal of anecdote that had no connection with legal history and these too have been deleted.

Any competent editor will say the same thing. Discuss the question here first before adding more. Mzilikazi1939 (talk) 08:57, 26 September 2016 (UTC)

No mention of this practice during slavery?
Whitney Plantation has a plaque with the quote "If we told a story, our mouths were washed out with a soaped rag." This is credited to Frances Lewis, Louisiana Slave, but with no specific date unfortunately. Maybe they have record of the year somewhere? Given that this plantation was active starting in 1752, there is potential for record of this event prior to the earliest date currently listed in 1832. Dizzybiz (talk) 16:45, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

"Eat soap" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eat_soap&redirect=no Eat soap] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached. Steel1943 (talk) 18:53, 29 May 2024 (UTC)


 * I have long wondered if perhaps an article by the name of "soap ingestion" or something similar would be appropriate. Unlike "washing out the mouth with soap," which refers specifically to a form of punishment, "soap ingestion" encompasses the use of soap as punishment, compulsive soap-eating (sapophagia), accidental soap ingestion, and more. Andrea Parton (talk) 05:15, 31 May 2024 (UTC)