Why did lots of men attend and watch public hangings in medieval times as a 'day out'?

[neilsmart]

[blackgaletiger]

Well i assume public hanging where meant for the public. They could have easily done it behind close doors but chose to make an example. People are curious and nosy and need to know what is happening all the time. Being done in the public eye cannot be avoided. Same reason if their is a car accident in our digital age. People will slow down and view the chaos even though it has nothing to do with them. Its just how one mind people are. doesn't always have to be viewed for entertainment but discussing what you say to the other peasants can make for some conversation

[tesniolite]

good entertainment

but also because a lot of the time they would have heard about this criminal and are curious to see them at their end

also because in some cases people looked up to the criminal and it was an easy place to rally

but why men specifically? mothers likely felt they didn't want their children to see that, although there were plenty of times when people would take their children to see them, and a lot of women just considered it very brutish and that wasn't the outlook they were going for but still plenty did

its less that men went to see them more and more that children didn't have as much of an opportunity and women had been conditioned to not want to see them or have specific reasons to not see them

[msc545]

"nice day for a hanging, what"?

"Righto"!

"Old Nigel did a bang-up job with that rope, what? "

"Sure did, bloody bastard!"

[tesniolite]

@msc545 prtty sure i need to study nigel for my history exam

[jennifer_bloom]

My dad and many others half witnessed the executions, they were not there during the execution but were there after it happened to witness the aftermath. In China they used to publish execution stories to scare criminals away from committing crimes like rape or drug dealing.

[BeMuse]

There are many that would like to watch public hangings today. More so streamed over the internet or on TV, but people are pissed off and they want to know justice has been served because some real fucked up shit has been going on...

[NamerOfStars]

For the same reason they attended lynchings and witch burnings: humans have an innate predilection towards violence, because the ancestral humans who didn't were killed off by the ancestral humans who DID. When you can't- for whatever reason- enact violence yourself, you tend to seek out others doing it, for a form of catharsis.

[Anonymous]

Nothing better to do and to see justice done. There's slso a herd mentality within humans. I mean guys like boxing and mma but can you tell me honestly that if there was a modern gladiatorial games or type of hunger games scenario or a death race that guys wouldn't watch it.

[OfMiceandMen]

Because that was the norm. In some countries, families would bring a picnic.

I am sure there were a few innocent people that were hung just because there weren't to many on the docket and they needed someone to hang.

[exitseven]

It wax good family entertainment. You could bring your kids and show them what would happen if they didn't straighten up.
Maybe it is something that could return.

[OlderAndWiser]

A thousand years from now, the idea of people gathering to watch a golf match may seem bizarre

[IknowthatIdontKnow09]

No only men,,. maybe because in those days they were living a very boring live: nó tv, computers, radio and books

[Pegases]

It wasn't just men, and it was just normalized back then.

[jshm2]

The same reason a lot of women did.

Justice needs to be seen to be done.

[Agape93]

What else did they have to do entertainment wise, not much

[NostalgiaSenpi]

Nothing else to do. What better way to instill a sense of law-abiding, then to show them, this could be you, next.

[LiamJHayden]

1. No television.
2. Might have a personal interest.
3. Authorities might require it so as to maximize the effect.

[msc545]

No spots to watch, so this was all they had. Besides, it was fun apparently.

[exitseven]

good clean fun.

[Friendlybro79]

Not sure wasn't there lol. Prob the lack of access to Netflix?

[Charliefretz329]

Same reason that people nowdays watch violence on tv.

[PointTaken]

Probably because public hangings were common back then.

[TallAnon]

Not just men either, people just like to see others suffer.

[LaMiSch]

Why did women use urine to wash their clothes in the past? Just because it was normal back then 😅

[FifiJones]

The uncouth masses never had much sense.

[HighValue]

Women watched them too.

[Jamie05rhs]

I guess because there was nothing else to do?

[CubaPirate]

Even women and children attended too

[neilsmart]

apparently it was mostly men that enjoyed watching it

[In_Trance]

There was no major league sports

[Guardian45]

Because people were bloodthirsty

[Anonymous]

Women did too. Sexism, duh