By Dubravka Ugrešic, from an essay that was published in the September/October issue of World Literature Today. Ugrešic is the author of more than a dozen books. She was the winner of the 2016 Neustadt Prize. Translated from the Croatian by Ellen Elias-Bursac.

Between the sixteenth and the nineteenth centuries, in England, Wales, Scotland, and Germany, the scold’s bridle, an iron muzzle that enclosed a woman’s head and forced a bit into her mouth, was used to punish women with sharp tongues. The first scold’s bridle was made in Scotland in 1567; it was still in active use in…