Shameful Strip / Literature

• Two cops do this to an annoying traffic offender in a novel by Joseph Wambaugh.
  Cop: Now bend over and show me that round brown. I gotta check you ain't hiding a machine gun up there.
• In Boot Camp, the first thing Garrett has to do at Lake Harmony is submit to a cavity search. A staff member tells him that if he doesn't take his clothes off in twenty seconds, he'll be forced to stand in the same spot for the next twenty-four hours.
• A dead man is found stripped and in a shallow grave in A Brother's Price. It's determined that he was kidnapped, drugged, raped, and then bled or choked to death on his own blood after his tongue was cut out. Eldest Whistler removes her coat to cover him with, "her eyes furious".
• In Colin Kapp's sci-fi novel The Chaos Weapon, the Ra insist their prisoners come to them "naked and without weapons." (They then proceed to dye their captives' skins gold, apparently the only color that Ra themselves don't come in.)
• Discworld:
  • In Jingo, Carrot orders a captured squad of enemy soldiers to be stripped for humiliation purposes (though to their underwear, not completely naked), except for the officers, because you don't do that to officers. Good old Captain Carrot.
  • Also occurs in Monstrous Regiment where NCO Jackrum has the captured soldiers including the officers stripped nude, chained up, and left to hop home.
  • Done in a school setting in Unseen Academicals as one of the catchphrases of Evans the Striped that a cursed whistle makes Ridcully and/or the Dean recite is "Any boy who has not brought his kit must play in his pants!" I.E. his underwear; the unfortunate boy who forgot his uniform couldn't sit out or leave regular clothes on to play.
• After being framed for treason and driven mad by an Evil Sorcerer, Doctrine of Labyrinths's Felix undergoes this treatment at a Bedlam House, where a sadistic warden tears off his clothes. It's supposed to be for a shower, but given the amount of time the warden spends ogling him and asking embarrassing questions, it's pretty clear that's not the only reason.
• This is done to an unnamed slave during a series of sadistic games in the Gentleman Bastard series. It doesn't seem to work on her as she stays defiant and dignified, so they give her a Traumatic Haircut as well.
• Very common on Gor whenever a woman is Made a Slave. Variations include cutting off the woman's clothing with a sword or knife, or making the woman strip herself and then drop her clothing into a fire. Often bounces between this trope and Go-Go Enslavement when the woman is eventually allowed skimpy slave clothing and then still later required to strip and go nude again.
• During the scene where the Death Eaters torture the Roberts family in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, one of the Death Eaters flips Mrs. Roberts upside-down, causing her nightdress to fall down while the Death Eaters laugh at her.
• John Moore's fantasy parody novel Heroics for Beginners features the Big Bad's "Evil Assistant" tearing open the captive princess' blouse, on the grounds that exposing a female prisoner's body makes her feel more vulnerable. She's very surprised to encounter a chainmail bra underneath.
• The Demon Wars Saga: In R.A. Salvatore's fantasy novel The Highwayman a beautiful young woman named Callen is found guilty of adultery and, as part of her punishment, she is stripped completely naked at what is meant to be her execution (she survives though), catching the eye of one of the book's eventual antagonists.
• The Known World: Just one aspect of the moral degradation that is slavery is shown when Moses and Bessie, who are being sold, are both forced to strip naked so that their potential buyer may inspect them.
• Appears in some versions of Little Red Riding Hood where the wolf forces Red to throw all of her clothes into the fire.
• A recurrent theme in the romance novels of Bertrice Small, but especially in A Love For All Time, where four English girls are carried off by Muslim slave traders midway through the novel. Their clothes are taken during a preparatory bath and all four are made to march through the streets of Algiers naked before being auctioned off in the same state.
• Happens twice in Nobody Lives for Ever. Early in the story, James Bond grows suspicious of the chance-met Sukie Tempesta (an Italian Princess) and strip-searches her to make sure she's not carrying anything dangerous. Later, a fuller evocation of this trope comes when Tempesta and the bodyguard Nanette "Nanny" Norrich are abducted by one of the villains who's after Bond's head. Bond finds them Bound and Gagged and stripped to their underwear.
• In Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Oath Of Fealty, at the end of the novel the captured ecofanatic saboteurs and some common criminals are stripped naked, painted, tattooed, and left for the police to find.
• Played for drama when Bobby Marks, main character of Robert Lipsyte's One Fat Summer, is subjected to a violent version of this as part of a cruel prank to humiliate him. Fortunately he proves stronger than he seems.
• This happened twice in Orlando Furioso. First, Princess Angelica is captured by Pirates Ebuda, who strips her naked and ties her to a rock. Second, the princess of Holland, Olympia, is stripped naked by the same suspect, and tied to a tree. Both girls cannot conceal their modesty when their rescuer approaches them.
• Please Don't Tell My Parents You Believe Her has a non-erotic example. After being forcibly powered down, Robot Penny is stripped naked before being put into storage - since she's a mechanical being with a Barbie Doll Anatomy, her captors give no more thought to her modesty than they would to a screwdriver.
• Happens twice in Redwall; the vermin captives of the Bark Crew are stripped of their uniforms and forced to walk back to the fortress naked (and neck-deep in the sea, just to make matters even worse), and Flinky and Crinktail are "stripped to the fur" when captured by Raga Bol. May not have entirely the same impact as with humans, considering the Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal phenomenon, but given that in another book a vermin Mook is embarrassed when Big Bad Badrang cuts his kilt off, maybe it does.
• At the climax of Shadow of Her Sins, after being stunned and captured by Bloody Margo, Salli wakes bound naked to a chair. A little bit later Ali arrives to negotiate her release, and Margo forces her to also strip naked to show she isn't concealing any weapons.
• Happens to Saeros in The Silmarillion (or later Children Of Hurin). After he insults Túrin's people by suggesting the women run around naked like deer in the woods, Túrin chucks a goblet at his mouth and breaks his teeth. Saeros tries to ambush him the next day, but Túrin overpowers him, forces him to strip naked, and chases him through the woods like a deer. (He carelessly does this near a cliff, so what he had intended as humiliation becomes an Accidental Murder.)
• Happens a couple times in A Song of Ice and Fire.
  • In A Clash of Kings, King Joffrey Baratheon strips his betrothed Sansa Stark publicly as punishment for her brother Robb's rebellion before Tyrion intervenes. (It's implied that this was at least as much because Joffrey is a horny 13-year-old boy as for humiliation value.)
  • Following the ironborn conquest of the Shield Islands, King Euron Greyjoy celebrates his victory with a feast in the castle of the defeated Lord Humfrey Hewett, with the latter tied to his chair and forced to watch while his wife and daughters serve their conquerors. During the course of the feast, Hewett's illegitimate daughter Falia Flowers suggests that the ladies be forced to remove their fine clothes to avoid getting them dirty. Euron agrees and seems to enjoy it, but Victarion considers this dishonorable.
  • Cersei Lannister later goes on a naked "Walk of Shame" through the streets of King's Landing as an alternative to imprisonment. This is ostensibly a voluntary move to atone for her sins and show humility before the gods as opposed to pure humiliation, although the loss of face is the real political reason why it was allowed. For her part, Cersei decided she would be able to do it without being ashamed, but she is disabused of this over the course of the walk and ends it scrambling tearfully up the steps of the palace trying to cover herself.
  • While undergoing the above punishment, Cersei recalls her father issuing a similar fate to his own late father's Gold Digger mistress, evicting her from the castle and claiming she had no right to wear any of her clothes that had been bought with Lannister coin... in other words, any of them.
  • The first person known to be subjected to the "Walk of Shame" was Mysaria, the paramour of Daemon Targaryen and the Mistress of Whisperers to his wife, Queen Rhaenyra. During the Dance of the Dragons, after Rhaenyra was forced to leave King's Landing, Mysaria was told that she could escape execution by walking naked across the city. She only made it halfway through before dying on the cobblestones, presumably because, unlike Cersei, nobody stepped in when the abuse went too far.
• In Jack Chalker's Soul Rider series, this happens to Cassie twice. The first time, she's been caught spying around a temple and is placed naked in a cell, told that if she resists, there'll be chains and a gag, too. The second time, she's been abducted by the male-dominated society of New Eden, waking up from unconsciousness to find herself naked, gagged and handcuffed. The abduction is a prelude to an extended period of "re-education."
• In the Spaceforce (2012) novels, Taysans are culturally extremely modest and cover up everything except their hands, neck, and faces. When Mizal, a government agent, is captured and tortured by an alien (to her) drug baron, she is stripped to humiliate her and her mutilated body is returned to her people naked. Her fellow agent Jay reflects when he sees her that whoever did it 'knew Taysans'.
• In Spellfall by Katherine Roberts, Natalie, a 12-year-old girl, is captured and drugged by an evil wizard Hawk and his female assistant. When she wakes up, all her clothing (and glasses) have been removed, and replaced with a short shift, allegedly to make it harder for her to escape. It is also implied that Hawk was also involved in the clothing removal, as he later is interested in seeing Natalie change back.
• Done to Kahlan by Emperor Jagang in the Sword of Truth series while she was his captive. Like with most other things he did, Jagang got a two-fold benefit. Not only did he get to see her naked (a substantial prize in itself), but the purpose was to march her around his army's camp that way. At that point, a spell had made her an Un-person who was forgotten before her presence was noticed by 99.99% of humanity. By marching her around the camp, Jagang found the .01% who noticed the naked, beautiful, and unclaimed woman in their midst and rounded them up to be Kahlan's personal guards, the only ones who would actually notice if she tried to escape. During the event itself, though, Kahlan wisely tried to downplay the "Shameful" aspect as much as possible. Jagang's intention was to humiliate her as much as anything, so rather than muck about and stall by moving slowly, folding her clothes, etc., and giving him the satisfaction of her discomfort, she simply shucked everything off like pulling a band-aid and played it off as no big deal. It would be much more remarkable if she hadn't led an army while stark-naked and painted white. Both times there were a number of clever reasons for her to do it, but it was essentially contrived Fanservice.
• The Wheel of Time:
  • This is used as part of her interrogation technique by Semirhage: a dressed prisoner feels safer than a naked one.
  • Likewise, after Isendre is caught apparently trying to steal from the Aiel, she is forced to remain naked except for the stolen jewelry found in her wagon.
  • The Aiel do this to Wetlanders all the time. They're not sure why it's so discomforting, as Aiel have co-ed sweat tents, but they know it works...
  • Done to Mat, of all people. His charges, Nynaeve and Elayne, are very amused when he complains about it and act as if he deserves it for skirt-chasing.
• Wild Justice by Wilbur Smith. The hijackers have the man sent to negotiate with them walk naked across to the airliner, ostensibly to ensure he won't carry a weapon, but actually as psychological warfare.
• In Wizenbeak by Alexis K. Gilliland, a young prince and princess are stripped by their own guards, who turn against them during a rebellion. It's a variation on the usual trope, though, since the guards don't intend to keep the young royals hostage, they just figure their side has lost the war and that the fancy clothing is worth enough money to get themselves a long way away.

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