There are no more powerless people in the zone than the “lowered ones.” They can be called: “separated”, “punched”, “leaky”, “roosters”, “ridges”, etc. Most often they are given female names. These are prisoners (zk, convicts) with “low social status” who do all the dirty work, have no voice in the prison environment, and can be subjected to humiliation and beatings.
“Roosters” are not born, they are made. Almost all topics of insults, jokes and conversations in general in the zone are related specifically to the “omitted”. The worst thing that can happen to a prisoner in prison is a transition to the lower suit of “rooster”. This can happen not only from some wrong actions, but even from an incorrectly spoken word.
Who are the roosters in the zone?
We are talking about persons who are passive homosexuals. Moreover, roosters can enter into homosexual contacts either voluntarily or under coercion from fellow inmates. If the comb resists, he is beaten.
In rare cases, non-homosexuals fall into this caste. Most often, these are new prisoners who had the imprudence to speak to the rooster or show sympathy for him. If cellmates notice this, the person will immediately be assigned to a lower caste without the possibility of rehabilitation.
By becoming a rooster, a prisoner loses the opportunity to restore his reputation among his fellow inmates. For this reason, newcomers should exercise extreme caution when interacting with unfamiliar prisoners.
Why are they being lowered?
A sad fate can be avoided, and it is not so difficult to do. Each prisoner in the zone must behave based on the established rules of the prison cell, which are essentially based on the logic of living in a hostel, naturally with its own specifics, subtleties and nuances.
It is immediately worth noting that for a long time there has been no such concept as a “shameful article”, under which previously one could become “offended” in almost 100% of cases , for example, for rape. Nowadays it is not uncommon to find a large number of “watchers” and “thieves” who, among other things, have such an article.
As for pedophilia or rape of a child, under such an article they can still be “banned,” but this does not mean that they will necessarily be punished with fists through rape, or simply assigned a permanent place in the “harem” among the “cockerels.”
In the adult zone, you have to mess up a lot in order for the prisoner to be “let go,” and if he has money, then in almost 100% of cases, he won’t be “let down.”
To become "offended" you need to break one of several serious prison laws, e.g.:
- go into “lawlessness” (violently violate prison taboos, unwritten rules, but even then, most often the newcomer will be forgiven for the first time and explained how to do it correctly “in terms of concepts”);
- snitch on another prisoner;
- not paying a card debt.
They can forcefully lower you using different methods, in addition to some verbal accusations, they can touch your genitals to your face while the prisoner is sleeping. You can get “stirred” even if you touch an already established “rooster” or his personal belongings, such as a plate or spoon.
Year of the Rooster. Is it worth comparing a man with a rooster?
From the series “Daddy’s Daughters”: “Masha: Galina Sergeevna is our dog, and Zhenya is a rooster. Zhenya: What? What rooster? Now I'll give it to you! Masha: Calm down, here you go, a typical rooster!”
Jokes
Somehow a healthy rural guy ended up in the “zone” and decided to immediately gain authority. He walked into the barracks and yelled: “Sha!.. Everyone stand up!” Everyone stood up, but one man was still lying under the bunk. The guy comes up to him: “Why don’t you get up?” - And I’m a “rooster.” I’m not supposed to... - Come on, get up! Now I'm the "rooster" here!
A mother comes to visit her son in prison. A healthy prisoner comes out and asks: “Listen, mother, who do you want?” Mother: “I want Vasya.” Zack: “Oh, this rooster, or what?” Mother: “Here, the prankster is fighting here too!”
Why the word “rooster” took root in the “zone” and not the more adequate “chicken” is unclear. If someone tried to “harass” a real rooster, they would very soon regret it...
Look at this beauty in his natural habitat - the poultry yard. After all, he is the embodiment of a whole bouquet of masculine virtues. In his team, he is both a “godfather”, and a Sultan, and a macho.
This can be seen already in its appearance - a high scarlet crest (the famous dude's hairstyle - "cock" - translated from English as "rooster"), a lush collar and a luxurious multi-colored tail.
The Japanese even managed to breed a decorative phoenix breed, whose tail reaches a length of 3 to 7 meters! Previously, a particularly long-tailed phoenix was always accompanied by a boy “page”, carrying a feather “train” in his hands or wound on a stick.
Ivan Anokhin, poultry farmer of the 19th century:
“The feeling of admiration for the beauty of our feathered friends has become dulled in us as a result of their constant contemplation, but if we saw a rooster for the first time in our lives, our surprise at the sight of his shiny feathers, the vigor and strength of his movements and his knightly disposition would know no bounds.” .
The proud beauty of the rooster was reflected in our speech. For example, a “Hamburg rooster” was a name for a dressed-up dude and an arrogant person, and the verb “cock” meant “to brag, to swagger, to show off.”
The rooster’s “male” potency is also in perfect order. He can mate with 20 chickens in a day. Despite the fact that courtship begins with a ritual dance (the rooster circles the hen with one wing down), the process itself looks a bit rough to us. Therefore, it is customary to say that a rooster tramples hens.
Jokes
A Georgian sells a rooster at the market. A buyer approaches. - Does he trample chickens? - Wow, darling! He tramples chickens, he tramples geese, he tramples sheep, he tramples pigs... - What a good rooster! Why are you selling? “I started looking at my wife.”
- What does a hen think when she runs away from a rooster? “Am I running too fast?” - What does a young rooster think when he runs after a hen? “Well, I’ll catch up, and then what will I do?” - What does the old rooster think, running after the hen? “I won’t catch up, I’ll keep warm.”
It is not surprising that since ancient times the rooster has often been depicted as a symbol of lust and masculinity.
German erotic caricature of Napoleon III scan from the book by E. Fuchs “Illustrated history of erotic art”
I remember how I accidentally ran into a Canadian while visiting. Pathetic attempts to communicate with him in English led to the fact that after the word “cock” (rooster), for some reason he began to laugh. It turned out that this word has another meaning - this is what the male reproductive organ is called in slang.
And in the wedding procession of the Hungarians and South Slavs, the groom often walked holding a live rooster or its image in his hands.
As an exemplary patriarch, the rooster maintains a strict hierarchy in its team. And God forbid, if a stranger wanders into the poultry yard...
Today, roosters and hens are valued primarily as suppliers of tender, tasty meat and eggs. In the 16th century, the French king Henry IV uttered the famous phrase: “If God grants me a century, I will ensure that there is not a single peasant left in my kingdom who does not have a chicken in his pot.” After which the expression “chicken in a pot” became a kind of metaphor for public welfare.
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “Noble Blues”: “...I was brought up in the traditions of beautiful lines. Together with Henry IV, I willingly wish one and all chicken in soup, but just chicken, and not rye bread, even without an admixture of quinoa.”
Therefore, I think many will be surprised by the fact that this bird was not domesticated for its gastronomic qualities. This event took place in India and Southeast Asia in the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. e. (some push it back even earlier - to the fifth to eighth millennium BC). The bank rooster, the wild ancestor of all domestic chickens, still lives in these places.
Bank chickens laid only 8-12 eggs per year. It took centuries of selective breeding to increase their productivity. Therefore, at first people were seduced by other advantages of this bird - firstly, its ringing voice (we will talk about it later), and secondly, excessive pugnacity.
It is believed that the Persians were the first to organize cockfights, and only then they infected other Asians and Europeans with this fun (the Greeks initially called the rooster “Persian bird”).
There is a widely known legend about the Greek commander Themistocles, who led his troops to battle the Persians and saw two roosters on the side of the road, fighting to the death. Themistocles pointed to the birds to the soldiers and said:
“These birds do not fight for the gods of Hellas and not for their ancestors. But what does fame, and freedom, and children left at home have to do with it? They only need the victory itself, and one of them will become the winner.”
Inspired by this example, the Greeks won, and the commander has since introduced the tradition of annual cockfights in Greece for educational purposes.
So in most countries, roosters are a symbol of courage, and not at all what is customary in our “zones.” Arab writers endowed their best commanders with “the courage of a rooster,” and among the Chechen proverbs you can find the following: “Rather than live as a chicken, it is better to die as a rooster.” St. Augustine not only admired cockfights, but also inspired deep thoughts.
Augustine Aurelius “On Order”: “... just before the doors we saw roosters entering into an extremely hot fight. After all, wherever they stop, wherever the eyes of lovers wander, waiting for a sign to be given to them by the beauty of reason, which disposes and controls everything known and unknown, that beauty that attracts admirers who thirst for it, wherever and in whatever way it commands she has to look for herself! So in these very roosters it was worth looking at the heads stretched forward, at the feathers spread out on their heads and necks, at the fierce blows, at the prudent evasions; and in general, how in every movement of these creatures devoid of reason there was nothing ugly, since everything was controlled by another mind, from above.”
The word “rooster” would be a special compliment for a Frenchman. The fact is that once upon a time, Celtic tribes lived on the territory of future France, causing a lot of trouble to the Romans, until Julius Caesar calmed them down a little. So the Romans called them “Galls” (Latin “gallus” - rooster) - either for their fighting spirit, or for their red tufts of hair.
In general, the nickname was harmless, so the French, imagining themselves as heirs of the Gauls, made the “Gallic rooster” a national symbol, and since the time of the Great French Revolution they even began to mint it on coins.
Just look at the cartoons from the First World War, where a Gallic rooster pecks a German eagle.
But let's get back to cockfighting. The fighting rooster is easy to distinguish from other breeds. Its main weapon - its legs - are very tall and muscular, but its vulnerable crest, on the contrary, is shortened.
G. Garcia Marquez “Nobody writes to the Colonel”: - What do they say? - asked the wife. - They are delighted. They are already saving money to bet on the rooster. “I don’t know what they found in that terrible rooster,” said the woman. - A real freak: the head is too small for such legs. “They say this is the best rooster in the area,” the colonel objected. — It costs at least fifty pesos.
Like any athlete, the rooster is carefully prepared. They feed them meat, constantly tease them with a glove, keep them tied for hours in the scorching sun (they say that today there are even treadmills for them)… In addition, before the fight, the rooster’s feathers were trimmed (so as not to overheat), and metal spurs were put on his legs. There were even smart people who lubricated their fighter’s neck with lard and rubbed it with pepper.
This game is extremely cruel. If the fight is not stopped in time, the loser has no chance to survive (however, the winner may also die from his wounds). In England there were even mass varieties of cockfighting. In the so-called The “battle royale” involved several birds fighting at the same time until only one remained alive. 8 couples began to participate in the “Welsh battle”. Then 4 pairs were formed from the winners, then two, and so on, until again there was only one rooster left.
There is even a version that the word “cocktail” comes from the English custom after a cockfight to drink a drink mixed from as many ingredients as the number of feathers left in the tail of the winning rooster (cock + tail).
In Britain there was also such entertainment as “throwing at a rooster” - when a crowd threw sticks at a tied bird. The wits joked that in this way the British were taking out their anger on the national symbol of their longtime opponents - the French...
As the years passed, society became more humane, and cockfighting began to be banned (in England, Queen Victoria did this in 1840). However, the game is still very popular in Southeast Asia and Latin America. True, the fights are usually not so brutal - the battle is stopped if one of the roosters escapes from the arena three times or is seriously injured. But before, a defeated bird, as a rule, was eaten (they say that the meat of fighting breeds is excellent).
V. Khlebnikov: Our cook is very concerned: The knife is sharpened, very accurate!
By the way, when it comes to chicken meat or eggs, people forget about pity. Despite the fact that the conditions of keeping broilers or laying hens in incubators are in their own way no less cruel than any cockfight.
To be continued…
Tags: symbolism, pets, birds, history, cockfighting
Who is the “chief rooster” in terms of concepts?
Each "rooster" brigade has its own leader. In thieves' jargon, such a prisoner is called a "chief cockerel." He is the informal leader of the “neglected” and “offended”.
There is a slight difference between these two categories of lower thieves. The former are passive homosexuals, and the latter are “shredded” prisoners.
You greeted the “rooster” by the hand, ate from the same plate with him, or did something similar, and now you are already “offended.”
Only the “chief rooster” can negotiate on behalf of the “rooster” squad with the leaders of other groups of other stripes.
He solves all problems that arise in the group of prisoners under his control, resolves controversial situations and conflicts, distributes responsibilities between the “roosters”.
He himself does not necessarily have to be “pierced”. Very often, former authorities who have been degraded by lawlessness in the press huts become the “chief roosters”.
Who can become a rooster
No prisoner is immune from receiving this status. Some people automatically become members of the caste, while others are dismissed for misconduct or external qualities.
Most often, the following prisoners become roosters:
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- homosexuals;
- relatives of law enforcement officers;
- persons convicted of child rape;
- avid gamblers who could not pay off their debts;
- people who touched the rooster (this is considered unacceptable);
- persons who, due to character or physical weakness, cannot stand up for themselves;
- informers;
- former authority figures who put another person down without good reason;
- people stealing from prisoners;
- prisoners with high voices, cute, overly cutesy.
Anyone who falls within the above parameters can become omitted. However, most often those who end up in jail are those who are imprisoned under “cock charges,” that is, for rape.
Since the beginning of the 2000s, prisoners have been released by rape less and less often. The reason for this was increased control by supervisors. The rights of prisoners began to be protected. In particular, gang rape can now be punished under Article 132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. And this is from four to ten years in prison.
The lowered caste includes not only roosters, but also divers, devils and other representatives of lower groups. Each of them has its own functions, but all those who are omitted experience humiliation from other prisoners. For sexual pleasure, prisoners use only roosters.
It's important to stay away from them
There are simple rules regarding relationships with the “omitted” that every beginner should know. The main thing is to distance yourself as much as possible from this category of prisoners. Although it does happen that their cellmates have sexual intercourse with such prisoners (which, according to prison laws, is permissible and is not considered shameful). Moreover, the “godfathers” can get themselves a permanent “girlfriend” from among the “roosters”. Despite the fact that in modern Russian prisons this topic, according to historians of the penal system D. A. Koretsky and V. V. Tulegenov, is not as acute and relevant as, for example, in the 1980s, “the institution “The “lowered ones” continue to exist, and thieves’ concepts, according to which a person can be reduced to this status for the slightest contact with a “rooster,” are still in effect today.
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