Originally Posted by carolynjo

The answer to "tarred and feathered" is that it was a form of punishment (judgement) for wrongdoers or unpopular people many, many years ago. These people were frequently covered with tar and then chicken feathers were dumped on them. The tar and feathers had to "wear off" as we did not have chemical tar removers back in the day. It seems that we are very good at devising punishments for those people who do not fit our criteria.