[TW] Elizabeth Smart: Abstinence Education Teaches Rape Victims They’re Worthless, Dirty, And Filthy

[autumnleaving]

Comments

[ms_mmelissa]

‘Oh, my gosh, I’m that chewed up piece of gum, nobody re-chews a piece of gum, you throw it away.’

This is heartbreaking.

[snoozeen]

Elizabeth Smart is one amazing woman.

[jettakd]

She is such an amazing inspirational woman.

I have heard such terrible analogies like the gum one. Always comparing the sexuality of women to objects. Because that's what we are to people who believe shit like this is true. Objects to be used and consumed and thrown away.

[autumnleaving]

So, so gross. How did those same people come to be in the planet anyway? Oh right, through the same path they're comparing to XYZ.

I wish I had a punching bag. It would feel so nice to just vent.

[anaralia]

You know what I was reminded of was when a teacher licked the frosting off a cupcake and then tried to offer it to the students. After several students turned her down, she said "No one is going to want your cupcake if the frosting has already been licked."

[chaya]

[eveofrevolution]

[ntensity]

This. I'm seriously in awe of her.

[astridmyrna]

Why didn’t she just run away as soon as she was brought outside?

I need to vent a little about this. A relative keeps bringing this up and then makes it worse by saying that something must have happened to her in her family because she must have liked to be with her kidnappers better than her family and she was only with them for nine months so she couldn't have been completely brainwashed, unlike the women who were kidnapped for years. She's been sexually and emotionally abused herself but managed to get out of that situation due to friends and family, then compares her history to Smart's and can't seem to comprehend why she wouldn't try to leave and denied her identity at some point, even though their situations are RADICALLY different. I'm trying to take babysteps with her to get her to realize that not everyone reacts the same way to trauma and that victim blaming helps no one, so this article will be very useful.

[autumnleaving]

I hope it is helpful and I hope you succeed too. Just because there are similarities in situations, it doesn't mean that the people involved will react and be influenced in the same manners. Your frustration is palpable through your comment, bb! I would be so, so frustrated also.

[astridmyrna]

Thanks!

[ladypolitik]

I have family who work in health care (MENTAL health care at that) who more or less have the same attitude. So if people In THE FIELD can perpetuate the stigma and fuckery, I have no faith in (or patience for) people who approach the topic with a seemingly obtuse angle of ignorance. You are a saint.