Remarks made at a Johns Hopkins event that predated the story of the escape of the Cleveland victims.
"I thought, 'Oh, my gosh, I'm that chewed up piece of gum, nobody re-chews a piece of gum, you throw it away.' And that's how easy it is to feel like you know longer have worth, you know longer have value," Smart said. "Why would it even be worth screaming out? Why would it even make a difference if you are rescued? Your life still has no value."
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44 comments:
I, honestly, assume Stockholm Syndrome hits hard. Also, the story --- true as it may be --- will sound positively baffling to anybody who isn't aware of it in advance.
It is a terrible thing. And there isn't a punishment suitable for the crime itself. Those formerly missing women are going to have major problems adjusting to life for, likely, the remainder of their lives. I figure, bare minimum, they will have major trust issues.
Interesting. Now I know longer wonder why my wife has yet to divorce me.
Great post.
The Rape of the women as a conqueror's technique has been standard tactics since before recorded history.
Rape is more than violence. It is a pacification and rule technique well known in the middle eastern cradle of civilization down to Mohammed the perverted one.
If Hamas and Hezbollah do overrun Israel, they will spend the first three days raping the women.
It is odd that rape has worked extremely well in subjugating people. One would assume, if done on a mass level, it would increase hostility to rule --- but it seems to do the opposite.
I'm sure Smart's assumption has some bearing, but has anybody actually studied why rape has been an effective tool for domination for so long?
Her trial testimony is riveting.
Elizabeth Smart trial testimony
Sure seems like a major newspaper would know better than to use "know" when the speaker clearly meant "now" ...
One scary thing to think about is the ramifications that this went on for over ten years without being detected. How many more of these monsters are there out there? How many you girls and women go missing each year, never to be found again?
This is why I don't support teaching "purity." I think teaching young people that they are ruined after having sex, though often taught with good intentions, is psychologically damaging. Better, in my opinion, to focus on mastery of self, obedience to God, and unwanted consequences as motivation to avoid sex outside of marriage.
How many you girls and women go missing each year, never to be found again?
This whole story was so amazing precisely because she was found, alive rather than dead in a ditch somewhere. And then that one girl that was in that guys backyard.
I generally assume these girls that go missing will end up dead, but now I really do wonder how many we could find if we were just more observant as a society when things look odd.
Hoarders is a new concept to me. But there are some of them around, so why not hoard some young girls too.
Nonapod said...
One scary thing to think about is the ramifications that this went on for over ten years without being detected. How many more of these monsters are there out there? How many you girls and women go missing each year, never to be found again?
Wondered that myself this morning. Older men who lack fortune and fame apparently have to resort to kidnapping and slavery to get young women. Older women apparently just need to become high school teachers. Would the numbers of each be comparable? In that case, there must be a horrifying number of hidden slaves.
Part of the answer may be that feminism, for all its other successes in giving women lots of attitude, hasn't been able to overcome the old Helpless Damsel In Distress psychology that she knows someone will come and rescue her.
Consider how Leftism has made war on self-reliance; ironic in a nation where many women once had to be able to do anything a man could do*.
damikesc said...
I, honestly, assume Stockholm Syndrome hits hard. Also, the story --- true as it may be --- will sound positively baffling to anybody who isn't aware of it in advance
Excellent point.
* The scene at the railroad station in "Sergeant Rutledge" where Woody Strode, without question, hands Constance Towers his SAA saying, "You're a Western woman. You can use a gun".
I think this says a lot about Ms. Smart's upbringing. She was raised to be nice and sweet. There are downsides to that. Personally, I think I would have run and I think the people I grew up with would have run. A little street smarts is not such a bad thing.
Now I know longer wonder why my wife has yet to divorce me.
Wrong. She will divorce you once she convinces herself you are the moral equivalent of a rapist. This is generally not a large leap to make.
In the Bible, Absalom had public sex with all his father's—King David's—concubines. He did this to show that he was now in charge. No mention is made of what the women thought about it.
There is a psychological component to sexual abuse, no doubt about it. It is wired in us.
Children who have never heard the chewed gum analogy still feel dirty and wronged.
A family member adopted a 2 year old girl from someone on his wife's side of the family because they knew she wasn't cared for. They didn't think she'd been sexually abused, but after she was in their home they knew it had happened. Her behavior and self worth wasn't that different from Elizabeth Smart.
Sex has a powerful effect on the mind.
A good reason to be selective and to teach young people to be selective even in consensual acts.
We do not understand the depth of this effect.
It's good that the effect is deep. It's why marriage is the building block of society.
It's why marriage is the building block of society.
For certain definitions of the word marriage
*ducks*
A good short film to raise awareness about, at least child, sex trafficking is "The Candy Shop" by Whitestone Motion Pictures. http://vimeo.com/20833462
Three Brides for Three Brothers.
Legalizing prostitution would probably lessen the incidences of these things,I would think.
The reason sexual slavery is an enduring male fantasy is because Nature has made sure that orgasm feels pretty awesome and there is something compelling in having a woman do some creative things, for variety and heightened sensation. It is very difficult to obtain this in a willing, non-prostitution way.
If prostitution, the willing and mutual value for value exchange, is not available, one simply does without or gets it via force.
Supply and demand are quite out of balance in modern Western society, on this item.
Shouldn't "know longer" be "no longer"?
CSMonitor needs a 'Vigilante Copy Editor'.
traditionalguy:
They would also rape or emasculate the men. At least those who demonstrate the strongest opposition to their rule or greatest hope to his people. This is a standard tactic among Muslims and with black Africans. It's not enough to destroy a people, it's also necessary to break their spirit.
Legalizing prostitution would probably lessen the incidences of these things,I would think.
Ask the sex-trafficked Eastern European sex workers in Amsterdam about that. Dutch kitchen-sink legalized prostitution turned that country into a major hub and destination for the modern sex-slavery trade.
Mitch H. said...
Ask the sex-trafficked Eastern European sex workers in Amsterdam about that. Dutch kitchen-sink legalized prostitution turned that country into a major hub and destination for the modern sex-slavery trade
Are you intending to claim that it is impossible to safely and effectively legalize prostitution, and using as evidence, a single failed attempt? You're going to have to do better than that. You have established nothing.
Are you intending to claim that it is impossible to safely and effectively legalize prostitution, and using as evidence, a single failed attempt?
I read his point that legalization would not eliminate trafficking.
There is probably a supply and demand thing here, which I think you mentioned) in that there are fewer women willing to this then men willing to pay.
Are you intending to claim that it is impossible to safely and effectively legalize prostitution, and using as evidence, a single failed attempt? You're going to have to do better than that. You have established nothing.
Actually, Mitch has established that people who think that legalizing prostitution would naturally result in less sex slavery are wrong, because in at least one instance, sex slavery increased after prostitution was legalized. Funny how unintended consequences work to make "nice ideas" like that one turn into hell on earth for its victims.
And "they didn't do it right, but this time we will!" isn't reassuring when the cost of failure is so high. That's what the Communists have been saying for decades, after all.
Actually, this is different from Stockholm Syndrome, it is oppressive shame from the sexual assault and that is exacerbated if the assault brings any unwanted pleasure. The cognitive dissonance between forced sexual contact and the body's natural response to sexual stimulation is mind fracking to most of the survivors I talk to. Sadly, the confusion tends to be experienced as shame and self-doubt.
Tragedy. God bless, keep, and heal her.
Trey
This didn't happen because prostitution is illegal. That's daft. Kidnapping and enslaving people are certainly illegal. And it is not as though prostitutes do not exist.
I'm pretty sure that I saw wives and kids for some of those Castro brothers in the Daily Mail story on the kidnapping. Don't know how old the pics are, though.
Actually, this is different from Stockholm Syndrome, it is oppressive shame from the sexual assault and that is exacerbated if the assault brings any unwanted pleasure.
I always assumed that the unwanted sexual pleasure was one of the building blocks of the Stockholm Syndrome (that and the "protection" of the offender).
The cognitive dissonance between forced sexual contact and the body's natural response to sexual stimulation is mind fracking to most of the survivors I talk to. Sadly, the confusion tends to be experienced as shame and self-doubt.
I knew a girl who was raped and had an orgasm during it. She never came to grips with it --- not that I fault her --- and that caused her a wealth of issues. I know she beat up at least one guy she was seeing and typically never dated a guy for more than 2 or so weeks. We could talk because I knew when to leave her alone and when to talk to her and I had zero sexual interest in her, largely because she had issues far bigger than I could handle.
Sounds horrifying and I'm not convinced men could possibly be impacted in such a manner (as a man, if there is legitimate fear of death or injury, an erection is exceedingly difficult to pull off).
Yeah, I'm with Freeman here. Prostitutes exist in Cleveland. I imagine few are clean, pretty, non-addicted, healthy teens like these women were when they were taken, but that's also the case in Nevada, isn't it?
Prostitution should be legal for a number of reasons, but the idea that it will prevent teens from being kidnapped is kind of silly.
Why would they pay for a prostitute when they can have a slave for free? Or at least for the cost of keeping her fed and for providing a nice cozy dungeon.
...The child was born to Berry while she was held captive and now police sources have said at least five other children could have been born in the home. One of the women also suffered as many as three miscarriages as she was so malnourished The son of one of the kidnappers interviewed one of the girl's mothers for a jouralism class as well.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2320519/Amanda-Berry-Gina-DeJesus-Michele-Knight-Ohio-trio-went-missing-TEN-YEARS-ago-ALIVE.html
I do not think that Stockholm Syndrome requires sexual assault, and I think that the sexual assault adds another dimension entirely. Also, Ms. Smart did not adopt the beliefs of her captors in the way that Patty Hearst did.
I read that the term has been used in connection with Ms. Smart, but it seems from her own perspective, that her experience was not one of adopting the perspective of her captors.
But, it is an interesting point and I appreciate the discussion!
Trey
I do not think that Stockholm Syndrome requires sexual assault
Yeah. It was named after the bank hostage situation, right? I don't know if there was a sexual assault component to that case...
Smart's comments are powerful and heart-wrenching.
According to wiki:
Hearst's attorney F. Lee Bailey claimed that Hearst had been blindfolded, imprisoned in a narrow closet and physically and sexually abused. Hearst's defense claimed that her actions were the result of a concerted brainwashing program.
Complicated stuff.
Freeman is spot on, as usual, at 9:37. It is absolutely a matter of discipline and obedience to God. This is also the more Christian doctrine: You are created in your Father's image, and therefore always, always, always have value. No rapist, no jailer, no army and no murderer can ever take that away. They are powerless. This "purity" concept is a pagan holdout from some earlier time.
Smart's teacher, and anyone clinging to purity as the reason for abstinence, is sheltered and naive. Christianity is for the oppressed, the terrorized, the weak and the raped. Any message that cannot reach them.. Like the purity reasoning, is off target.
Furthermore, there is no sin that is too black that it cannot be washed clean by the Blood of Christ. There is no woman turning tricks in any Calcutta brothel who is beyond His love and salvation. Love endures all things, and not a sparrow can fall without The Lord knowing and caring.
You and your soul are inseparable. You are one and the same, as God's creation. What God has joined together, let not man separate. You aren't a body, and you don't have a soul: you ARE a soul. You HAVE a body. So who can rape a soul?
Smart was very young when kidnapped. But very powerful. She figured it out.
I have written before: Smart is a great, great warrior.
Freeman is spot on, as usual, at 9:37. It is absolutely a matter of discipline and obedience to God. This is also the more Christian doctrine: You are created in your Father's image, and therefore always, always, always have value. No rapist, no jailer, no army and no murderer can ever take that away. They are powerless. This "purity" concept is a pagan holdout from some earlier time.
Smart's teacher, and anyone clinging to purity as the reason for abstinence, is sheltered and naive. Christianity is for the oppressed, the terrorized, the weak and the raped. Any message that cannot reach them.. Like the purity reasoning, is off target.
Furthermore, there is no sin that is too black that it cannot be washed clean by the Blood of Christ. There is no woman turning tricks in any Calcutta brothel who is beyond His love and salvation. Love endures all things, and not a sparrow can fall without The Lord knowing and caring.
You and your soul are inseparable. You are one and the same, as God's creation. What God has joined together, let not man separate. You aren't a body, and you don't have a soul: you ARE a soul. You HAVE a body. So who can rape a soul?
Smart was very young when kidnapped. But very powerful. She figured it out.
I have written before: Smart is a great, great warrior.
Jason put it much better than I did.
Widmerpool:
Yes, riveting, and horrifying.
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