Dr. Jo Woodiwiss, a UK sociologist at the University of Huddersfield, writes that women are encouraged to see themselves as vistims of childhood sex abuse on the basis of “feelings” rather than concrete memories. It seems that when women feel that something is wrong or missing from their lives, they tend to seek therapy, and then emerge convinced that they were abused as children.
According to Dr. Woodiwiss, vague symptoms such as dissatisfaction are enough to convince women that people in their family did something horrible to them at a very early age:
These “alternative” or “recovered” memories can take the form of physical or bodily experiences, feelings such as sadness or anxiety, and a whole range of other events or difficulties experienced in adulthood. They are often displayed in self-help literature as checklists of symptoms that the reader is encouraged to identify in their own lives, and include the following taken from The Courage to Heal:
Do you have trouble feeling motivated?
Can you accomplish things you set out to achieve?
Do you feel you have to be perfect?
Do you often feel taken advantage of?
Do you find your relationships just don’t work out?
Can you say no?
Do you often have sex because you want to, or only because your partner wants it?
Are you satisfied with your family relationships?
Have you ever been rejected by your family?
The above-mentioned book, The Courage to Heal, is one of many self-help publications aimed at convincing women that their adult problems are linked to suppressed childhood events. A growing number of psychologists and sociologists such as Woodiwiss are speaking out to criticize such publications.
These ideas can be extremely disruptive to families, and when taken to extremes can result in severe abuses of power, such as the “Wenatchee Sex Ring” witch hunt, in which 43 mainly impoverished and mentally challenged people were arrested on nearly 30,000 charges of sex abuse (yes, 30,000).
Of course, child abuse is a terrible thing, but that’s all the more reason to base any accusations on concrete evidence. The potential for hysteria and moral panics accompanying these accusations is very real, as the above and other examples illustrate.
Encouraging women to see themselves as victims of sexual abuse when there is no physical evidence on the basis of “feelings” is irresponsibility of the highest order. Perhaps there is no way to stop people from pursuing profit from pandering to some of the most destructive impulses in the female psyche, but those who do should be strictly barred from any positions of authority.
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