At the
very beginning of the chapter, I had a little trepidation about Perry referring
to giving the benefit of the doubt to the victim as unfortunate. In the current
cultural climate where we are moving towards acknowledging and giving justice
to the survivors of sexual assault and sexual abuse (i.e. “MeToo” movement), I
had difficulties embracing the idea of children erroneously describing abuse. I
immediately thought of the ramifications of ignoring children’s reports of
abuse. I’m assuming that watching the video of more than 140 ‘Sister Survivors’
of sexual abuse accept the courage award at the ESPYs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9hu5HLoSzM)
contributed to my reaction. The speakers’ description of the invalidation they
experienced was maddening; however, my perception of Perry’s comment changed as
I continued through the chapter.
During
Perry’s description of Gilmer, TX, I was confused by the mentioning of it
having the highest illiteracy rate in the nation. It would have made sense if
there was more context, but the statistic seemed to be stuck in between two
sentences and not addressed. I have a feeling the literacy rates had some
significance in relation to the story, but I couldn’t figure out the source of
the significance. I have a few theories. Perry mentions the multigenerational
nature in which sexual and physical abuse and ignorance are passed down. As we
learned earlier, the brain of a child experiencing abuse is not going to
develop properly, and illiteracy could be a result. I’m not sure of the prevalence
of abuse in Gilmer, but if a large portion of the adults in Gilmer had been abused
themselves, this MIGHT contribute to the high illiteracy rate. The part that
struck me most in this section was Perry’s comparison of the passing down of physical
and sexual abuse to the way families pass down Christmas recipes. I found it to
be a gut-wrenching representation of the damage abuse can impart.
Additionally,
I was struck by the utter lack of evidence for the efficacy of “holding therapy”
and the conviction of Sergeant Brown. Perry mentions that the foster parents
and CPS caseworkers didn’t know about the dangers of the so-called “therapy”. I had to remind myself that not everyone knows
how to operate Google Scholar. Moreover, 1 in 4 of the people in Gilmer couldn’t
read. But still, it’s difficult to fathom that the foster families didn’t
realize what they were doing was abusive. I also found myself very frustrated when
the special prosecutor ignored every piece of evidence that cleared Sergeant
Brown. I’m assuming that the special prosecutor could have seen a
non-affiliated cult member murder Kelly Wilson and still arrested Brown. Both
examples demonstrate the ability of panic to cloud peoples’ judgment and ignore
apparent truths. The phrase “witch hunts” in the last sentence of the chapter
reminded me of reading and watching The
Crucible in Junior High. In the same way the people of Gilmer acted out of
fear of the Satanic Cult, people in the Salem Witch Trials acted on hysteria
out of fear of witchcraft.
References:
ESPN. (2018, July 18). ‘Sister survivors’ moment of solidarity accepting
Arthur Ashe Courage Award | ESPYS
2018 | ESPN [Video file].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9hu5HLoSzM
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