In 2004 there was an article written by Michele Elliott that was based upon a chapter in her book Female Sexual Abuse of Children: The Ultimate Taboo. I wanted to take a small piece of that article and put it here. That piece talks about why it has taken so long to bring out the problem of female sexual abuse.
Why has it taken so long to bring out the problem of female sexual abuse? Female sexual abuse seems to be more of a taboo because:
(1) Female sexual abuse is more threatening - it undermines feelings about how women should relate to children.
(2) It has taken years for people to recognise that children are sexually abused, but that sexual abuse has been placed in the context of male power and aggression. Women are not supposed to be sexually aggressive and the male power theory eliminates them as possible abusers, unless they are coerced by males. Yet, in the majority of the 800 cases presented here, male coercion was not present.
(3) People find it difficult to understand exactly how a woman could sexually abuse a child. They are not seen to be capable of this kind of abuse.
(4) When adult survivors of female abuse have told their stories, they have often met with the rebuttal that they are fantasising. A child recently told that her mother had sexually abused her, along with the child’s father. The therapeutic team took the view that she was clearly projecting and fantasising. The abuse by the father was never in doubt. Only after a second assessment by a well-known team at a children’s hospital, was the child believed.
In her conclusion was this piece:
The survivors are beginning to provide us with some sketchy details. Ninety-six per cent of the men and women said the abuse they suffered dramatically adversely affected their lives. That is not surprising. Seventy-eight percent of the survivors said they could find no one willing to help or believe. That is profoundly disturbing. Some said they were told that the abuser must have been male and were offered help to remember the ‘real’ abuser.
For anyone who is interested in this area I would recommend they purchase her book, Female Sexual Abuse of Children: The Ultimate Taboo
Friday, May 28, 2010
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