Did Mormon Morality Teachings Really Make it Harder for Elizabeth Smart to Run?

By Joanna Brooks
Religion Dispatches
Joanna Brooks Blog post
Originally published May 8, 2013

Elizabeth Smart made big news this week—from Associated Press headlines to feminist blogs like Wonkette and Jezebel to the Mormon bloggernacle—when she connected her inability to run from her kidnappers to feelings of worthlessness stemming from harsh sexual morality lessons traditional to Mormon culture.

Speaking to a human trafficking forum at Johns Hopkins University last week, Smart recalled that it was not only fear for the safety of her family that kept her from running but also a sense that rape had ruined her:

“It goes beyond fear. It’s feelings of self worth. Who would ever want me now? I’m worthless. That is what it was for me the first time I was raped. I was raised in a very religious household, one that taught that sex was something very special that only happened between a husband and a wife who loved each other... For that first rape, I felt crushed. ‘Who could want me now?’ I felt so dirty and so filthy. I understand all too well why someone wouldn’t run because of that alone. If you can imagine the most special thing being taken away from you? And feeling not that that was your only value in life, but that devalued you? I remember in school one time I had a teacher who was talking about abstinence, and she said, imagine, you’re a stick of gum and when you engage in sex, that’s like getting chewed, and if you do that lots of times, you’re going to be an old piece of gum, and who’s going to want you after that? And that’s terrible, but nobody should ever say that, but for me, I thought, I’m that chewed up piece of gum. Nobody ever rechews a piece of gum.  …That’s how easy it is to feel that you no longer have worth, you no longer have value. Why would you even bother screaming out?”

The entire blog post is here.

See Elizabeth Smart speak here.

Human trafficking: Modern day slavery

Women's Psych-E Newsletter
March 2012

On February 1, 2012, the APA Women’s Programs Office, the Graduate and Postgraduate Education and Training Office and the Neighborhood Opportunities for Volunteer Activities (NOVA) Committee hosted a brown bag lunch for APA staff in recognition of January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month featuring Tina Frundt, Founder and Executive Director of Courtney’s House.

Frundt, also a survivor of domestic sex trafficking, discussed the importance of providing programs and services for domestic victims. “Trafficking of American children is often not heard about. The focus is often on foreign trafficking, she says. Due to a lack of funding for programs for trafficking victims, minors are all too often arrested, charged with child prostitution and placed in juvenile detention centers which are unsafe.” She is currently working to get legislation that will prevent children from being arrested and charged with child prostitution and to will allow them to receive services. Dr. Marsha Liss, PhD, member of the newly formed APA Task Force on Trafficking of Women and Girls, also in attendance, emphasized the importance of services and supports that prevent survivors from being sent into situations where they're at risk.

The entire article can be found here.