Amy Goodman
@DemocracyNow·3.2M subscribers·19.4K videos
Elizabeth Smart: Abstinence-Only Sex Ed Made Her Feel Like "Chewed-Up Piece of Gum" After Rape
Posted
May 9, 2013
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2:21Now PlayingWatch the full discussion with Jaclyn Friedman on Democracy Now! at In a recent address, kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart revealed that abstinenceonly sex education fueled her feelings of shame when she was kidnapped and raped at the age of 14. Smart said she recalled a teacher comparing sex to "getting chewed" like a piece of gum. As a result after being raped, Smart said"I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I'm that chewedup piece of gum, nobody rechews a piece of gum. You throw it away.' And that's how easy it is to feel like you no longer have worth, you no longer have value. 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." Jaclyn Friedman, executive director of Women, Action and the Media and editor of the anthology, "Yes Means YesVisions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape," comments on Smart's remarks"We have to start treating women as having equal humanity to men. Until we do that, we have to heal the sexual culture, we have to heal our ideas of masculinity, we have to build new justice structures and strengthen the ones we have. It really is going to take an effort by the entire culture."
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