Traditional Gender Roles Foster Sexual Abuse

While writing yesterday afternoon's post, I came across a fascinating study about traditional gender roles/Judeo-Christian culture and sexual abuse. I didn't have time then to really read it, but now that I have, wow. (It's actually a summation of 100 different reports. Um, meta study?)

More than 100 reports in the scientific and professional literature, involving more than 35,000

subjects, indicate that rapists, child molesters, incestuous parents, and sexually motivated

murderers are typically very conservative in their sexual and social values and sometimes more

religious than average—suggesting that in many cases traditional sexual morality is a

contributing factor in sexual abuse rather than a deterrent.

Alford, Jane, C. James Kasper, and Roger C. Baumann. 1984. “Diagnostic Classification of

Sexual Child Offenders.” Corrective and Social Psychiatry and Journal of Behavior Technology

Methods and Therapy 30: 2–12.

This study of 50 incarcerated child sexual offenders found that, while growing up, 65% attended

church daily, 33% attended church weekly, and only 2% attended church rarely. The offenders

found no conflict between religious devotion and sex with children.

Apparently, somebody needs to stop preaching John 3:16 and start explaining that sex with kids is bad.

Alford, Jane, Mary Grey, and C. James Kasper. 1988. “Child Molesters: Areas for Further

Research.” Corrective and Social Psychiatry and Journal of Behavior Technology Methods and

Therapy 34: 1–5.

This study identified three factors of child sexual abuse as having their roots in the use or misuse

of Judeo/Christian tradition: (1) patriarchalism places the man as head of the family and the

owner of his wife and childred; (2) boundaries between various sexual activities become

confused because all sex is considered sinful; (3) sexual activity within families is hidden behind

a curtain of secrecy.

That's a good point. In traditional gender roles, women are not in charge of their own bodies, their husbands or fathers are. It's not hard to see how easily that can become license to anything you wish, especially if consensual sex is viewed as bad.

This study quantitatively synthesized the results of 72 studies of rape attitudes, which included a

total of 19,944 subjects. Factors that predicted rape acceptance included traditional gender role

beliefs, adversarial sexual beliefs, needs for power and dominance, and conservative political

beliefs

.

Again, I'm not shocked.

Finkelhor, David. 1979. Sexually Victimized Children. New York: Free Press.

One of the findings in this study of 530 female and 266 male college students was that girls

whose mothers punished them for asking questions about sex or for exploring their own bodies

were 75 percent more vulnerable to sexual abuse than other girls in the study.

It is a common tactic among fundys to prevent, sometimes violently, children from masturbating. (Children masturbate. It's totally normal. The only thing you need to do about it explain that there is a time and a place.) And, in the larger culture, it's surprisingly common for women to have never gotten out a mirror and take a look at their own genitals, to have no idea what various structures are, and to consider the entire area gross.

Gebhard, Paul H., J. H. Gagnon, W. B. Pomeroy, and C. V. Christenson. 1965. Sex Offenders:

An Analysis of Types. New York: Harper & Row.

This study included 1,356 convicted male sex offenders, 888 non-sex-offender prisoners, and 477

controls. The incarcerated sex offenders, like prisoners in general, tended to be less religiously

devout than the control group. However, 40 percent of the incest offenders against adult

daughters were devout. Moral inhibitions, fear, and lack of opportunity had deterred many sex

offenders from engaging in premarital sex. Heterosexual offenders against children (noncoercive)

were generally moralistic and conservative, holding to the double standard and good

girl/bad girl concept. Most opposed premarital sex. Incest offenders against adult daughters were conservative, moralistic, sexually restrained, religiously devout, and traditional. Heterosexual aggressors against children (who used force or threats) had a Victorian attitude: their sexual activity with their wives was constrained, with minimal foreplay; they often used prostitutes; they held to the double standard and the good girl/bad girl concept. Some rapists used the good girl/bad girl concept to their advantage: any girl who can be picked up easily can legitimately be forced to have sex. Repeat offenders had more prepubertal sex play than incidental offenders. But after puberty, repeat offenders had more inhibitions and worries about sex: they worried more about masturbation and had less premarital sex because of moral considerations and fear of disclosure. Perhaps because of this restraint, they developed more responsiveness to the sight and thought of females and became preoccupied with unconventional sexual activities.

I think we need more of this Liberal Agenda everyone keeps bleating about. The next time someone starts talking about traditional marriage and how it "protects women", you might want to point out that it does not.