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1/22/2001 Last week? Boston Public had a young girl stand up and read a fictional story about a girl being sexually abused by her father. The teacher realizes it's true, and won't let the subject drop. When the girl won't admit to it, the school counselor calls in the parents and the daughter. The father denies it and calls the daughter something like psycho. The counselor and teacher realize it was more than odd that a father would call his daughter psycho, and won't let the subject drop. The girl thinks she's protecting the feelings of her older brothers who idolize their father. The teacher points out the man is committing a crime, and the boys deserve to know (something like that). The girl finally admitted she'd left her video camera run one night. Sure enuf, proof.
In jr hi school, about 35 years ago, I wrote a story about my physically violent brother-in-law. The assignment was to write a completely descriptive incident. I wrote about my BIL begging forgiveness, describing every body movement, sound and word. I read my own story in a hypnotic haze over and over again. I now realize I was mesmerized by own story because the story was really about my father, my "forgotten" memories, and my fantasy of his begging forgiveness.
I watched last week's tv show in a little amazement at the idea that a teacher or a counselor would pick up on the abuse, refuse to let the girls' denials sway them, and he really gets caught. I thought, "So that's what it's supposed to be like."
Tonight Gideon's Crossing was a young woman in her 20's committing suicide, leaving a suicide note claiming a sexual relationship with her doctor. He didn't have a sexual relationship with her. He made a point of not letting it get sexual - altho she tried. She was neurotic and sexually promiscuous. Those were symptoms. It turned out her self-righteous psychiatrist father had molested her when she was a child, and her parents' marriage broke up over it. But the truth never had come out. Cuz back then her father sued the pediatrician for molesting his 10 year old daughter, and the matter was dropped. The mother never told. The daughter never told. The father certainly wasn't going to tell. The daughter never told her psychiatrist of the past 5 years - a friend of the father's. She killed herself in a way that left the truth to finally come out. She couldn't live the lies anymore. She had to die to get the truth out.
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