STOLEN BODIES, STOLEN DREAMS: ECHOING SILENCES
The courage of survivors and the dedication of feminist scholars in the past decade has at last made it impossible to ignore the epidemic of abuse. The combination of activism and scholarship has also encouraged examination of the psychological and sociological dynamics of eating problems among survivors of sexual abuse. Feminists have rejected the notion that memories of sexual abuse are merely the products of delusional fantasies and identified reasons why women cope with sexual trauma by bingeing or dieting. The women I interviewed confirmed how bulimia, anorexia, and bingeing begin as logical responses to sexual abuse and explained multiple reasons why —both historically and currently — they have been forced to deal with this abuse alone. It is the isolation and loneliness that remain characteristic of sexual abuse that make anorexia and bulimia seemingly logical responses. Most of the women I talked with grew up before the current feminist wave of popular and scholarly books ...