The basement of Meyerson Hall became a place for remembering sexual abuse and incest last Thursday night. Louise Armstrong, an incest survivor, spoke to a crowd of more than 100 about the problems which victims of incest face. Armstrong is also the author of Rocking the Cradle of Sexual Politics and the preceding Kiss Daddy Goodnight, both of which deal with issues of sexual abuse. The program was sponsored by the Penn Women's Center with a grant from the Trustees' Council for Penn Women. Elena DiLapi, director of the Women's Center, introduced the lecture by explaining that incest is a form of social injustice that "when confronted, has been perpetuated by denial, misinformation, and lying." Armstrong focused her discussion on the mishandling of incest in the past and present. She cited misunderstandings of the seriousness of child abuse in the research of Freud and his followers. She said incest was thought to be the result of child seduction. Armstrong explained that many men believe their children are their property and that it is their right to do with them as they please. She added that women were blamed for the acts of abuse of their husbands because they would act "frigidly, or sexually unreceptive," thereby forcing the husband into the bedroom of the child. "Incest should be treated as a women's issue, not as a political issue," she said. Armstrong said women and children are victimized when they attempt to report incest offenders. She explained that many innocent women are accused of causing abuse and so they often lose their children or end up in jail. She also said treatment programs may do harm to abuse victims by leading them to believe that they are psychologically damaged, though reiterating that the abuse was not their fault. "These children were doomed to become suicidal, depressed, drug-addicted, dissociated adults, suffering also from low self-esteem," she said. In addressing these problems, Armstrong advocated the idea of increased radical activism. "There needs to be some radicalism in order to make the lobbyist groups seem moderate," she said. Armstrong also said she is in favor of stiff penalties for incest perpetrators and more accountability for one's actions. "The offender shouldn't be allowed contact with the child," she said. Armstrong also advised that the courts err on the side of caution in protecting children from abuse.
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