I really appreciate you sharing your own experiences here, having experienced life in these fundamentalist communities. Youre right, there definitely is far more nuance to the beliefs of right-wing women than just “they feel and think X way.” For what it’s worth I’m sorry you went through that. I hope that you’re in a safer and happier place now.
It is bleak how little we can do for women who are fully indoctrinated into that worldview. They will push back against women’s rights every time. Liberation could possibly change some of their minds, but it’s impossible to predict. Deradicalization is not a task based in repeatability. It isn’t something we can do reliably. It depends entirely on the radicalized individual.
Yes, I’m living my best life now in spite of everything I was taught in my formative years.
You’re right about that whole last paragraph. Of the dozen-ish kids from my small, rural church who were in our youth group together, I’m the only one who got out. The rest of them are raising their own teens in the church now, most of them still even in the same town.
I don’t know what made me so different. I always had a keen sense of logic, and I was just rebellious enough to question things. I also had access to “heretical” art that helped me feel less alone (shout out to '90s alternative rock). I wasn’t the only one of us who went to university, but I was the only one who moved out of my family home to do it.
I don’t think there’s anything I could say to any of them now that would make them reconsider their worldview. Of course, that works both ways. I know they consider me a sort of “fallen woman” for having strayed from the Straight and Narrow™.
I really appreciate you sharing your own experiences here, having experienced life in these fundamentalist communities. Youre right, there definitely is far more nuance to the beliefs of right-wing women than just “they feel and think X way.” For what it’s worth I’m sorry you went through that. I hope that you’re in a safer and happier place now.
It is bleak how little we can do for women who are fully indoctrinated into that worldview. They will push back against women’s rights every time. Liberation could possibly change some of their minds, but it’s impossible to predict. Deradicalization is not a task based in repeatability. It isn’t something we can do reliably. It depends entirely on the radicalized individual.
Yes, I’m living my best life now in spite of everything I was taught in my formative years.
You’re right about that whole last paragraph. Of the dozen-ish kids from my small, rural church who were in our youth group together, I’m the only one who got out. The rest of them are raising their own teens in the church now, most of them still even in the same town.
I don’t know what made me so different. I always had a keen sense of logic, and I was just rebellious enough to question things. I also had access to “heretical” art that helped me feel less alone (shout out to '90s alternative rock). I wasn’t the only one of us who went to university, but I was the only one who moved out of my family home to do it.
I don’t think there’s anything I could say to any of them now that would make them reconsider their worldview. Of course, that works both ways. I know they consider me a sort of “fallen woman” for having strayed from the Straight and Narrow™.