Introduction
Though we might have ripped off the euphemisms — and exposed the scholarship — attempting to hide the sexual trauma endemic in literature (from every period and every place), we face a different kind of work dealing with those depictions of trauma when it comes to our classroom practices. Many of us have moved beyond identifying the rape scene in Chaucer’s The Reeve’s Tale as a playful jest perpetrated on the thieving miller by the clever clerks. We also have thought carefully about what it means to ask students to read such tales, and we’ve adjusted our pedagogy accordingly because we know the clerks’ tricks ring much too true to some students’ experiences.
We may not have been as cognizant of other forms of sexual trauma, however. For instance, not many of us consider the Wife of Bath’s marriage to an old man when she was twelve-years old as reflecting our twenty-first-century students’ experiences. In this we are wrong.
In the following essay, both brave and forthright, Emily Pestillo reminds us that for a significant number of young American women, the Wife of Bath’s childhood provides a disturbing analogue to their own. We can expect to have students who lived with the threat of early marriage, who married young against their will, and/or who escaped either marriage or the community making those demands. In addition to this timely reminder, Ms Pestillo’s essay also shares guidance for creating a safe classroom when discussing marriage practices that we have considered relics of a distant past.
– Candace Barrington
Trigger Warnings
Dear readers of the newsletter,
We (the journal managers) have decided to include this brave article in our newsletter. Not only does it concern the value and responsibilities of educators, it is also honest regarding the vulnerable lives of the students likely in your classroom. Due to the sensitive nature of this piece, we provide this list of trigger warnings:
Sexual Abuse
Child Abuse
Pedophila
Homophobia/Transphobia
Religious Topics
Mentions of Mental Trauma
We would like to thank Emily Pestillo for her courage in sharing her own experience in order to help other educators deal with students in an emphatic and sensible manner. Her essay shows how the material taught in our classrooms (such as Chaucer’s works) might be a good opportunity for addressing these issues and coming to acknowledge them. And we especially appreciate the hopeful note Emily leaves behind for victims of trauma. With the proper support, they can overcome their status as victims and find a healthy and peaceful means of addressing their own past.
- Sofia Guimarães and Xuan Truong
As many of us secondary and post-secondary educators may remember from our own days as students, sometimes the goal for the pupils in our class is not to learn the material or earn a passing grade, but rather to divert the teacher’s attention for just long enough to where they abandon their lesson plan for the day entirely. And when I sat as a student in my sophomore year one winter afternoon, I quickly realized this was going to be one of those days. Before the teacher could get more than two sentences out about whichever text we were supposed to cover that day, our class had her thoroughly engaged in an in-depth play-by-play of how she met her husband over a decade ago. Soon other students chimed in, each recalling various happenings with their latest romantic flings and funny relationship stories. But even as I was equally inclined to avoid work for the day, I could not help but sit in silence, remarking to myself just how normal everyone’s experiences sounded when compared with mine. I would not know for over a decade that the difference I was picking up on was the result of a complex trauma diagnosis (or CPTSD); all I could think in the moment was, “What’s wrong with me?”
We think we know abuse and neglect well—educators across the United States undergo mandated trainings on the topic each year, refreshing their memories on some of the signs and how to report if we suspect a student may be a victim of abuse or neglect in the home (Public Act No. 11-93). But still, when we think of themes such as forced child wedlock and sexual trauma we often think of isolated instances or something that happens somewhere else. We often don’t consider that a culture that perpetuates abuse is in our classroom, or that some of our very own students could have already fallen victim to it.
Unfortunately, harmful sexual culture might be closer to our students and our rooms than we think. And for many, that starts with Purity Culture.
The Purity Culture Movement began in the 1990s as a response to the AIDS epidemic. It is especially prominent in evangelical and other Judeo-Christian communities, however branches of this movement such as abstinence-only education are still commonly taught in secular schools and general society today (Guttmacher Institute 2021). At its height, Purity Culture is estimated to have had 2.5 million teenage victims worldwide (Haberman 2021).
The most prominent features of this movement are problematic teachings aimed at controlling female sexuality. As a victim of it myself, I have long since memorized some of the most common beliefs--taught to children regularly in sermons, Sunday Schools, books, and other multimedia--beginning at elementary ages:
It is abnormal for females to desire, like, and/or think about sex (Collins). Female sexuality is abnormal, weird, and “disgusting” (Ludy 2004, 121)
Premarital sexual thoughts, desires, and actions are wrong and will cause God to abandon you or send you to eternal Hell (J. Harris 1997, 24-26, 92)
Sex or any romantic interaction turns women and young girls into the equivalent of “chewed up gum,” “broken, wilted flower[s],” and “spit-in cup[s]” (Burns 2019)
A woman’s body does not belong to herself but rather is the property of her future husband (Moon 2014, 66)
Emotional attachments and romantic or sexual interactions with someone who is not your spouse is cheating on your future partner (Ludy 2004, 73-74).
Marital rape does not exist because a wife’s body belongs to her husband (Pearl 2014, 167)
The main duty of a wife is to fulfill her husband’s sexual desires whenever he wants (Moon 2014, 67-68)
It is a woman’s sole job to please her husband and if he abuses her or “she causes him to cheat,” it is her fault. If a husband cheats, it is because the woman was abusing him by saying no to sex (Pearl 2014, 168)
A woman becomes forever spiritually bonded to whoever/whatever enters her vaginal opening first. Sex before marriage would make her forever bonded to that partner and unable to love the person God intended for her (Moon 2014, 66)
You will be unable to love your husband or enjoy a happy marriage or sex life if you do not abstain from sex before marriage because love is a finite resource and anything you give to another person means less your husband will be able to receive (Moon 2014, 66)
Any sexual thought, action, or feeling is not healthy or even your own thought, action, or feeling but rather that of the devil or the flesh (which is inherently bad) (J. Harris and James 1997, 24-26)
Men cannot control their sexual urges and so it is a woman’s job to prevent them from rape by dressing modestly (ex. Loose clothing that covers all body parts) (Moon 2014, 67)
Men should marry “good Christian women,” defined as one who always submits and obeys her husband in all things (Ephesians. 5.22-24 [NKJV])
Homosexuality is a sin that will cause you to go to hell or cause God to abandon you (Barrick)
For many young women and girls, hearing this constant messaging is enough to impact their development alone. For others, this messaging never truly takes a toll until it is compounded by additional adverse childhood experiences (abuse, neglect, and other traumas). For me, though I was raised in this culture, it was not until I had a traumatic sexual encounter at age fourteen that I had chosen to cling to this messaging that had already pervaded every aspect of my life. Unable to process what had happened and having nowhere to go and no one to talk to, I turned to these teachings to cope because they had promised that if I followed their tenets, it would never happen again.
Once fully immersed into this culture, the psychological abuse only gets worse. Stories of females raised in this environment are filled with women being cornered, confronted, punished, and blamed for perceived sexual sins while men received little to no consequences for their actions (Shaw 2008, 200-201). I still remember the video I watched as a child where tens of interviewed Christian men told me how terrorized they were by females who dressed immodestly, proclaiming it a daily struggle not to rape me each day. Furthermore, the continued pursuit of uninterested females (i.e. harassment) is not only culturally accepted, but commonplace and it is not unusual for some men to justify their advances with manipulative claims such as “God told me to marry you” (Greczyn 2020). As cited above, some unlucky women were even coerced into engagements and marriages with these men solely on that claim. Several years removed from this environment, I still have nightmares about being forced to marry someone on similar grounds. The devastating impacts resulting from this movement are so pervasive that they even prompted major businesses such as Trojan to counter with a campaign in 2019 entitled, “You Are Not Chewed Gum” (Burns 2019).
The Purity Culture Movement also comes with a series of concerning practices to further solidify the teachings above. Many women, for example, who grew up in this culture would be given a ring by their fathers as a promise to remain sexually abstinent until marriage (A. Paul 2014, 1). Individuals were also often required to sign “purity pledges” with the same purpose, often before they were of an age to understand the implications of their signatures (A. Paul 2014, 2, 7).
Not only are these explicit teachings problematic and downright abusive, but they are neglectful as well. The movement actively discourages education on female sexuality and healthy relationships, leaving young women in particular unable to identify their own wants and desires and unable to determine what is appropriate, safe, and healthy (Valenti 2010, 59, 100, 137, 244). For individuals with CPTSD like me, this messaging has contributed to an extreme level of this phenomenon with what is called structural dissociation, where aspects of the human experience connected to a trauma (ex. Memories, feelings, sensations) “split-off” from the part of a person that is mostly experienced by others in public (Dissociative Identity Disorder Research 2015). People who experience this often struggle remembering key pieces of information or feel disconnected from their emotions and/or body (Dissociative Identity Disorder Research 2015). For me, it often feels like living with walls inside my head, or missing giant parts of my brain, or feeling and experiencing my body as if it was a completely foreign object. In relation to this topic, it means I cannot identify what I like or who I am attracted to and often have no access to feelings or drive at all unless a trigger suddenly makes me feel it at its full intensity, which is often a physically unpleasant, if not painful, experience. Even then, it still does not feel like I am the one feeling that emotion, but rather that someone else is feeling that emotion using my body.
The culture is neglectful on other fronts as well. For instance, the movement condemns any and all resources that are “of the world” (i.e. secular and from outside the movement), leaving young women without even the knowledge of where they might find resources that can be beneficial for their own healing (Sorenson 2017). This condemnation of “worldly” resources even includes therapy because the group believes mental health issues are a direct result of one’s relationship with God (Lloyd 2021). This creates a population of vulnerable young women entirely unable to protect themselves from any harm or abuse they may face in the future.
In fact, the teachings of this movement have been so problematic that mental health professionals are beginning to see a link between women who grew up under Purity Culture teaching and sexual disorders such as vaginismus, defined as an involuntary tightening of the pelvic floor, making sex extremely painful and otherwise impossible (Stanley 2020, 124; National Health Service, 2021). Causes for this disorder are thought to occur primarily as a response to psychological and sexual abuse. (National Health Service, 2021).
Purity Culture also encourages Rape and Pedophilia Culture. As noted above, leaders teach that women must be innocent, submissive, and modestly hide all adult curves. And because they must also be virgin, hairless, and with a tight vaginal opening, the desirable standard is that of a child. As noted above, the culture also comes with a deep ignorance and shame surrounding sexuality, preventing individuals from identifying wrongs, sharing their experiences, and seeking help. As is already well-documented, this creates an environment where perpetrators of child sexual abuse are able to continue with little fear of accountability (Klein 2019).
Pedophilia Culture is not just a Purity Culture problem either. In a study published in Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One’s Looking), heterosexual women and men were tested to determine the ages of the opposite gender in which they experienced the most attraction (Rudder 2015). Whereas with women, the median age of men in which they were attracted rose as their own ages increased, the data collected for men shows that men are consistently most attracted to 20-year-olds regardless of their own age and the lack of brain development and experience of these young adult women (Campellone, n.d.).
Image from https://metro.co.uk/2019/02/22/men-regardless-age-will-always-attracted-women-early-20s-8718590/
Another study with similar results places the most desirable female age even younger, finding that “the average woman’s desirability drops from the time she is 18 until she is 60” (Bruch 2018). What is perhaps more concerning is that since this data was compiled from adult dating sites, minors were not even included as options for the study. And though one can only guess at whether that average number would decrease if minors were considered, data compiled from major porn sites leaves little need to question. As documented by the leading porn site, Pornhub, “teen” has been one of the top categories of searches since the site’s foundation over a decade ago, even reaching the number one most popular category for many of those years (Pornhub Insights, 2015; Fight The New Drug, 2019). What is worse is that even though “teen” disappears from the site’s rankings beginning in 2020, it only does so after the site faced a major lawsuit “after an investigation revealed a large number of [videos] featured underaged and sex-trafficked subjects” (K. Paul 2020). As a result of this lawsuit, the site removed over two-thirds of their videos (K. Paul 2020).
Unfortunately, though we might like to think of these as modern issues, they are simply later manifestations of issues that have been well-documented for centuries. And though we can perhaps explore many texts and time periods to illustrate this point, Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath Prologue is perhaps the best text available to delve into this systemic denial of female bodily autonomy within a classroom setting.
Through this text in particular, we as educators are able to directly engage our students in the battlefield of challenging many of their lived experiences of systemic patriarchal abuse. The denial of full personhood to women has been evident throughout scholars’ historical treatment of women within the wife’s prologue and tale. As many scholars have already noted, the long-term failure to see rape in The Wife of Bath coincides with a larger trend of dismissing rape within texts as “merely a plot device” or symbol, or instead framing rape as matters of courtly desire, persuasion, titillation, or seduction (Higgins and Silver 1991, 4; Gulley 2020). This impacts not only our interpretation of rape scenes themselves, but also our understanding of female characters as a whole, for example, in preventing our ability to see forms of female agency and self-construction within the Wife’s tale (Lipton 2019, 335-351). In shifting the focus to the female character and her experience in the Prologue, readers engage in real time with the fight for female autonomy, thus countering the notion that to be male is “an inalienable aspect of human existence” and taking back the voices of females who lived these experiences from the men who may write about them (Seal and Sidhu 2019, 229).
Just as rape has been frequently overlooked in these presentations of the Wife, so too has sexual abuse been overlooked as an integral element in the history and development of Chaucer’s fictional character, Alison. She opens her personal story in the Prologue by acknowledging that her first marriage at the age of twelve was to an old pedophile: someone who has sexual fantasies about or engages in sexual acts with a child, typically under the age of fourteen (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, n.d.; American Psychiatric Association 2013, 697). As scholar Mary Carruthers notes, not only does her age imply that she was at best “reluctant” to marry these men, but her marriage implies that Alison was always viewed as a family commodity rather than her own autonomous person with a right to make free decisions with her own body (Carruthers 2005, 214). For whatever reason—her parents were greedy or cash-strapped—Chaucer imagines a young child whose legal status was reduced to pence and groats (214). As she grows older, Alison finds herself married to several other men, who (based on Alison’s acknowledgement that she was still considered “yong” at the time of her fourth marriage) were also likely pedophiles and ephebophiles (3.455).
Though it is unclear which or how many of her marriages resulted in trauma, Alison appears to have responded to them collectively in the way a sexual abuse survivor often responds to their trauma. Throughout the story, Alison’s actions suggest an “excessive preoccupation with sexual fantasies, urges, [and] behaviors,” otherwise known as hypersexuality disorder or sex addiction (Mayo Foundation, 2020). For instance, not only does she spend a significant amount of time discussing her excessive sexual appetite in her marriages; she remarks that she wishes she could “be refresshed” nearly as much as the men with several wives; she prays that, when her current husband dies, she won’t have to go without sex for any length of time; and she refers to herself as always being “lusty” and sex obsessed from youth (Wife of Bath Prologue 38, 47-50, 605). Her fixation on sexual desires suggests two things to twenty-first-century readers. First, her behavior correlates with sexual abuse. As several studies have indicated, “[a]dults who have been sexually abused as children may display increased sexual behavior” (Tidy 2018). Furthermore, though the exact causes of hypersexuality have not been determined, “traumatic experiences, distress,” “a history of physical or sexual abuse,” and other trauma-related mental illnesses are commonly considered to be causes for the sexual addiction (Tidy 2018; Mayo Foundation, 2020). As survivors of sexual abuse have noted, hypersexuality can often give the victim a sense of control over their own body and sexuality after having had experiences where those have been taken from them. Second, her hypersexuality could indicate sexual abuse in a different capacity; as Alison was raised in a world where a woman’s place in society was largely dependent on her virginal and reproductive status, Alison’s sexuality could possibly reflect her internalization of the values of the patriarchy which place a woman’s worth solely in her sexual and reproductive abilities. As such, Alison’s depicted behavior would reflect that of women who view their bodies as mere sex objects.
Though it may be easy to place blame solely on Alison’s parents and husbands for the sexual trauma Alison faced as a result of her lack of consent, the issues that led to this abuse were systemic. Throughout the Middle Ages, a female’s consent was not held at the same level as a man’s (Barrington 2019, 138, 145). If she were raped, for example, discussion would often turn towards what the female did or did not do, rather than towards the actions of the rapist. A female reporting rape was expected to report it immediately and publicly, recall the story and all its minor details exactly the same each time, put up a fight, and show physical evidence of a “violent attack” (C. Harris 2021). The need to prove not only her rape but also of her “absolute lack of consent” in the affair was only made more challenging by the common stereotype that females were lustful, untrustworthy, and deceitful (Barrington 2019, 138-139; C. Harris 2021). And if a rape resulted in a pregnancy or the survivor had previous consensual sexual relations with her abuser, the case would be dismissed (C. Harris 2021). “Medieval English law viewed rape primarily as a property crime against the woman’s husband, father, or next of kin” and rapists “were typically punished with a fine” (C. Harris 2017; Edwards 3, 7). Even if a woman consented to a sexual act, a man could still be charged for rape if her father did not approve of the relationship (Barrington 2019, 138-139).
We can even see several examples of this systemic issue toward women from within the text of the Wife of Bath Prologue. For example, though it is safe to assume that most contemporary readers would question or make some sort of shocked utterance to hear that someone in our acquaintance was married as a child to several pedophiles, the men in the Wife of Bath make no such utterances. In fact, when someone in the tale does decide to speak out, it is because the character is shocked at the woman’s abuse towards the men in the tale. As the Pardoner notes, “I was aboute to wedde a wyf; allas!/ What sholde I bye it on my flesh so dere?/ Yet hadde I lever wedde no wyf to-yere!” (Wife of Bath Prologue 166-168). Since Chaucer included interruptions by shocked and disgusted men throughout the Wife’s monologue, reason suggests that the idea of a young child being sexually abused by a pedophile was either common, socially acceptable, or both. Research by Paul Newman supports this theory, especially as it relates to English nobility. Though child brides were often not expected to consummate their marriages until the females reached a “suitable age,” this age was typically around 14-16 and in some instances as low as 12 (Newman 2007, 38).
So too can we also see these systemic issues through the mere title of the tale. Though the Wife of Bath is given the name of Alison and credited as being a skilled weaver from one of the wealthiest provinces of the time, she is not referred to as “Alison of Bath” or “The Weaver of Bath.” Instead, her worth is defined solely by her relationship with men, specifically as “The Wife” of Bath (emphasis added). As scholar Lee Patterson notes, Alison’s “professional life seems to have been, in her own mind…rendered invisible by her marriages, which are clearly specified as the source of her current prosperity” (Patterson 2016, 40).
To parallel the data compiled for men in the modern day, The Wife of Bath Prologue also reveals a similar trend of older men being drawn to much younger women. As her many marriages suggest, many older men found young females particularly sexually appealing. Furthermore, as Alison laments, her age has left her less attractive to the males in her society (Wife of Bath Prologue 474-479):
But age, allas! that al wol envenyme,
Hath me biraft my beautee and my pith;
Lat go, fare-wel, the devel go therwith!
The flour is goon, ther is na-more to telle,
The bren, as I best can, now moste I selle;
But yet to be right mery wol I fonde.
As educators, our classroom can be a safe place for recognizing these long-standing issues. Furthermore, in exploring a text like The Wife of Bath Prologue through the lens of sexual abuse and trauma, we can help students understand that their own bodily autonomy is paramount. The following section provides some basic guidelines and practices that educators at all levels, along with members of the general community, can use to create a safe environment and counter destructive messages.
First and foremost, the research discussed above suggests that many students within our classrooms have already experienced and perhaps fallen victim to the traumatic experiences noted above. As such, it is essential to develop a strong understanding of how these students interact with this type of content once brought up. Experiences of trauma often impair an individual’s ability to correctly file relevant distressing memories in the correct parts of the brain (PTSD UK, n.d.). When the body of someone with a trauma-related disorder (PTSD, CPTSD, OSDD, DID, etc.) later encounters stimuli related to this event, the brain can often try to unsuccessfully reprocess the experience in the moment, leading to a sensation that the individual is reliving the trauma in real time and placing the student in fight or flight mode (PTSD UK, n.d.). Alternatively, students may become so overwhelmed by the stimuli that they may go into freeze mode (ie. “play dead”) and thus completely disconnect from themselves and/or the world around them (Gillette 2021). Such students may feel like the world around them is not real, that they are floating away from their body, that their body does not belong to them, and/or become numb or emotionally detached (Gillette 2021). For outside observers, this can often look similar to “zoning out.” They may also experience dissociative amnesia, making individuals unable to remember parts or all of their trauma (Gillette 2021). In both situations, the individual becomes completely removed from the present moment which can last for minutes, hours, days, months, or longer (Gillette 2021).
As such, it is incredibly important to provide trigger warnings to students when dealing with topics involving trauma. A trigger warning is a recent practice designed to notify students who may have had experiences with certain traumatic subjects that these topics will be discussed at a given time (Center for Teaching Excellence, n.d.). Doing so allows for these students to mentally prepare themselves and make decisions for how they may involve themselves in the lesson accordingly, from making sure they have grounding tools available to them at the time of discussion or removing themselves from a portion of the discussion if needed. A teacher will never be able to anticipate everything that triggers a flashback or dissociative episode in students with trauma and trauma-related disorders, however the more trigger warnings they can provide, the greater chance a teacher has of ensuring that each student is emotionally, mentally, and physically present for the instruction.
What is perhaps even more important when it comes to triggers amongst students is how an educator responds to their inevitable occurrence. Though a student who is triggered may respond by crying or suddenly feeling intensely sad, what is perhaps far more common is the student who feels so triggered by something in an assignment that their body physically will not let them complete it, regardless of their desire to do so (Souma et al. 2012). Alternatively, students might produce lower quality work to avoid a trigger embedded in producing the higher quality work in which the teacher knows them capable. A student triggered into a “fight” response might also direct their feelings towards themselves or their teacher, potentially self-harming or getting themselves into trouble with their school boards (Souma et al. 2012). In the preparation of this article alone for example, I personally have struggled with all three, alternating from becoming frozen in emotional pain, unable to get up or move for several hours at a time for multiple days and weeks in a row, to fighting the intense urge to harm myself physically, to resolving to behave in such a way to where someone will cancel this piece and I never have to look at or relive anything in my mind ever again.
The production of this piece is proof that these students can succeed and thrive despite their circumstances if provided with supportive adults who meet them where they are at with unconditional positive regard and without judgement. This could mean providing them with common accommodations typically provided to students with other learning differences such as breaking up assignments into smaller parts, providing flexibility within assignments, and allowing students to use various grounding tools during class (Souma et al. 2012). This also means using nonjudgmental language when inquiring about a student’s progress (ex. “I notice ____, what’s up?”) and utilizing positive reassurances whenever possible (ex. “I see you are trying, it is okay that you are struggling, and we will work through this together”) (Sherry et al. 2021). And of course, school counselors and psychologists can be excellent resources in which to direct students who need additional support.
Through all this, it is natural to experience a variety of emotions when working with students who engage in behaviors such as those outlined above. In these moments, it is paramount to always be cognizant of your own countertransference: ways in which you might be reacting to a child out of your own feelings, beliefs, and past experiences (Sherry et al. 2021). Unhelpful behaviors in students often have nothing to do with you nor your student’s opinions of you and are often rather reflections of their current level of distress and life experiences (Sherry et al. 2021). Therefore, before responding to the child, it is essential to first reflect on what that child’s behavior might be bringing up for you emotionally so you can later work through those feelings privately or with a trusted support (Sherry et al 2021). Doing so better prevents you from unfairly placing your emotions on the child through blame, guilt, or shame, and better enables you to respond to the child in the nonjudgmental, calm, and empathic way they need and deserve (Sherry et al. 2021).
Second, when it comes to the need to instill concepts of bodily autonomy to students and counter destructive messages, there are many practices teachers can implement to create an environment of empowerment within the room. And though texts like The Wife of Bath Prologue might not be well-suited for younger readers, there are many ways for parents and educators to introduce concepts of bodily autonomy and consent to our youngest students in ways that are developmentally appropriate.
For the youngest of students, this can often be done without any reference to sexual or romantic content. For example, through sentences such as, “Student X is communicating with their body language that they do not want you to touch them” or “Student Y is communicating with their voice that they would not like you to do that,” educators and parents can help students become aware of the different cues an individual might give to indicate their lack of consent. In my classroom, I also expand the concept of consent to a student’s possessions. For example, when working with students who attempt to touch another student’s belongings, I make frequent use of sentences like “Student X has not given you permission to touch that” and “that is not yours to touch.” For some of my youngest students, I also encourage them to practice asking for consent amongst adults. For example, if I am surprised by a hug, I might say “I was not ready for that. Can you please ask and try again,” followed by lots of positive feedback for respecting the boundary. I, in turn, make sure to practice the same courtesy by checking first if a child would like a hug or high five before providing one, and always make sure to state that “no” is always an option.
Though we as educators may wish we can identify and intervene for every child who may have fallen victim to problematic teachings, that is unfortunately not a reality. However, in presenting these issues and immersing students in the alternative, we can create an environment that empowers students to remove the blame from themselves and shift the “what’s wrong with me” narrative to the systems and people in which it rightly belongs.
Works Cited:
American Psychiatric Association. 2013. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5. Fifth Edition. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association.
Barrick, Audrey. 2008. “Survey: Americans Divided on Homosexuality as Sin.” The Christian Post, Published on June 6, 2008. https://www.christianpost.com/article/20080606/survey-americans-divided-on-homosexuality-as-sin.htm.
Barrington, Candace, and Sebastian Sobecki. 2019. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Law and Literature. Cambridge University Press.
Bruch, Elizabeth E., and M. E. Newman. 2018. “Aspirational Pursuit of Mates in Online Dating Markets.” Science Advances 4, no. 8 (August). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aap9815.
Burns, Katelyn. 2019. “Sex Education Rally Reminds Teens ‘You Are Not Chewed Gum’” Teen Vogue, Published on October 31, 2019. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/sex-education-rally-reminds-teens-you-are-not-chewed-gum.
Campellone, Joseph, and Raymond Kent Turley. .d. Understanding the Teen Brain. University of Rochester Medical Center. https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=1&ContentID=3051#:~:text=The%20rational%20part%20of%20a,cortex%2C%20the%20brain's%20rational%20part.
Carruthers, Mary. 2005. “The Wife of Bath and the Painting of Lions.” Feminist Readings in Middle English Literature: 30–61. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203976791-7.
Center for Teaching Excellence. n.d. “Trigger Warnings.” Centre for Teaching Excellence, Accessed on February 20, 2022. https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/trigger#:~:text=A%20trigger%20warning%20is%20a,clip%2C%20or%20piece%20of%20text.
Collins, Natalie. 2015. “7 Lies That Purity Culture Teaches Women.” CBE International, Christians for Biblical Equality, Published on September 8, 2015. https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/article/mutuality-blog-magazine/7-lies-purity-culture-teaches-women.
Connecticut, Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly. Public Act No. 11-93. Substitute House Bill No. 5431. 2011. https://www.cga.ct.gov/2011/act/pa/pdf/2011PA-00093-R00HB-05431-PA.pdf.
Dissociative Identity Disorder Research. 2015. “Structural Dissociation.” Modified on April 18, 2015. “https://did-research.org/origin/structural_dissociation/.
Edwards, Suzanne. 2011. "The Rhetoric of Rape and the Politics of Gender in the Wife of Bath's Tale and the 1382 Statute of Rapes." Exemplaria 23, no. 1: 3-26.
Fight the New Drug. 2019. “‘Teen’: Why Has This One Porn Category Topped the Charts for 6+ Years?” Fight the New Drug, Published on August 28, 2019. https://fightthenewdrug.org/this-years-most-popular-genre-of-porn-is-pretty-messed-up/.
Guttmacher Institute. 2021. “Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Programs: Harmful and Ineffective.” May 2021. https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/abstinence-only-programs?gclid=CjwKCAiA6seQBhAfEiwAvPqu1xFC9OmsO51plj7oTW2jRMhw1HSqfS74rhVMpzCzUal-NXMXyV8G6RoCcAIQAvD_BwE.
Gillette, Hope. 2021. “What’s the Link Between Trauma and Dissociation?” PsychCentral, Modified on August 2, 2021. https://psychcentral.com/pro/coping-with-trauma-through-dissociation#signs.
Greczyn, Alice. 2020. “Is Purity Culture a Form of Sexual Abuse?” Alice Greczyn, Published on August 13, 2020. https://www.alicegreczyn.com/blog/is-purity-culture-a-form-of-sexual-abuse.
Gulley, Alison. 2020. “The Wife of Bath, Rape, and the Ethical Classroom.” EuropeNow, (March). https://www.europenowjournal.org/2020/03/09/the-wife-of-bath-rape-and-the-ethical-classroom/.
Haberman, Clyde. 2021. How an Abstinence Pledge in the '90s Shamed a Generation of Evangelicals. The New York Times, Modified on April 12, 2021. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/us/abstinence-pledge-evangelicals.amp.html.
Harris, Carissa. 2021. “800 Years of Rape Culture.” Edited by Pam Weintraub, Aeon 24, (May). https://aeon.co/essays/the-hypocrisies-of-rape-culture-have-medieval-roots.
Harris, Carissa. 2017. "Rape and Justice in the Wife of Bath’s Tale." The Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales: 255-279.
Harris, Joshua, and Rebecca St. James. 1997. I Kissed Dating Goodbye.
Higgins, Lynn A, and Brenda R Silver. 1991. Introduction to Rape and Representation, 1-14. Oxford, NY: Columbia Univ Press.
Klein, Linda Kay. 2019. “Southern Baptist Convention Report on Sex Abuse Shines a Light on Evangelical Culture.” NBC Universal News GroupNews.com, Published on February 12, 2019. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/southern-baptist-convention-report-sex-abuse-shines-light-evangelical-culture-ncna970756.
Lipton, Emma. 2019. "Contracts, Activist Feminism, and the Wife of Bath's Tale." The Chaucer Review 54, no. 3: 335-351.
Lloyd, Christopher E M. 2021. “Contending with Spiritual Reductionism: Demons, Shame, and Dividualising Experiences Among Evangelical Christians with Mental Distress.” Journal of Religion and Health 60, no. 4: 2702-2727. doi:10.1007/s10943-021-01268-9
Ludy, Eric, and Leslie Ludy. 2004. When God Writes Your Love Story. Multnomah Publishers.
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. 2020. “Compulsive Sexual Behavior.” Published on February 7, 2020. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/compulsive-sexual-behavior/symptoms-causes/syc-20360434.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary. n.d. “Pedophilia.” Accessed February 20, 2022.https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pedophilia. Accessed 20 Feb. 2022.
Moon, Sarah, and Jo Reger. 2014. "'You Are Not Your Own': Rape, Sexual Assault and Consent in Evangelical Christian Dating Books." Journal of Integrated Social Sciences 4, no. 1: 55-74.
National Health Service. 2021. “Vaginismus.” NHS, National Health Service, Reviewed on February 10, 2021. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaginismus/#:~:text=Vaginismus%20is%20the%20body's%20automatic,previously%20enjoyed%20painless%20penetrative%20sex.
Newman, Paul B. 2007. Growing up in the Middle Ages. McFarland. file:///C:/Users/epest/Downloads/Paul%20B.%20Newman%20-%20Growing%20up%20in%20the%20Middle%20Ages-McFarland%20Books%20(2007).pdf
Patterson, Lee. 2016. Temporal Circumstances: Form and History in the Canterbury Tales. Springer.
Paul, Amanda. 2014. "The Negative Implications of the Purity Movement on Young Women." The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research 15. https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/ur/vol15/iss1/5/.
Paul, Kari. 2020. “Pornhub Removes Millions of Videos after Investigation Finds Child Abuse Content.” The Guardian, Published on December 14, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/dec/14/pornhub-purge-removes-unverified-videos-investigation-child-abuse.
Pearl, Debi. 2014. Created to Be His Help Meet: Discover How God Can Make Your Marriage Glorious. No Greater Joy Ministries.
Pornhub Insights. 2015. “Pornhub's Search History.” Published on November 17, 2015. https://www.pornhub.com/insights/pornhub-search-term-history.
PTSD UK. n.d. “Understanding PTSD Flashbacks and Triggers.” Accessed on February 20, 2022. https://www.ptsduk.org/what-is-ptsd/understanding-ptsd-flashbacks-and-triggers/.
Rudder, Christian. 2015. Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One's Looking). Fourth Estate.
Seal, Samantha Katz, and Nicole Sidhu. 2019. "New Feminist Approaches to Chaucer: Introduction." The Chaucer Review 54, no. 3: 224-229.
Shaw, Susan M. 2008. God Speaks to Us, Too: Southern Baptist Women on Church, Home, and Society. The University Press.
Sherry, John, Leslie Warner, and Andrew Kitchenham. 2021. “What’s Bred in the Bone: Transference and Countertransference in Teachers.” Brock Education Journal 30, no. 1: 136-154
Sorenson, David. 2017. “5 Thoughts about Biblical Separation.” Ministry127, Published on July 22, 2017. https://ministry127.com/christian-living/5-thoughts-about-biblical-separation.
Souma, Alfred, Nancy Rickerson, and Sheryl Burgstahler. 2012. “Academic accommodations for Students with Psychiatric Disabilities.” Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology. https://www.washington.edu/doit/academic-accommodations-students-psychiatric-disabilities
Stanley, Olivia. 2020. "A personal encounter with purity culture: Evangelical Christian schooling in Aotearoa/New Zealand." Women's Studies Journal 34, no. 1: 116-129.
Tidy, Dr Colin. 2018. “Sex Addiction: Hypersexuality: Health: Patient.” Patient.info, Modified on September 12, 2018. https://patient.info/mental-health/sex-addiction-including-hypersexuality.
Valenti, Jessica. 2010. The purity myth: How America's obsession with virginity is hurting young women. ReadHowYouWant.com, 2010.
13 December 2022: minor typo corrected.