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Kudos to Hollywood for finally tackling the taboo topic of incest.
Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire goes where not even the usual depictions of black dysfunction usually go.
The protagonist, Claireece “Precious” Jones, is sexually abused by her father—and her mother. Her father impregnates her twice and infects her with an STD that eventually kills him.
These extreme, fictional examples of child sexual abuse may reflect true experiences by some people. God, bless them. However, the sexual abuse depicted in Precious doesn’t reflect what really happens in homes where children are sexually abused.
First, stepfathers—not fathers—are more likely to be abusers in homes where this occurs. Sibling-sibling incest is the next mostly likely occurrence, according to Professor Debra Lieberman, a University of Miami psychology professor, who has written extensively about the social cues that lead to “incest avoidance.” (In plain language: How people know not to “mess with” their relatives.)
According to Lieberman, mother-son incest, which is extremely rare, comes next. Even then, the son is likely to initiate. And the type of mother-daughter abuse depicted in Precious? Not unheard of, but certainly not the type of trend that should lead people to believe its depiction on the big screen is indicative of a vast conspiracy to ignore its existence.
Audiences are sure to be touched by Precious’ journey to self-awareness and self-acceptance. But they should not confuse her fictional journey with what is “normal” in poor black communities, or believe the typical poor, black community routinely turns a blind eye to its most vulnerable children. Black fathers should not suffer from another brush from the palette of negative stereotyping.
We should also set the record straight on child sexual abuse before a new meme takes hold: Research shows that fathers are hard-wired against incest, even before morality and values come into play. The necessary presence of the father is critical to a girl’s sexual development because his presence, through the release of pheromones, slows her sexual development, making her less attractive to other males.
The insidious crime of child sexual abuse tends to take place when people are not sure they’re related, Lieberman says. Fathers who do sexually abuse their daughters may be unsure the child is theirs. These crimes occur in a cesspool of pathology, like drug- and alcohol abuse. Promiscuity is an issue that may lead fathers to be unsure of parentage. These are reasons, please note, not excuses, for disgusting, criminal behavior.
“Males need to have the certainty of paternity …,” Lieberman says. “Knowing the female they’ve been living with has been faithful in the production of a child.”
For siblings, social cues such as living in the same home, being cared for and breast-fed by the same woman, are important clues to kinship that kick in even before morality is taught, Lieberman says: “These systems rely on a family structure that is typical over our evolutionary history. If you disrupt that family structure, you might also disrupt some of the natural aversions that develop.”
“Sexual abuse occurs as result of the disruption of these natural cues,” she says. “I would hope this movie accurately reflects that. There’s rhyme or reason for it. You don’t want to give people the message that any random family is open to sexual abuse.”
No, we don’t.
Deborah Douglas is a Chicago-based journalist and writing professor.
Comments
can come from people other than the parents. Children especially young girls are left exsposed to many different things when they are around their family. I say watch everyone like a hawk. One good thing to do is watch how your child interacts with a person...their interaction can be a very telling sign, although it may go ignored. I hated my abuser and treated him very poorly...my mom would just say "oh you don't like him do you?" why yes idiot how about you pay attention and you may just figure out why I don't like him!
@Mike,
Brother, you are delusional. i don't mean it in a nasty way, but you are either a liar or delusional. For you to actually write that you see black women loving and caressing and sweet talking their daughters. Man are you out of your d@mn mind. Every, and I do mean every black man and woman out here KNOWS that black women baby the heck out of their sons, but demand much more from their daughters. Why do you think there are so many disparities between black women and men in education, etc. Black girls are treated as if they are grown women from darn near day one. There has been NO ONE caressing us or sweet talking us for centuries. Get a freaking grip.
I will take what you say to heart. I got to tell you, I'm one of those brothers who was 'racially aware' at a very young age - think that brat Michael, from Good Times. So I've always spoke my piece to my bros and sis re: the need for us to understand, respect, love and support each other - cause society's got it out for us and we need each other if we're gonna survive it.
So I never use the n-word (pure Stockholm Syndrome) and I think dark black people and their features are beautiful - and I know darn well, I'm in the minority in the black community.
Solid points from you and I'll try to be more gentle - BUT THIS IS SERIOUS STUFF.
I'm going to jump in and agree with everyone else that the statistics on incest seem a little off. I know of several families across race lines that have had the horrific experience of father-child incest. It is sickening and heartbreaking, but it does happen. I also took offense to the idea that the mother must be "whoring around" in order for the father to biologically feel okay to rape a young child. It seems to me that a man who was really that sick probably wouldn't care whether or not the child was related to him at all.
Your level of emotion and frustration shows you care. But slamming and blamming AA women for all the issues in the AA community is no way to start an argument. You offend many good Black women and turn off many others. As you may have noticed, I repeat over and over again how over generalization is a horrible thing. Theses skanks you speak of are everywhere and come in every color. They do not represent the AA women as a whole. The "feminizing" of our country can be looked at as bad and good. Women have more power, which isn't always used for good. Singal moms are rewarded by the state, while single dads are left in the cold. I know first hand from my own brothers situation.
I have seen more times than I care to remember where a Black moms says to young son "you aint nothin but a nigga, ain neva gonna be sh$t". How does this young Black man over come society when he is continuously belittled by his own mother? How many times have we seen princess getting her hair groomed and nails done while little man is told to STFU and sit down. But this isn't just an AA issue, its a national issue. Many women who shouldn't bare children do, they are enabled to. Rewarded for having a child that not only can they not economicaly support, but they can not emotionaly support either. Such is the welfare/socialist/capitalist/republic state we live in.
But on the other hand, there are many strong women who give their little man more than their dad ever will. They sacrafice, scrap, fight, claw, and battle for their little man(s).
Mike, you know this gets very deep, but throwing all AA women under the bus doesn't help.
If you really care, volunteer as a coach or mentor or big brother or something. As its been said many times......"help a brotha out".....not a hand out, really help.
The best way to do that is to lead by example, and attacking and chastising AA women isn't really a good example IMHO.
I've read alot of your comments and IMO, they're always solid and reasonable. I apologized to black women on this post and, as God is my witness, I've only honored and upheld and defended black women. What I've witnessed is these black women NOT returning the favor to their black men. All one need consider, IMO, is fact that there has been NO black men in the community for appx 40 yrs, so the women would naturally be responsible for how the kids turn out. (75% female headed households in 2009)
I witness these women loving, caressing and sweet talking their girls; althewhile, cussing, abusing their boys. I'm a decent man but when I see that on the street, I want to get physical with these girls (women?). I know all those ashy, tiny, squeaky sounding little boys will grow to be men. I can see the value in those little boys just like I see the value in little girls. I've come to the conclusion that black women don't see the value in little boys. You can tell that by how they treat them.
When these boys arrive at appx 10 yrs old, they become more rambunctious and energetic. The girls of the same age, tend to become more quiet and secretive - aah, the wonders of puberty. These women understand the girls but get all frustrated with the boys cause they don't understand boys.
These women wouldn't ever THINK of putting a girl under the sole guidance of a man but have no qualms putting a boy under the sole guidance of a woman. Have you noticed the astronomical number of NeNe acting men in the community. I see them - some are short, some are well over 6ft tall. What's similar - they all act like the stereotypical ghetto skank. That got that from somebody and dad was never around. The women twisted their brains in childhood.
I know they do it on purpose. I've had it up to here and I ain't taking it no more.
You women are going to stop doing this to your sons, or the Me (and the internet) are coming after you.
THIS SITUATION IS TOO SERIOUS. I DON'T THINK FOLKS SEE THE CONDITION OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY TO BE IN DIRE STRAITS AS I DO.
JohnB - there's not a man on the planet who can't adjust himself to a woman so that she is happy and the house is peaceful. Women don't have that ability - their 28 day cycle cause them to flip out regularly. The closer to ovulation, the crazier. That's totally DESTRUCTIVE for boys to be around.
I'd have more respect for these women if they at least had the decency to keep their 12 - 17 daughters from getting pregnant and being walking petri dishes of STDs.
No matter my disagreements with my people - I want my people to heal and have a community. In order to do that, we have to discuss very touchy topics.
I don't know where or how Lieberman obtained the results for her study but they seem
inaccurate. Wasn't there very recently a case where six family members in Iowa (?) were charged with sexually abusing young relatives? Wasn't one of them the father?
On the Suite101.com web site there is an article entitled, "Intrafamilial Sexual Abuse: Incest - Family Relationships Gone Wrong' by Karen Stephenson. Stephenson cites statistics from Judith Herman, author of Father-Daughter Incest , which states that father-daughter incest is the most common. Then the article (by Stephenson) mentions other studies showing that sibling incest occurred just as often as father-daughter incest. Incest, by definition, occurs between blood relatives; otherwise, it isn't incest.
I worked in Child Abuse and Neglect for several years. I don't know where the information in this article comes from. First, we have to know that the statements made about biological fathers in the article is not correct. Next, we need to know that the color of the skin does not reflect whether incest will happen but we can't act like it is not happening because we don't want someone else to know it happens to us or them or someone else or or or......
It happens - to acknowledge it is important and the only way we as a people - I mean ALL PEOPLE - HUMANS -- can address it and try to turn the tide is to put a spotlight on it. Incest is something that no one wants to talk about like if it is ignored it will just go away. As adults we know this is not the case - if we ignor something it gets worse and children never get helped.
Really, isn't that what we should be concerned about. The children.
I can't even begin to wonder how damaging this article could be due to its many inaccuracies. I won't address all of them, but the biggest ones: fathers abuse their children every day. My mother and her 6 siblings were sexually abused by their father, and so were I and many of my cousins. There was no question of paternity or any of the other nonsense the author stated. I know a lot of people who were sexually abused (too many, the statistics are alarming and range from 1 in 3 to 1 in 6, with lots of room for error since it's so under-reported). Of all the abusers, fathers are the most numerous in my admittedly un-scientific experience. Another alarming statistic? The average pedophile has over 60 victims to his "credit."
and u could stand to lose a couple of pounds!