Elizabeth Smart: Commodifying my Virginity Made Me Feel “Worthless” after Rape’

Kidnapping victim, Elizabeth Smart, 25, who made headlines in 2005 after being abducted and repeatedly raped for nine months, recently spoke to a panel at Johns Hopkins University about the dangers of abstinence-only sex education in schools.

What Smart says about a girl’s self-worth being equated to her sexuality:

“I remember in school one time, I had a teacher who was talking about abstinence,” Smart told the panel. “And she said, ‘Imagine you’re a stick of gum. When you engage in sex, that’s like getting chewed. And if you do that lots of times, you’re going to become an old piece of gum, and who is going to want you after that?’ Well, that’s terrible. No one should ever say that. But for me, I thought, ‘I’m that chewed-up piece of gum.’ Nobody re-chews a piece of gum. You throw it away. And that’s how easy it is to feel you no longer have worth. Your life no longer has value.”

Smart, who was 14 when she was kidnapped, is pictured here with her captor Brian David Hall (far right), who is serving a life sentence in prison.

Smart says she felt “dirty,” and “filthy,” after being raped and believes it is one of the reasons why she did not run away from her captor, even though she had numerous opportunities to do so.

 Smart, who was raised Mormon, says she was taught that her virginity was considered a prize of some sort, that would be deemed worthless if it was taken away before she married.  Hence, the  ‘chewed up piece of gum,’ that nobody would want.

 The U.S currently has 37 states that teach abstinence-only sex education and they all rank amongst the highest in teen pregnancies, according to the CDC. The two that top the list- Mississippi and New Mexico, have no comprehensive curriculum that includes safe sex practices, and New Mexico doesn’t even require sex-ed to be taught in schools.

 

The Purity Myth is a documentary that discusses the complex and often incremental notion that virginity is a commodity

The CDC report also shows that teenagers who are taught a well rounded curriculum, that includes abstinence and safe sex methods are 60% less likely to become or get someone else pregnant.

 Smart believes teaching girls that self-worth is only experienced through virginity is dangerous. Smart realized later on, that even though she had an opportunity to leave her captor, mentally she was still in bondage due to feelings of impurity after being raped. She brings out many valid points about the dangers of not just abstinence only sex-ed, but of the commodification of sexual purity.