New paper on sexual conditioning within cults just dropped.
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New paper on sexual conditioning within cults just dropped. This article sums up the paper for a lay audience.
Dominance and submission: The psychosexual exploitation of women in cults
A landmark analysis revealing how cult leaders systemically control and exploit women through sexual manipulation, reproductive control, and psychological domination.
(icsatoday.substack.com)
I am so relieved that highly respected cult researchers are finally backing up conclusions I suspected early in my own research:
- C-PTSD isn't just about trauma, it's about conditioned reactions and beliefs.
- Oppressive high-demand religious institutions condition followers to accept sexual abuse, or be the one to dish it out.
- Religious control of sexual bodies doesn't just prime one for abuse. It is itself a form of sexual abuse. It is at least as bad to manipulate a person into having children she doesn't want as it is to traditionally abuse her.
- What I say next may be controversial, but this research implies it, and I've suspected this since I joined the kink scene of my own free will first thing after leaving Mormonism: Sexual submissiveness can be a result of being reared in a high-demand religious environment, even if as adults we joyously consent as bottoms outside of the original religious framework. (I also think Dom/sub alignment is partly biological.)
Excerpts:
"This article is foundational because it frames sexual exploitation as structurally embedded in coercive systems, not merely the misconduct of individual leaders."
...
"Cult leaders quickly recognize that controlling the sexual and intimate lives of their followers provides a massive source of power. In Lalich’s analysis, sexual domination is not merely one abuse among many — it is the final stage of objectification within an authoritarian system.
"This exploitation ranges from strict rules regarding marriage and procreation to more overt abuses like arranged marriages and forced sexual activity. By controlling the most intimate aspects of life, the leader ensures there is no private sphere beyond his reach."
...
"One of Lalich’s most important contributions is her direct challenge to the notion of consent within cult environments. Because cults are structured around extreme power imbalances, genuine consent cannot exist. Members are conditioned through fear of expulsion, spiritual threats, peer pressure, and dependency on the leader for identity and belonging."
...“Because of the power imbalance between leader and followers, sexual contact is never truly consensual and is likely to have damaging consequences for the follower.”
...
"Shame, guilt, and self-blame persist long after exit. The leader’s ideology continues to shape the survivor’s internal narrative. Recovery therefore requires dismantling both the sexual trauma and the ideological manipulation that sustained it."
...
"At one post-cult recovery workshop, 40% of women present reported having been sexually abused in their cult (p. 7). Lalich suggests this number likely underestimates the true prevalence based on her own clinical observations. The silence surrounding sexual exploitation, she argues, is itself part of the problem."
–
I believe this is true even in (especially in) sex-negative environments. We pointed this out in the book I just wrote. If sex is shrouded in secrecy and shame, victims are unable to understand what they are going through, and unable to report it.🧵 ?
#ReligiousTrauma #exmo #exmormon #PTSD #cults #exvie #exvangelical #abuseCulture #SexualAssault
-
New paper on sexual conditioning within cults just dropped. This article sums up the paper for a lay audience.
Dominance and submission: The psychosexual exploitation of women in cults
A landmark analysis revealing how cult leaders systemically control and exploit women through sexual manipulation, reproductive control, and psychological domination.
(icsatoday.substack.com)
I am so relieved that highly respected cult researchers are finally backing up conclusions I suspected early in my own research:
- C-PTSD isn't just about trauma, it's about conditioned reactions and beliefs.
- Oppressive high-demand religious institutions condition followers to accept sexual abuse, or be the one to dish it out.
- Religious control of sexual bodies doesn't just prime one for abuse. It is itself a form of sexual abuse. It is at least as bad to manipulate a person into having children she doesn't want as it is to traditionally abuse her.
- What I say next may be controversial, but this research implies it, and I've suspected this since I joined the kink scene of my own free will first thing after leaving Mormonism: Sexual submissiveness can be a result of being reared in a high-demand religious environment, even if as adults we joyously consent as bottoms outside of the original religious framework. (I also think Dom/sub alignment is partly biological.)
Excerpts:
"This article is foundational because it frames sexual exploitation as structurally embedded in coercive systems, not merely the misconduct of individual leaders."
...
"Cult leaders quickly recognize that controlling the sexual and intimate lives of their followers provides a massive source of power. In Lalich’s analysis, sexual domination is not merely one abuse among many — it is the final stage of objectification within an authoritarian system.
"This exploitation ranges from strict rules regarding marriage and procreation to more overt abuses like arranged marriages and forced sexual activity. By controlling the most intimate aspects of life, the leader ensures there is no private sphere beyond his reach."
...
"One of Lalich’s most important contributions is her direct challenge to the notion of consent within cult environments. Because cults are structured around extreme power imbalances, genuine consent cannot exist. Members are conditioned through fear of expulsion, spiritual threats, peer pressure, and dependency on the leader for identity and belonging."
...“Because of the power imbalance between leader and followers, sexual contact is never truly consensual and is likely to have damaging consequences for the follower.”
...
"Shame, guilt, and self-blame persist long after exit. The leader’s ideology continues to shape the survivor’s internal narrative. Recovery therefore requires dismantling both the sexual trauma and the ideological manipulation that sustained it."
...
"At one post-cult recovery workshop, 40% of women present reported having been sexually abused in their cult (p. 7). Lalich suggests this number likely underestimates the true prevalence based on her own clinical observations. The silence surrounding sexual exploitation, she argues, is itself part of the problem."
–
I believe this is true even in (especially in) sex-negative environments. We pointed this out in the book I just wrote. If sex is shrouded in secrecy and shame, victims are unable to understand what they are going through, and unable to report it.🧵 ?
#ReligiousTrauma #exmo #exmormon #PTSD #cults #exvie #exvangelical #abuseCulture #SexualAssault
@corbden a third point that's been on my mind is that these environments normalize abuse for you. A lot of people are very happy not to confront the fact that they were physically / emotionally / sexually abused particularly by parents and intimate partners. And like... even if your parents weren't Focus on the Family types, that it sets a baseline level that's just normal.
-
New paper on sexual conditioning within cults just dropped. This article sums up the paper for a lay audience.
Dominance and submission: The psychosexual exploitation of women in cults
A landmark analysis revealing how cult leaders systemically control and exploit women through sexual manipulation, reproductive control, and psychological domination.
(icsatoday.substack.com)
I am so relieved that highly respected cult researchers are finally backing up conclusions I suspected early in my own research:
- C-PTSD isn't just about trauma, it's about conditioned reactions and beliefs.
- Oppressive high-demand religious institutions condition followers to accept sexual abuse, or be the one to dish it out.
- Religious control of sexual bodies doesn't just prime one for abuse. It is itself a form of sexual abuse. It is at least as bad to manipulate a person into having children she doesn't want as it is to traditionally abuse her.
- What I say next may be controversial, but this research implies it, and I've suspected this since I joined the kink scene of my own free will first thing after leaving Mormonism: Sexual submissiveness can be a result of being reared in a high-demand religious environment, even if as adults we joyously consent as bottoms outside of the original religious framework. (I also think Dom/sub alignment is partly biological.)
Excerpts:
"This article is foundational because it frames sexual exploitation as structurally embedded in coercive systems, not merely the misconduct of individual leaders."
...
"Cult leaders quickly recognize that controlling the sexual and intimate lives of their followers provides a massive source of power. In Lalich’s analysis, sexual domination is not merely one abuse among many — it is the final stage of objectification within an authoritarian system.
"This exploitation ranges from strict rules regarding marriage and procreation to more overt abuses like arranged marriages and forced sexual activity. By controlling the most intimate aspects of life, the leader ensures there is no private sphere beyond his reach."
...
"One of Lalich’s most important contributions is her direct challenge to the notion of consent within cult environments. Because cults are structured around extreme power imbalances, genuine consent cannot exist. Members are conditioned through fear of expulsion, spiritual threats, peer pressure, and dependency on the leader for identity and belonging."
...“Because of the power imbalance between leader and followers, sexual contact is never truly consensual and is likely to have damaging consequences for the follower.”
...
"Shame, guilt, and self-blame persist long after exit. The leader’s ideology continues to shape the survivor’s internal narrative. Recovery therefore requires dismantling both the sexual trauma and the ideological manipulation that sustained it."
...
"At one post-cult recovery workshop, 40% of women present reported having been sexually abused in their cult (p. 7). Lalich suggests this number likely underestimates the true prevalence based on her own clinical observations. The silence surrounding sexual exploitation, she argues, is itself part of the problem."
–
I believe this is true even in (especially in) sex-negative environments. We pointed this out in the book I just wrote. If sex is shrouded in secrecy and shame, victims are unable to understand what they are going through, and unable to report it.🧵 ?
#ReligiousTrauma #exmo #exmormon #PTSD #cults #exvie #exvangelical #abuseCulture #SexualAssault
I've recently commented on Epstein probably not being the first of his kind, that his market for sex victims already existed, and that the sexual abuse of minors and the marginalized as a recreational activity for the rich and powerful likely goes way, way back. And I got a little bit of pushback.
But this is my world, this cult stuff. And if this has been going on in new sex cults like NXIVM, and secretly in old established religions like Catholicism, in Mormonism, in evangelicalism (it is), the why the hell wouldn't the richest, most powerful people in the world have done this going back across time?
Why are we holding dead billionaires to an idealized image? Why are we defending them? Why are we *still* bending over backwards to suspend disbelief that the worst people in the world in every other regard are somehow pure when it comes to sexual abuse?
🧵
#ReligiousTrauma
#exmo
#exmormon
#PTSD
#cults
#exvie
#exvangelical #AbuseCulture #SexualAssault -
I've recently commented on Epstein probably not being the first of his kind, that his market for sex victims already existed, and that the sexual abuse of minors and the marginalized as a recreational activity for the rich and powerful likely goes way, way back. And I got a little bit of pushback.
But this is my world, this cult stuff. And if this has been going on in new sex cults like NXIVM, and secretly in old established religions like Catholicism, in Mormonism, in evangelicalism (it is), the why the hell wouldn't the richest, most powerful people in the world have done this going back across time?
Why are we holding dead billionaires to an idealized image? Why are we defending them? Why are we *still* bending over backwards to suspend disbelief that the worst people in the world in every other regard are somehow pure when it comes to sexual abuse?
🧵
#ReligiousTrauma
#exmo
#exmormon
#PTSD
#cults
#exvie
#exvangelical #AbuseCulture #SexualAssaultFurther, I recently watched bible scholar Dan McClellan talk about homosexuality in biblical times. It' a subject I have seen him and others talk about before, and I've read about it. (But I am not an expert on ancient history – I'm just repeating.)
Fact: In Roman society and before, when Leviticus was being written, they didn't have any concept of "sexual orientation" the way we do today. They didn't have the concept of consent. They centered sexual mores around the hierarchy of power. Anyone up on the chain was expected to take the penetrative role; anyone below them was expected to take the receptive role. Anyone who violated these hierarchies was sexually immoral.
Free men with status? Top of the chain. Boys or men of low status? Below that. Women, at the very, very bottom, always. The sin was in penetrating someone who was supposed to, themselves, be in the penetrative role.
The Sodom and Gomorrah story was about a people who had been taught to care for strangers who instead wanted to rape a (male) guest to death. Which violated two mores: Hospitality and the chain of status wrt to the penetrative role. That's why it was perfectly ok for Lot to offer his daughters, and why the gang didn't want *girls*. They wanted to demonstrate their power by taking on men of station.
What does this mean in this context? It means that sexual domination has long been a part of how power works in human civilizations, at least in these cultures that descend from that place in those times.
We, here today, with our consent norms and our idea of love and equality in relationships, we're the odd ones. We've bucked the norms. (A tremendous accomplishment that took thousands of years.) And those norms *still exist.* They exist within toxic masculinity, pro-patriarchy religions, and abusive relationships.
It is hard for me to believe that the Epstein Class of today is somehow worse than the Fat Cats of the 1920s, or the aristocracy of the Renaissance, or the lords and monks of the Middle Ages.
We're really not that far descended from Rome. The path to liberation has been carved against these longstanding traditions.
We have only to look at the world billionaires are trying to create, to see what their values and expectations are.
And why they admire Rome so much.
🧵
#ReligiousTrauma
#exmo
#exmormon
#PTSD
#cults
#exvie
#exvangelical
#abuseCulture
#SexualAssault -
@corbden a third point that's been on my mind is that these environments normalize abuse for you. A lot of people are very happy not to confront the fact that they were physically / emotionally / sexually abused particularly by parents and intimate partners. And like... even if your parents weren't Focus on the Family types, that it sets a baseline level that's just normal.
@wotsac And technically, by the numbers, it is normal.
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@corbden to me this is why I find modern conservative Christianity's admiration of a modern day Caligula so ironic but ultimately so unsurprising.
@cyberwitch I feel that Western Christianity was built more on Roman religion than on Jewish as it claims.
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@cyberwitch I feel that Western Christianity was built more on Roman religion than on Jewish as it claims.
@corbden 100%! The Trinity alone feels like the proto-orthodox throwing Hellenistic philisophical spaghetti at the wall to retcon monotheism into still keeping their demigod Messiah.
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R relay@relay.an.exchange shared this topic
