have contact with her and to continue to rape her. Moreover, she may even perceive her father as dangerous as the predator because he had the power to remove her from the dangerous situation but he refuses to. However, she may justify her father’s behavior by believing that if she was a good daughter then he would stop the rape from happening but since she is not bad daughter then this is punishment for her. Herman explains this justification by stating that “she excuses or rationalizes the failure of protection by attributing it to her own unworthiness” (1992) so the blame is taken away from her father and place upon her. Even though she may blame herself, she may learn not to trust any males because they can use their power to control and…show more content… The first way is when Aileen needed her father and siblings and they were not there for her. For example, after the death of her father, Aileen sold her body to earn money to support her siblings. But when they found out that she was prostituting herself, they kicked her out in the snow and called her a whore (Theron et al., 2003). This may explain why Aileen believes that she cannot trust anyone because everyone she trusted turned their back on her, and abandoned her when she needed them most. Also her fear of abandonment is portrayed in her relationship with Selby Walls, especially when Aileen and Selby got into an argument, and she told Selby to leave just like everyone else (Theron et al., 2003). This shows that Aileen’s schema about people is that everyone will eventually abandoned her so in order to protect herself she must not form a connection with anyone. Also, that it is better that she makes them leave first than if they choose to leave because she can control when who is in her…show more content… For instance, she recount the details of her rape by a family friend when she was eight years old. So in order to understand why she the rapist picker her, she might have question her own responsibility in the rape thus creating a negative self-image of herself. That she attracted her rapists towards her and she lured him with her body and behaviors. This could create shame and guilt because a good child not not sexually attract an older man and because she is a bad child then the rape might be seen as a form of punishment for her unworthiness. In addition to this, she may learn that the only purpose that her body is for the use and pleasure of others. So Aileen may only view herself as a sex object and objectified herself instead of viewing herself as a person with thoughts and feelings. Also, she may feel additional shame for any sexual gratification that she felt during the course of the rapes, because even though she may know that the rape was wrong, but she question why her body may have responded to the rape. So she may believe that she is a terrible person because she could not control her body’s reaction to the rape, and that a good person would not reacted the same way. Furthermore, the consequence of being a victim of childhood rape, is that it could lead to hypersexual behaviors and/or
