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Spiders and Butterflies

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Spiders and Butterflies

How did so many young women in the FLDS community end up married (many in marriages without legal standing) and burdened with babies before they turned twenty?  Spider webs attract with a faint hint of sweetness and catch victims in a nearly invisible web.  If the butterfly could see the web, if she knew that it would entangle her and keep her from spreading her wings and flying off, she’d likely avoid it, right?  By keeping girls ignorant about what happens between men and women until they are married, patriarchs are able to lead them into the bridal chamber and keep them forever in silky cocoons until their substance is devoured.  In her book, Stolen Innocence, Elissa Wall describes how she knew nothing about sex until she actually experienced it.  Even her own mother did not prepare her for what would happen in her marriage bed. It seems to me that if men are the only ones permitted to talk about sexual relations, they also end up with ultimate power over what women do with their bodies. What do you think about fundamentalists’ cryptic attitude toward sex?

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kate schweitzer

Kate

Kate Schweitzer is the senior web editor of Marie Claire. She loves traveling (even back to her hometown of St. Louis, Missouri), eating candy, cheating at Scrabble, and watching TV — so much so that she is a writer for Chaos Theory and Handsome Town, two web comedy series from Emmy-winning PhoebeTV.

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Koryn

Koryn Kennedy is Marie Claire's associate web editor. She believes in limited use of both personal pronouns and self-tanner, is a coffee snob and a Brooklyn boutique aficionado. Having grown up in Europe, she's never "from around here." Her writing has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sun Sentinel, Esquire.com, Premiere.com, and other movie and culture blogs.

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abigail pesta

Abigail

Abigail Pesta is a journalist who has lived and worked around the world, from London to Hong Kong. (A highlight from her travels: bar-hopping in Shanghai with a minor-league Mafioso in his hearse-like limo.) She writes short-short stories for her website, Fine Words Butter No Parsnips.

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jessica henderson

Jessica

Jessica Henderson is a senior editor. She obsesses daily over movies, television, celebrities, and music. A southern girl at heart and Brooklyn by address, her skill set also extends into vintage shopping, planning themed parties, brunching, applying eyeliner, dancing, concocting bourbon mint iced tea, movie-quoting, and Elvis spotting.

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