--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" <r...@...> wrote:
>
> From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:fairfieldl...@yahoogroups.com]
> On Behalf Of authfriend
> Sent: Monday, July 19, 2010 10:40 AM
> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Another woman comes forward
>
>
>
>
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
> <mailto:FairfieldLife%40yahoogroups.com> , tartbrain <no_reply@> wrote:
> <snip>
> > I just can't buy 100% into this victimhood stigma
> > you wrap these women in.
>
> I have to say it bothers me as well. It's one thing
> to sympathize with a person's pain from the results
> of a bad choice, and quite another to strip them of
> any agency in making that choice.
>
> Keep in mind that not all of the women acceded to Maharishi's advances. The
> "other woman" whose letter I posted here recently was propositioned quite
> unexpectedly and explicitly at the age of 19. She declined his advance, but
> was surely impacted by it, and is still dealing with the conflict it
> created.
>
This is what I don't understand: She rejected his advance and presumably that
was the end of it, and about 40 years later she is still "healing" from this
incident? Healing from what? Or is she still in the movement and scared of how
people will react now if she speaks of her experience? That's a rather
different matter than still being wounded by something that happened so long
ago.
There is talk on this board of "power differential" in relationship, as if
every relationship that has one is by definition wrong or abusive. In my
experience all relationships have power differentials of one kind or another.
It's just something people have to assess and deal with. I don't see any of
these women as "victims" and don't believe they were "abused." Someone used the
word "coerced" to describe what happened, but that word doesn't seem right to
me either. The women thought at the time, presumably, that having sex with MMY
was a good idea, and maybe later they thought differently and regretted it.
This kind of thing happens all the time in relationships, as everyone knows. I
don't see why people have to spend 40 years "healing" from it.
