It’s super common for an emotional abuser to lie about his ex, but did you know that tradition is centuries old? If you’re wondering, “Why does my ex lie about what happened?” Here’s a bit of history you absolutely need to know.
Labelling a woman as crazy is a powerful tool that men have had in their arsenal for centuries. And it’s a little confusing: when a woman is clearly sane and healthy, why in the world would someone lie and say that she’s crazy, unstable, and even dangerous?
He Lies and Says I’m Crazy To Silence Me
In Elizabeth Packard’s day, being outspoken was literally a symptom of insanity:
Any educated or assertive woman was seen as liable to go mad, even a woman who simply read. I sort of found the records of the insane asylum of the era and a cause of madness in that time was reading novels. So, any woman who’s using her brain, who’s using her tongue, was seen at risk of madness and was liable to be sent away just as Elizabeth was. So absolutely, her strength was the reason that her husband wanted to dispatch her to the asylum.
Kate Moore, author of The Woman They Could Not Silence
Gaslighting an entire society into believing that women who think and share their ideas are actually unstable and mentally ill is a very effective tool in keeping women very quiet.
He Lies To Avoid Accountability
Rather than own up to their own abusive or harmful behaviors, men can simply use the justice system against women by convincing those in power that the victim is crazy (and it’s not very hard to convince others that women are crazy, since the odds are stacked against us):
I’ve had readers contact me saying how haunting they found Elizabeth’s story because similar things have happened to them. For example, your police are called because of a domestic violence incident. They don’t help the woman, they talked to her husband, and they say if she’s causing you trouble, we can make arrangements to have her taken away to the mental hospital. This was from 2017, a reader emailed me about that situation. I personally have interviewed people from the 1980s, for example, where an abusive husband got his wife sent away to a mental institution for several months, his word against hers, and they believed him because she was sent away.
Kate Moore, author of The Woman They Could Not Silence
They Say We’re Crazy Because it Keeps Them in Power
Kate talks about how cooperation with the people in power was the only way for a woman to be considered sane.
This is just another way of saying that as long as we allow misogynistic, patriarchal systems and people to control us, we have a degree of security. Oh goodie, they won’t throw us in an insane asylum.
They say we’re crazy because ultimately it’s what keeps men in power. Anne wholeheartedly advocates for women to boldly stand in their truth and speak up for justice, refusing to comply with abusive systems and relationships.
At BTR, we know the incredible frustration that comes from being called crazy, and being convinced that you’re crazy. There’s nothing quite like it.
You need support.
Come join our daily BTR group sessions to get the support you need.
Transcript: Why Does My Ex Lie About What Happened?
Anne: Kate Moore is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Radium Girls.
Anne: which won the 2017 Goodreads Choice Award for Best History, was voted U. S. Librarian’s Favorite Nonfiction Book of 2017, and was named the Notable Nonfiction Book of 2018 by the American Library Association.
Anne: A British writer based in London, Kate writes across a variety of genres and has had multiple titles on the Sunday Times bestseller list.
Introducing ‘The Woman They Could Not Silence’
Anne: Her latest book is The Woman They Could Not Silence.
Anne: Welcome, Kate.
Kate: Thank you so much for having me.
Anne: It is such an honor to have you.
Acknowledging Important Work
Anne: Thank you so much for all of your hard work, like bringing these issues to light for women all over the world. It’s really important and I appreciate your work.
Kate: It’s my honor to do it.
And I have to say thank you for the work that you do. You do so much.
The Importance of Support Networks
Kate: What you’re doing is helping people and having worked myself with survivors of domestic violence. Domestic violence and abusive relationships. I know how important it is to have that support network.
So thank you for inspiring people and supporting them as well through these difficult times.
Anne: It’s an all hands on deck effort to, to stop abuse.
Kate: It needs to be across the size really, you know, . So you’re doing an awesome job. So thank you.
Synopsis of ‘The Woman They Could Not Silence’
Anne: For those in our audience who may not be familiar with your book, without revealing too much, can you please provide us with a synopsis of your book, The Woman They Could Not Silence?
Kate: It is my honour to introduce your listeners to The Woman They Could Not Silence. Her name was Elizabeth Packard, but I wouldn’t be surprised if none of your listeners have heard her name before, because as often happens to feisty women who stand up for themselves, history has chosen to commemorate instead those men who tried but failed to silence her, and Elizabeth’s story and voice have been lost in time.
Her story starts on the cusp of the American Civil War in June 1860. It starts with Elizabeth, a 43 year old housewife and mother of six, lying in bed in her marital home. It starts with a simple question. What would happen if your husband could commit you to an insane asylum just because you disagreed with him?
Relevance of Historical Abuse Today
Anne: You know, that question is strangely relevant today. Not that men are committing their abuse victims to an insane asylum, but they are committing them metaphorically to other people thinking that they’re crazy so this concept is extremely relevant today to abuse victims.
Discovering Elizabeth Packard’s Story
Anne: How did you come across Elizabeth’s story?
Kate: So, how I came across Elizabeth’s story is a little bit topsy turvy because I decided what I wanted to write about first before I even knew her name.
The Me Too Movement Inspiration
Kate: So I was inspired to write The Woman They Could Not Silence because of the Me Too movement. And you probably remember how incredible that fall was when everywhere women were speaking up against abuse and harassment. And crucially, we were being listened to and believed. And that got me thinking, well why has it taken so long, because it’s not like the fall of 2017 was the first time that people had spoken out about these things.
It was just the first time that we were taken seriously.
The Silencing of Women Through History
Kate: And that got me thinking, that for centuries, whenever women have used our voices, we’ve been called crazy. And as you say, that is, that is, Uh, something that resonates with your audience so much because, you know, gaslighting, being told you’re mad, this is going on in relationships every single day.
And it happens also, I think, on a sort of political stage as well, you know, you only have to look at Nancy Pelosi or, you know, any sort of public female political figures. She will be called crazy because she’s, you know, Speaking up using her voice. So I decided what I wanted to write about was that the way that women have been silenced through our mental health.
And so I went looking for a woman to whom that had happened and that’s how I found Elizabeth’s story. And what’s amazing about Elizabeth’s story is not only that. She survives this experience of being dispatched to an asylum, even though she’s sane. What’s incredible about it is that through that crucible of suffering, actually, she becomes the woman they could not silence.
Elizabeth Packard’s Resilience
Kate: She finds her voice, and she uses it to change the world. I’m getting chills. Like, seriously. She is a seriously impressive person. I think for me, she is the most inspiring and resilient woman I’ve ever encountered. Because everyone told her that she was mad. Her husband, her doctor, her community. But Elizabeth knew she was not.
Elizabeth’s Famous Quote
Kate: All she said, you know, a sort of famous quote of hers is, I, though a woman, have just as good a right to my opinion as my husband has. But just because she believed that, because she asserted herself and she asserted, you know, what she believed in, that, in terms of the science of the age, was enough to have her sent away to an insane asylum.
Anne: That is just, I don’t know, I’m really feeling, like, a lot of emotion right now. Not just for her, but all of the women, throughout time. Who we stand on their shoulders, right? Like for Elizabeth, like the work that she did, just for standing up for herself. She’s stood up for all of us.
Kate: Yes, completely. And I think she really is.
Even though she herself was exceptional, I think she is kind of an everywoman as well. And I think she sort of saw herself in that way as well. When she meets the other women in the asylum to whom the same thing has happened, you know, they’re sent away by husbands, by fathers. You know, these are women who simply have defied domestic control.
You know, they’re causing too much trouble. They’re just being themselves, frankly, and that’s enough to get them dispatched.
Elizabeth’s Fight for Freedom
Kate: She meets these women and she calls them sisters. And what’s remarkable about Elizabeth as well is, countless times in her story, she could have saved herself, she could have got out early, she could have, you know, done enough just to help her own situation.
But she determined that, you know, She wasn’t going anywhere. She was here to make a difference and she was going to take every single woman with her as she fights for freedom and independence. And that fight continues even outside the brick walls of an insane asylum because she goes on to become a political force and she has made the world better for all of us, you know, not just the sisters that she personally met, but for Every sister in America, every sister across the world, Elizabeth spearheaded a campaign to make things better for us all.
How to Get the Book
Anne: This book, which I’m sure now everyone is like, how do I get my hands on it? You can go to our books page, which is btr. org slash books. We have a curated list of all the books we recommend there that is on that list. Our links take you right to Amazon. So I’m sure you can find it on Amazon, or you can go to Kate’s website, which is Kate more, that’s M O O R E dot com.
Relating to Modern Abuse Victims
Anne: Our community is made up of women who are experiencing abuse in their relationships. They are being called crazy, they’re being called all kinds of things like gold diggers sometimes, or that they want to ruin their families, or Crazy stuff that is just not at all true and particularly they are suffering from emotional, psychological, and spiritual abuse.
Most innocent bystanders, they do not see an abusive man calling her crazy as abuse. They just perceive of it as quote unquote, his side of the story. So, in terms of Elizabeth’s experience, how might they relate with Elizabeth in this way?
Kate: I think Elizabeth’s story will resonate so much. And I actually want to share a quote with you from Elizabeth herself, because I think she grasped exactly that situation that you’re describing.
Elizabeth’s Anticipation of Modern Laws
Kate: And I think she almost sort of anticipated some of the, you Laws that we’re finally seeing today in the UK, for example, there’s now a law about coercive control, for example. Elizabeth wrote, and this is back in the 1860s, she said, when woman is brought before our man courts and our man juries and has no bruises or wounds or marks of violence upon her person to show as a ground of her complaint, it It is hard for them to realize she has any cause to appeal to them for protection, while at the same time, her whole physical system may be writhing in agony from spirit wrongs.
Elizabeth understood that it wasn’t necessarily about being physically abused. A man trying to crush your spirit, a man trying to dismiss what you’re thinking and feeling, that in itself Is enough to make you right in agony, and she appreciated that because this was an invisible abuse, that most people didn’t credit it and they didn’t give it the time of day and the attention it deserved and the protection that women deserved from these abusers.
She was anticipating all of that in the 1860s.
Anne: Did Elizabeth ever go through a period where she wondered if she was crazy, where she thought, maybe it is me. Maybe I am crazy.
Elizabeth’s Mental Strength
Kate: I think remarkably, she didn’t, actually. And actually, her strength of spirit, that sort of confidence in herself and her self belief, is actually what gets her through absolutely everybody telling her the rest.
What I will say, though, is that being shut up in an insane asylum, and she’s moved to the worst wards because, you know, she calls out the doctor on his deathbed, sexist, abusive regime, and therefore she’s moved from quite a pleasant ward to a ward as they would describe it at the time, full of maniacs.
She is locked up with no promise of release, you know, no hope of ever getting out, ever seeing her children again. And there are moments, she writes, where she comes very near the precipice of madness. Not because she was mad originally, but simply because it’s so hard for anyone to Endure that continued abuse and endure that lack of hope without it affecting your mental health.
So She did wobble at times on her journey, but I think ultimately The faith in herself and in god is partly what you know gets her through that What I will say is that she does go on a journey and Something that really resonated with me is she talks about, at the start of the book, feeling small, feeling that nothing she said was hardly worth saying or hearing.
And I know I’ve been that woman.
Elizabeth’s Inspirational Journey
Kate: To see Elizabeth grow from that position to someone who eventually becomes a political campaigner, someone who takes on her husband, takes on her doctor, takes on the world, and to have confidence in herself and in her voice, that journey is just so inspirational for me.
Anne: That sounds so exciting. When victims think, I want to help other victims! Maybe be a therapist, or a coach. And I want to encourage everyone to, like, take a deep breath, and think about when you were 8 or 9, what did you want to be?
Did you want to be an attorney? Did you want to be a florist?
Empowering Victims to Help Others
Anne: We don’t all have to be a therapist, in order to help victims. Like you could help victims as a florist, or you could help victims as a horse trainer.
You can advocate for women in anything that you do. And then there are, Particular people like Elizabeth, maybe like me, maybe like you, who have made our life mission to directly advocate through politics or through a podcast or other ways, but I just want victims to know that like, you don’t have to run for office or you don’t have to be a therapist or something in order to affect the world.
And the best way that you can make the world a more peaceful place is getting yourself to safety.
Kate: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that advice about.
Finding Personal Passion
Kate: Trying to centre again on who you are and what you’re passionate about is so important because I think often when people have been in those abusive relationships, they are worn down by the abuse.
Their very person is called out so much, is questioned so much that you start to question yourself. And actually to try and re centre it on who you are and what’s important to you is a really important thing. And I think actually that’s something that Elizabeth Packard, does experience as well.
She has to go back to basics, you know, the experience of being locked up in that insane asylum for years. It forces her to confront who she is and what matters.
Elizabeth’s Transformation
Kate: And actually, for her, ultimately, she decides that this thing that is the worst thing that could happen to her, that this thing is actually the best thing that could happen to her, because she says, The worst that my enemies can do, they have done, and I fear them no more.
I am now free to be true and honest. No opposition can overcome me. And it’s like she has to hit rock bottom, but from that she can then rise like a phoenix to become the woman that she was always destined to be.
Anne: That is so
inspiring.
And I want to tell all of our listeners that is your destiny too, that you have your own mission in life, and you can rise from the ashes and live a life of peace.
In Elizabeth’s case, it just sounds like the most amazing journey and also adventure that she was on.
Kate: Yes, yes, I think it was ultimate and it’s one of those strange things, isn’t it? Had none of this horrific stuff ever happened to her. She would have continued in her home, being a homemaker, being a mother, being a wife.
And actually, Because of these horrifying circumstances that she finds herself in, it actually leads her to, as you say, this completely different public life where she travels from coast to coast across America, you know, changing laws as she goes, changing minds, changing hearts, inspiring women, inspiring men to help women.
And none of that would have happened had her husband not tried to silence her. So, Good can come from the bad, I guess is the thing that, you know, there is another chapter that comes after it and it’s a chapter that you can write yourself and make yourself the heroine of that story and the heroine of whatever journey it is that you’re going to go on.
Anne: I feel like that now in my own personal journey from recovering from abuse, I feel like my life has become this amazing adventure and I feel an immense sense of gratitude for what I’ve been through. I also Want to acknowledge that many of our listeners are in this place where they can’t even fathom sunlight again. There is just a tunnel with no light at the end of it.
And it feels almost offensive. When people say, I’m so grateful because I’ve been there or it’s like, why would I be grateful? So, to have examples like Elizabeth, especially from the 1800s, is so inspiring.
Elizabeth’s Legal Impact
Anne: You talked about some of the laws that Elizabeth had an influence over and some of the work that she did here in America.
For American women today, or women all over, do any of us have direct benefit that we didn’t even realize we had from Elizabeth’s life work?
Kate: Definitely. She was born in Massachusetts. The story takes place in Illinois because they move west at some point during their marriage.
But, yeah, she was born and grew up in Massachusetts.
The Fight for Women’s Rights
Kate: I think many people don’t realize how unjust laws used to be for wives. And we see, even today, that society has rules that mean that women are on the back foot and are not.
The Legacy of Coverture
Kate: The people with power, but it used to be that there was a law known as coverture, which was inherited from England in the 1100s.
And it was in operation in America at the time Elizabeth was sent to the asylum. And essentially coverture meant that wives had no legal identities. of their own. They were mere shadows of their spouses, legally. So they had no right to their own earnings. They had no right to the custody of their own children.
They had no right even to their very liberty. So her husband sending her away to the asylum was not just enabled by the medical science of the day that said that assertive women were mad. It was enabled by the law. of the land as well. Because the law said that a husband could send his wife to an asylum by request and specifically without the evidence of insanity that was required in other cases.
Elizabeth’s Campaign for Change
Kate: So some of the laws that Elizabeth tackled and changed were to change that situation so that safeguards were put in place so that same wives could not be sent away by their husbands. She also tackled things such as a woman’s rights to her own earnings because as, as I said, You know, many of your listeners will know financial independence can give independence full stop.
If you’re tied to a man financially, it can seem almost impossible to break away. And so Elizabeth was tackling those injustices. She wanted to make sure that Women could not be sent away by their husbands. She wanted to ensure that women could stand on their own two feet, that they could have the custody of their children.
Elizabeth suffered terribly when it came to looking after her six children because being sent away to the asylum, she had no care of them for the years that she was there. And then even when she came out and there was a landmark legal trial, which actually, spoiler alert, declared her sane, Even then, she could still not care for her children because her husband essentially kidnapped them and took them to a different state.
And that was legal because Elizabeth, as the wife, had no right to the custody of her children. So some of the laws that also she campaigned to change and did change were about the custody of children, so that mothers were given custody. the same rights as men, that they could actually be guardians for their own children.
You know, initially when she started campaigning, a wife, by law, could not become the guardian of her children. Um, so these are the kind of laws that she was tackling. We may think, oh, well, it was the 1800s, you know, that is a very different time then. Actually, my research showed that sort of hangovers from these 19th century laws stretched way into sort of present day and more recent history.
So for example, did you know that it wasn’t until 1974 that American women could get a credit card independently? Before then, a man had to co sign any credit application. What? Sorry. I just have to pause there
Anne: and be like, what? Yep. I was born in 1977, so this is three years before I’m born. Thank goodness someone liberated us from that.
Kate: Yeah, so, I mean, I’ve given very sort of specific concrete examples there, but that’s the kind of campaign Elizabeth embarked on, and as you say, as well as the sort of concrete, Laws that she changed in the law books, we have her as a shining example now of a woman who was oppressed and was abused and was gaslighted and was told that she was crazy.
And she’s a woman who managed, somehow, against all the odds, to rise above that and to fight for what she believed in and to fight for her freedom and the freedom of others.
Stereotypes of Abuse Victims
Anne: I wanted to talk about stereotypes that abuse victims are like waify women who can’t speak up for themselves, who have a hard time processing things. At Betrayal Trauma Recovery, we’ve seen that victims come in all shapes and sizes.
All of our personalities are different. So many of us are strong and brave and that’s how Elizabeth was.
And I actually feel like women who are confident and self assured who are honest, are even more abused at times, but they don’t look like an abuse victim to people because they think, well, she’s like telling everyone she’s abused.
She’s telling people her husband had an affair. She’s going to the PTA meetings. She’s running for city council. Like how could she be abused?
The Strength of Outspoken Women
Anne: And I’m wondering if one of the reasons why Elizabeth was so horrifically abused You Was because. she was outspoken was because she had this heart of justice she got not necessarily more abused than other women of her time, but I don’t want women to think like, Oh, if I spoke up more or if I was a certain way, I wouldn’t get abused.
Cause in some cases, I think those of us who, Stick it to the man, if I’m gonna use that term. We almost get more vilified and more told that we’re bad or evil or that we won’t like stay in our lane.
Would you say that her strength was one of the things that her husband found so threatening and one of the reasons why he abused her so severely? Probably.
Kate: It definitely is why he abused her so severely. Absolutely. Her outspokenness, actually, was her downfall. That was why she was sent away. And it might seem shocking to listeners today, but actually, psychiatry of the era is declared that outspoken and assertive women were insane.
That was medical science at the time, backed up the husband in saying that, you know, this strong willed and this outspoken woman, well, she must be mad. That was what the medical textbooks of the era said. Women who have plenty of nerve were literally textbook examples. of female insanity, um, any educated or assertive woman was seen as liable to go mad, even a woman who simply read.
I’ve sort of found the records of the insane asylums of the era, and a cause of madness in that time was reading novels. So any woman who’s using her brain, who’s using her tongue, was seen at risk of madness and was liable to be sent away, just as Elizabeth was. So absolutely, her strength was the reason that her husband wanted to dispatch her to the asylum.
Generational Trauma and Abuse
Anne: Well, and this generational trauma that women feel makes me want to pause and just point out that the abuse has worked. Like women say today, I’m not going to say that cause he’ll get angry. Or I can’t do that because people won’t like me or they’re not going to. I think I’m okay.
I prefer not to swear on this podcast because I know so many victims have been sworn at and I don’t want to trigger anyone, so I’m going to use the word witch, but you know what I’m saying. They’ll call a woman these, like, she’s such a witch, so other women are like, well, I don’t want to be perceived as this difficult, pushy, aggressive woman.
The overall, like.
The Societal Pressure to Conform
Anne: Societal layering of abuse over generations of time has these repercussions where women think I can’t say what I think or I can’t do what I think is right because people will not perceive of me as a nice person or as cooperative and I want to be perceived as kind and cooperative.
Kate: It’s so interesting you use the word cooperative there because my research didn’t just look at the 1860s, I also researched into the 20th and 21st centuries as well. And a line that really stood out to me was from a patient in a mental hospital and she said, if you’re uncooperative, you’re crazy. That was the thing, and that is experienced both in the 20th century and in the 19th century in Elizabeth’s world.
The only way they could get out from the asylum was to cooperate, was to paste on these smiles, was to simper sweetly, was to not talk about the stuff that was making them angry, stuff that was making them sad. They had to be these sort of cut out dolls. And that line from this woman in the mental hospital in the 20th century, if you’re uncooperative, you’re crazy, that for me just sums up.
Really, the whole situation, if you’re not towing the line, whether that is within a relationship or whether it’s in society, then you’re crazy. And as I say, I just think it’s so interesting you use that word because that was, is what’s coming up from people who had experienced these things, that’s how they summarize it.
That
Anne: is real time. happening now. I would say even with women who aren’t being quote unquote abused per se by their spouse, but maybe in the workplace or maybe in their church where they feel like I can’t really be myself or say what I want to say. I have to say it in a certain way.
There are so many of these restraints so that you’re not perceived as This difficult, witchy jerk. And the bar is just so different for women than it is for men. And nobody perceives of that as throwing her under the bus because she has a different opinion as abuse.
Modern Parallels to Elizabeth’s Story
Kate: I I’ve had readers contact me saying how haunting they found Elizabeth’s story because similar things have happened to them. For example, the police are called because of a domestic violence incident.
They don’t help the woman. They talk to her husband and they say, she’s causing you trouble. We can make arrangements to have her taken away to the mental hospital. This was. from 2017. A reader emailed me about that situation. I personally have interviewed people from the 1980s, for example, where an abusive husband got his wife sent away to a mental institution for several months, his word against hers, and they believed him.
So she was sent away. So we think of it as history, but actually just from those few anecdotes that I have encountered, personally, I think, these things are still happening.
Anne: Well, the most recent, like, widely publicized case, was Gabby Petito. Where you’ve got a film of the police talking to her boyfriend who is abusing her and the boyfriend calm and collected and saying oh, she’s just a little crazy, essentially, and the police being like, oh, yeah, we get that, just separate for the night, then she ends up being murdered.
Kate: Hysterical. That’s the other one. Hysterical. Oh, yes! Hysterical! Which of course has its roots in hysteria, hysterectomy. It’s all tied together etymologically linking women and madness.
Anne: It is maddening.
Kate: It is. That was my draft title for the book, actually, Maddening, because the situation is maddening for Elizabeth.
But as I say, what’s inspiring about her is the way. that she manages to rise above it and fight back.
Elizabeth’s Enduring Legacy
Kate: And, you know, talking about what we were just talking about, I do want to share with your listeners another quote from Elizabeth. She herself was a brilliant writer. She kept this secret journal in the asylum, which I’ve been able to draw on for writing The Woman They Could Not Silence.
And she really therefore has become The Woman They Could Not Silence because we hear her words through the years. And Elizabeth said, Women are made to fly and soar, not to creep and crawl as the haters of our sex want us to. And I think, as you say, we do try and switch ourselves into boxes sometimes.
But if we can, we need to gather ourselves and fly and soar, uh, as Elizabeth Packard managed to do. And I hope people will really find her story inspirational.
Anne: We’vE talked about how her experience is so relevant today. So a century and a half later, let’s pretend like Elizabeth shows up. She’s able to see what’s going on now.
Like if she could give us some kind of motivational speech, or if she could point out something to us that maybe we’re not even aware of, what do you think she would say to us?
Kate: I think she’d be disappointed that things haven’t changed. Enough from her time. I think, you know, she writes about wanting a female president and things like that.
We’re still not there yet in terms of society being more equal. But what I think she would do actually is straighten her shoulders. I think she’d pick up her skirts and she would go into battle. She’d go into battle for all of us. She was that kind of person. Um, a review in Australia actually described her as a battering ram in a bonnet. And that was Elizabeth Packard. So I don’t know exactly what direct advice she would have. And in fact, Elizabeth was actually really the kind of person who wouldn’t impart advice. She would lead by example. So, um, She would go into battle for us, I think.
I think she would choose whichever battle she thought was the one that was the most relevant and she would dedicate herself to making sure that wrongs were overturned and justice was done for everyone. That’s the kind of woman that she was.
Anne: That you said that makes me feel really good. I had a nickname in high school and it was the battle ax.
And I loved it. I found it to be very endearing and I want other women to feel that same way. Like if someone says you’re too stubborn instead of being like, no, I’m not, no, I’m not, let me get back in my box. Be like, of course I am. I’m stubborn for truth. I’m stubborn for justice.
Just like Elizabeth did. You don’t have to back away from that. Like, yeah, I’m crazy because this is an insane situation and anyone in this situation might be crazy because it’s insane and it’s not right.
Kate: Yeah, exactly. And that brings to mind, you know, some of the stuff that was said to Elizabeth. She was told, you know, the fact that she eventually hated her husband for putting her in the asylum, that was cited as evidence of her madness because a wife is supposed to be loving and caring.
The fact that she was angry with her husband, that was cited as evidence of her madness because a natural wife, you know, a healthy wife, a well wife wouldn’t behave in that way. And as you say, how do you respond to that? You know, Anger inspiring insane situation, but these are the kind of things Elizabeth was up against.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Kate: I just want to say thank you for this opportunity, really. I’m such an advocate for Elizabeth Packard’s story. I think that any of your listeners who read her story, I think they’ll be shocked by it.
I think they’ll be shocked by what happens to her, by the fact that medical science, the law, everything was stacked against her. But the, inspiration of how she defies the odds, the inspiration of how she finds herself in the midst of this darkness and this oppression. I hope that shines a light for everybody.
I just want to finish actually by sharing with you another quotation from Elizabeth. She said, I will not hide my light under a bushel. I will set it upon a candlestick that it may give light to others.
And I hope anyone who reads her story in The Woman They Could Not Silence, I hope it lights your life.
Anne: Kate, thank you so much for your work. Again, you can find her book on our books page, btr. org slash books. You can find it on Amazon and you can find it on her website, kate moore. com. Thank you again, Kate, for all of your hard work in behalf of women everywhere.
Kate: It’s my pleasure. Thank you for this opportunity.
0 Comments