Welcome to Breaking Down Patriarchy. I'm Amy McPhee Allabest.

As regular listeners know, we do our best on this podcast to not look away from the pain that patriarchy causes.

In the past, this has meant discussing the hurtful ways that patriarchy erases history, the ways it diminishes women, the ways it limits possibilities

for men and boys, and on several occasions this has meant listening to difficult stories of domestic abuse.

On today's episode, we'll be joined by an anonymous contributor who trusts us with another of these difficult stories. So why do we continue

to return to this painful topic? Well, it's because this is a historical project which seeks

to document patriarchy's history and present-day reality accurately. And this violence, unfortunately,

remains a very real part of that reality.

Men's violence against women cuts across all races and ethnicities, all nationalities,

all religions, all socioeconomic situations. We share these stories because the alternative would be to ignore them or to hide them,

and they are much too ignored and too hidden already.

With all that said, we do understand that the subject of abuse can be a challenging one to listen to,

and this segment will contain descriptions of domestic and sexual violence.

So I encourage everyone listening to please take care of

yourselves as you know best. If you were six months pregnant with your second child, naked and

locked in a hotel bathroom, and you had just been raped by your own husband. What would you do?

Would you call the police? Would you worry about how to get your first child just two years old out of there?

Let me tell you what I did. It might surprise you. I'll start from the beginning of the story.

I'm not able to share my name with you today, but I use she, her pronouns. I grew up from the beginning of the story. I'm not able to share my name with you today,

but I use she-her pronouns. I grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known

as the Mormon Church. Recently, I learned the term Orthodox Mormons, and that's who my family were.

My parents read the scriptures to my siblings and me in the mornings, and had family home evening every Monday night, which was a family were. My parents read the scriptures to my siblings and me in the mornings and had

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