Just watched a Ted talk where a woman talked about her experience in a religious cult and just…wow.
The parts about child abuse (“spare the rod” BS) and convincing children they’re evil were horrific enough. But the part that stuck out to me was when the woman said she (as a 6 year old) excitedly showed her grandpa her school report that said “she has strong leadership skills” and the grandpa read it out loud to 500 members of the community. She thought he was doing it because he was proud, but that asshole said in front of everyone “we don’t want women like you.”
I can’t stop replaying the “we don’t want women like you” part in my head. Women and girls are expected to be submissive, obedient pets to the men in their lives. There’s just something about a grandfather saying that to his own little granddaughter that’s giving me chills all over.
In case anyone’s interested:
This is a New Zealand based cult called Gloriavale. This women has done a few different interviews on YouTube talking about her time there.


















