Tuesday, April 25, 2006

ADOPTION AS A TABOO

I’m reading (okay, rereading) a beautiful book, “The Mists of Avalon.” If you haven’t read it for awhile- do give it another read. It’s worth it. Anyway, in the story, one of the ancient Druid people admonishes another thus: “You have broken a taboo. You must be punished for it.”

Hmmmm. I’ve always looked at adoption as being a taboo. Along with incest, cannibalism, suicide, there is also SEX. Having a child out of wedlock is also a taboo.

The adoption taboo is something we don’t talk about, something to be ashamed of, something to keep secret, something to prohibit; it’s profane and inviolate.

Our mother’s broke a taboo and they were punished. They had to give us away. We adoptees are being punished by that same taboo.

I believe that in the subconscious minds of large segments of society today, adoptees’ very existence reminds people of SEX/SIN. Subconsciously, to be sure, but the mind set is there. We adoptees are walking, talking, breathing, won’t-go-away reminders of sex w/out marriage. We are an “all grown up example” of what they don’t want their daughters to do.

Adoptees are punished by the state’s control over us. They will not give us the one thing that is ours by right - our original birth certificates. They will not give us back our identities. We’re part of the taboo.

1 comment:

Marley Greiner said...

Oh, I hear ya Grannie! I've waffled around this for years, but the bottom lie is that we're the fruit of fornication, therefore dangerous. "Nice people" don't who crave a sproglet of their own are quuick enough to "save" us and make as their own, but don't want to be reminded ovfhow we got here. As long as sex shame exists, we'll have secret adoption and second class citizenship.