"The Role of Ex-Amish Memoir in Breaking the Culture of Silence on Sensitive Subjects"

Although gender roles have been treated in the literature on the Amish for years, related sensitive topics that have become focal points of research inquiry in fields of women’s and gender studies–such as sex education, sexuality, abuse, and incest–have remained on the peripheries. The current Amish studies scholarship on the aforementioned subjects fills only a small number of pages of books and journals and has primarily focused on explaining Amish practices to outsiders, e.g. the concept of forgiveness and the aspects of Amish culture that make the reporting of abuse to non-Amish authorities difficult, instead of creating empathy for the victims and awareness for practices among the Amish that lead to inappropriate behavior or the violation of human rights.

In this paper, I will analyze the struggles of young Amish women to come to terms with their own identity and break the silence on sensitive topics. The ex-Amish memoirs by Saloma Miller Furlong and Emma Gingrich will provide the basis for this study. Themes, such as the female body, dating rituals, sexuality, and sexual abuse, will be treated. The trauma of putting one’s past behind and starting over in unfamiliar surroundings is real, complex, and enduring. Moreover, I will show the challenges and benefits of examining the experience of ex-Amish women filtered through their non-fictional life narratives and uncover the extent to which the ‘culture of silence’ contributes to the dissatisfaction and/or traumatization of Furlong and Gingerich.

Ex-Amish memoirs, albeit subjective, do open new perspectives for differentiated analyses of Amish ways of knowing and living. We as scholars, care givers, and medical personnel have a responsibility to victims and survivors of abuse and other trauma not only to openly listen to their stories, but also to give them the public acknowledgement that they deserve, enter into a discussion with the willing, and think about our responsibility to hear all the voices, especially those of the marginalized.