Ellen Burstyn Quotes
There was no such thing as child abuse. Parents owned their children. They could do whatever they wanted.
Burstyn, Ellen. Lessons in Becoming Myself. Riverhead Books, 2006, p. 35.
This was the group that decided who was to be executed in the Reign of Terror. Two of the plagues of French education were sexual abuse and corporal punishment.
This was an amazingly controversial quotation. At first glance it seemed like a typical position that a very conservative, anti-government politicization might take—the government should not interfere with a parents bringing up their children. However, there was a more ominous part of the quotations. While everyone in America would certainly agree with Paul that the Government does not “own” the children, there are few who would agree with the point that follows—that the Parents “own” the child. Paul reveals the normally hidden aspect of his politics—that he is highly influenced by the extreme, Biblical Literalist Fundamentalist Christians and Jews. In the Old Testament, the Father really did OWN the child. The latter was his chattel. A father had the legal and duty-bound power of life and death over his children. Most American Christians and Jews have long since abandoned the literal biblical notion of children being owned by a father and today see a child as a person who can sometimes need the protection of the state just like any other citizen. And there are occasions where the child must be PROTECTED from the parents who may be acting within their fundamentalist notions of Biblical rights and duties, but not with their civil rights and duties. Ownership, of a child is not one of the modern civil rights of parents.
Ellen Burstyn is an American actress. Known for her portrayal of complicated women in dramas, Burstyn is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award, one of the few performers to achieve the "Triple Crown of Acting".
