Because of the rock-hard walls Patricia put up after her rape, it is hard to tell just how traumatic the incident was for her, but clearly the "after" was traumatizing. In those days she would have been judged harshly, and the film touched on that. The headline said rape but all anyone thought was that she was "loose", a "floozy", a "whore" - a young girl trying to make her way through Hollywood lying down on the casting couch. Being ridiculed and blamed for what happened to her must have took a great toll on her, maybe even causing her to agree with them in the sense that she was to blame. Maybe she felt disgusted with herself and guilty of the whole thing, thus refusing to talk about it, even to her own child. Even though her daughter was being supportive, perhaps Patricia thought that if her daughter knew all the details, maybe even she would agree with what they had said back then - that it was her fault. People handle trauma, and shame, in their own way and this was hers - silence. She told the police, she told the court, she told the press, those were who needed to hear the truth. It was redundant to tell anyone else. It is a shame that Patricia and her daughter did not connect in the end, but I hope now that her daughter does know her mother's story, she understands, even a pinch, why she was the way she was. It doesn't excuse Patricia for being a withdrawn mother, but it does explain it in some ways.
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