56 pages 1 hour read

Kerry Washington

Thicker than Water: A Memoir

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2023

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Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 4 Summary: “Frozen”

Kerry notes that as a child she was assaulted but that she does not blame her perpetrator since he was a child too. She kept it a secret for a long time but explains that, in doing so, she prioritized protecting him over herself; still, she does not completely regret it. Now, however, she wants to acknowledge the effects it had on her.

Kerry frequently had sleepovers as a kid and remembers that she sometimes woke up with her nightgown disheveled in odd ways. Not sure why, she became paranoid and anxious.

She jumps to the future and explains that she was working on The Details when another actor mentioned that his therapist told him that “the cruelest thing you can ever do to another human being is to label their suspicions as false when you know them to be true” (73). This advice stuck with Kerry because it was a reminder that you can affect how much a person trusts. Kerry feels like she has always been able to see things from another perspective, which helped her acting but also made it hard for her to think about herself.

Kerry explains how she learned more about sexual pleasure and urges, and about the shame one can feel around sex.