Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Sex and War Zones

I was perturbed by the article "Women and Arms: A Peril in War Zones - Sexual Abuse by Fellow G.I.'s" by Steven Lee Myers for a few reasons. I come from a family with a moderately strong military background and was raised with a very romantic vision regarding our armed forces, particularly the Marines. While I am well aware that there are serious flaws to our military forces, in particular sexual crimes, I still want to be able to maintain the image of the army which makes me proud. Unfortunately, when stories such as this come out, I am again faced with the reality of sexual assault within the Army and the challenges women in particular must face daily.

When one GI who was continuously being harassed claimed to feel safer outside the protective confines of her base than in her shower, this spoke volumes. The problem with sexual harassment while deployed is made even worse because women cannot escape their attacker. Often times they are members of the same unit, and more scarily, if a man is a superior officer, any woman who speaks against him can be charged with insubordination. Another upsetting aspect is that other men in a woman's unit may be skeptical about charges of true sexual assault or think that she was 'asking for it.' If this is the case, women can feel further ostracized by the soldiers who are supposed to have her back and support her. For these reasons, and i'm sure many more, the percentage of reported sexual crimes is very low (estimated at only 10%).

I think sex in the military is a very taboo thing to discuss, particularly when you are an active member. This is something that i think needs to change in order to bring about enough awareness to promote safety, particularly regarding sex, within military units. It is also important to make the general public aware of these problems, which would allow people to have a better picture of what our women in the military really face.

3 comments:

  1. I agree with Hillary that sex is a very taboo thing in the military. I think that no one wants to condone it but no one wants to say anything against it either. The military is performing a really challenging balancing act. Condoning sex in the military, I believe, would be an enormous distraction and could create personal problems among the soldiers. However, no one can expect that men and women working and living together will not develop these types of relationships. However, I believe that communicating about these issues is key to solving them. The "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy I think is a really good example of this. If things are out in the open, there is more likelihood of them being solved. Like we discussed with rape, the shame that goes along with speaking about it makes people not talk about it when it could actually be a really therapeutic process. The issue of sex in the military needs to be discussed so it can be normalized and rape will be less of a jump to report.

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  2. I agree with both TIra and Hillary, sex is a difficult, taboo subject to discuss in the military. It is faced with a serious issue. The military should not have any business personally asking you your sexual orientation; they should have some sort of privacy policy. But at the same time, sexual issues will arise between soldiers, as this article shows. So while the military must not discriminate against ones' sexuality, they must play an active role in preventing sexual abuse and rape between fellow soldiers. This is a complex issue with no easy answer. The military has to figure out a way to allow people to feel safe in their sexuality as a soldier, but at the same time protect their soldiers from fellow sexual abusers. If this does not happen in the near future, the military may be faced with more and more sexual abuse problems.

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  3. I totally agree with Hillary’s point on how sex in the military is a very taboo thing to discuss. She also mentioned earlier in her post that one GI who was continuously harassed claimed that she felt safer outside of her base than in her own shower. To me, this is ridiculous but understandable. She feels more comfortable in a space that is public because the likelihood of her getting harassed is not as likely. In many situations it is awkward for women to speak out in the military because they are so inferior. The military is very male dominated and speaking out could possibly only do her more harm. I am astonished how in some cases they are able to twist the story around and make it seem like the women was “asking for it”. As Hillary has mentioned, the percentage of reported sexual crimes is very low because these women are in lose lose situations.

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