In an article that I found on alternet.com written by a woman named Rose Aguilar, the author states marks the shocking increase in rape allegations in the U.S. military. “In 2003, Congress began requiring the Department of Defense to report the number of sexual assault cases on file. In 2005, military criminal investigators received 2,374 allegations of sexual assault involving members of the armed forces worldwide. “That number is a 40 percent increase from 2004. The ‘04 number is a 25 percent increase from 2003, so that’s a 65 percent increase in two years.”
Ms. Magazine online also has an article about rape statistics in the U.S. military. Lara Friedrich and Anne Decleene write: “In May, Sanchez proposed legislation to replace the military’s antiquated sexual- assault laws — enacted in the 1950s — with the type of civilian laws now in use at the federal level and in 38 states. Article 120 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice doesn’t recognize date or acquaintance rape, and it still places undue emphasis on a woman’s behavior rather than on the perpetrator’s, according to Sanchez.”
After reading these two articles, and considering the other research I have been doing, I get the sense that rape is something that just happens to you if you are a woman in the U.S. army, that you should suck it up, and that you should keep your mouth shut about it. The army is just one more arena in which some men feel as though they can physically and psychologically intimidate and dominate women. How do you fight an enemy, when those who are supposed to be your friends and comrades also threaten you? Rape in the military is not just a problem because of the physical and psychological trauma that it inflicts upon the victims, but also because it threatens the stability and the integrity of the army as a whole. As we have seen in some of the previous articles on the blog, the women are afraid to take showers and get water late at night because they fear rape. The culture of rape in the army is weakening our troops. I imagine that the immediate response to this comment may be: women shouldn’t serve in the military.
My response to this comment: If we were to punish women by not letting them serve their country because men are committing criminal acts, rape, against them, we would be condoning crime and not serving justice, we would be letting sexual desire supercede law, and we would be admitting that “might=right” or more specifically, “penis=right”. Learning more and more about the incidents of rape the military have made me angry against the larger tyranny against women. Perhaps the transmen have it right. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. This act of becoming the other makes a person less prone to being attacked by the other. But my other response; fight. Fight the complacency in the army and the acceptance of male sexual power. The military needs to train its men to fight their sexual urges. The military needs to train its men to view these women not as the other, but as their fellow human beings and fellow soldiers. Does this sound a little too warm and fuzzy for you? I believe that education is the way to solving most problems, and this one is no exception. The only thing that I fear, is that we will never be able to get men to see women as equal, perhaps because human nature, most notably sexual desire, will always win in the end. Call me an idealist, but I say we can stop rape in the military, even if a little social conditioning is involved.
7 Comments
December 12, 2008 at 6:56 pm
I saw a report about women being raped in the military and i brought it up in school and people were condoning it. I was repulsed by what i heard. The other kids were saying that the male soldiers don’t get any now that their away from their families so it’s okay. Someone needs to change the way these kids think!!
February 17, 2009 at 11:47 am
RAPE IS NEVER OK FOR ANY REASON, OLVIA.
STALKING IS NOT OK, SEXUAL HARRASSMENT IS NOT OK. THERE ARE CIVILIAN LAWS.
February 21, 2009 at 7:08 pm
“That number is a 40 percent increase from 2004. The ‘04 number is a 25 percent increase from 2003, so that’s a 65 percent increase in two years.”
Um, no. That’s a 75 percent increase in two years. 100 percent x 125 percent x 140 percent = 175 percent.
Something this big and important should have the right numbers attached to it.
May 18, 2009 at 2:19 am
I’d like to address the language being used to talk about rape. “Sexual urges” really have nothing to do with any of it. In fact it is a crime of anger and rage, not lust- which is what the author suggests. Also, there is nothing in human nature that keeps men in a superior role, it is something that is taught and accepted as the norm. I hear the passion in this writer’s voice, and I’m glad to have anyone standing against violence toward women, but this writing is not helpful against the injust women in the military face and is full of misinformed cliches and stereotypes. Besides, as Ben pointed out, the statistical errors, obviously little research has been done prior to the writing of this article, and it is only a deception of what is really happening to women in the military.
May 28, 2009 at 7:32 pm
[...] Women and War – “Rape Statistics and What the U.S. Military Should Be Doing” (20 Apr 07) [...]
August 26, 2009 at 6:43 pm
“Rape in the military is not just a problem because of the physical and psychological trauma that it inflicts upon the victims, but also because it threatens the stability and the integrity of the army as a whole.”
While I can appreciate the point behind this article, some parts of it bother me. One, the military consists of many branches, the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Two, rape and sexual assualt don’t happen only in counrty. It can be aboard ships, in the barracks, in the US and overseas. Three, it isn’t only the males sexually assaulting the females, it goes both ways and around again. A male can be a perpatrator or a victim just the same as a female. Four, rape is NOT about sex, it is about power and control, the feeling of power that comes from controling and forcing someone to do something against their will. Five, just becuase our Articles were written in a different time does NOT mean that our judicial procedings haven’t changed. Yes, the Article may read one way be there are policies and regulations that add to the Articles that make it easier for victims to speak up and get help. Six, and this is a big one, just because YOU get the feeling doesn’t make it fact, do MORE research!!! Like talking to someone who serves or has served, rape doesn’t “just happen” to females in the Armed Services, it is perpatrated and IF reported handled. The challenge is to get females AND males in the military to report the assaults to the right people, and there are people. I know that if I were assaulted, I’d rather report it to military authorities over civilian in a heart beat, I’d get better care and MORE reporting options, and the males that I serve with would not only support me but they would probably also kill my attacker. So please before you condem our military, please talk to those who are in it and get a better understanding of what kind of people are serving.
October 4, 2009 at 6:29 pm
I am one of those statistics. In fact I am case number: 77-CID023-15371-6E. The sexual assault on 9 April 1977. I was 20 years old and stationed at Ft. Bragg, NC. I was asleep in my room when I felt someone touching my hair. It took me a few seconds to realize what was happening. I tried to fight him off but his fists were hard and he had pressed him thumbs into my eyes, stuffed socks down my throat to muffle my scream. He beat me about the head and left ear. Before he left he had to remove a pair of manicuring scissors from my hair. Probably to snip a piece of my hair. there was a lot of evidence, semen, socks, toothpick, fingerprints. there was a line up but I could not recognize him as the room was dark and my hair was tangled in front of my face. But i knew that I wold know if voice. I was denied this and was told it would be against his rights. I was young and in shock but I felt they would find him. But they never did. I have a copy of the report with so many dark lines running through it. as the victim i’m not allowed to read the report, or the findings of the lie dector tests given to one of the suspects and the barracks guard. It took 19 years but I finally got counseling for PTSD. The event, though over 30 years ago is fresh in my mind. I can still feel it all. A recent foot surgery left me feeling helpless, thus nightmares began. On that early morning in 1977, Easter weekend I was beaten, strangled, suffocated, sodomized and raped. The doctor who examined me looked away in disgust. I had spoiled his holiday weekend.
All these years, no closure and still so many unanswered questions. I was a good soldier. I was quiet and did my work. I was counting the days to complete my commitment. Back then there were no words for sexual harrassements.
There was also a lot of racial tension. the person who raped me was black. I want to know his name. I want to know what became of him. I know he had raped others before me by some things he said before he left my room. Did this happen to you too? Sadly too, it put a wedge between myself and my family especially my mother. She felt such tremendous guilt that I had gone into the army to save for college that she was often hostile and distant to me. Before she died last year she said, “Oh Stephanie, I’m so sorry.” If you were at ft Bragg during this time and know anything, please contact me. I was assigned to HHD, 7th Transportation Bn.
So many years I have spent with sleep problems, low self esteem, flashbacks, anxiety and most of all depression. I just want to know who he was.
there were two names Blackwell and PVT Gill. I believe the latter was the man who raped me.