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123helpme free essays sexual assault in the military
Sexual assault essay military
123helpme free essays sexual assault in the military
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Angelique Vasquez
Professor Scala
WGS 4100
I recently saw the documentary, The Invisible War (Kirby Dick, Amy Ziering). The Invisible War exposes the epidemic of rape and sexual assault in the U.S. military, and by using personal stories and the government’s own figures and statistics from Department of Defense reports over the years, the film demonstrates what it means to serve in the military if you’re a woman. I had no idea what I was about to witness while watching this documentary about rape in the military, but I was not prepared for the full story The Invisible War presents.
The documentary outlines some of the hard facts: 20% of service women have been sexually assaulted while serving. Women who have suffered what they call ‘Military
The procedure for reporting an assault or rape in the military is to report it to your commanding officer. Every survivor fully described how their commanding officer did not treat the reports seriously, sided with the perpetrator, or retaliated against them for reporting. With policies like “zero tolerance” originating from senior military authorities there's an incentive at each level to not report that sexual violence is an issue in a unit. It makes sense that this then means pressure on the surviour to drop the report. One soldier was told by their commanding officer while reporting an assault to “stop crying over spilt milk." Survivors who report the crime are told repeatedly that they misunderstood the situation or that they are lying or even ignored. It was discussed throughout the film that rape kits have gone “missing. It looks bad for a unit to have convicted felons, which implies they diminish the cases to these lesser offenses (if any charges are brought whatsoever), and subsequently these culprits are not enlisted on any sex guilty party
Among the reasons so many do not report an assault, 33% said the commander they were to report to was a friend of the rapist. 25% said the commander to report to was the rapist. Major General Mary Kay Hertog, who took over as head of SAPRO, fervently defends the military judicial system’s chain of command process and insists that “there is no conflict of interest.” Major General Hertog suggests to women who feel they were not given a fair and just investigation? Contact your congressman. And she somehow says that with a straight
In 1996, Captain Derrick Robinson, Sergeant Delmar Simpson, and Sergeant Nathanael Beech were arraigned for their suspected involvement in one of the biggest sex scandals the United States Military had seen. According to CNN, between these three men, charges of rape and adultery were pending in a huge case of sexual misconduct against female soldiers at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland (CNN, 2996). Following this incident, the United States Military took it upon themselves to open a telephone hotline to encourage the reporting of similar harsh crimes. Furthermore, the spike in reporting influenced extensive research to examine the prevalence of rape against women soldiers in the U.S. Military (Titunik, 2000). This paper will explore the dynamics of rape against women soldiers in the military and the research done on its prevalence.
Military records show over 20 percent of female veterans have been sexually assaulted (Ziering and Dick The Invisible War). As well as being assaulted, these women are then told no further action will be taken. 33 percent of military women do not report their sexual assault because the person to report to was a friend of the rapist (Ziering and Dick The Invisible War). Those who do come forward are punished for making such allegations. As the film continues, it begins to show overwhelming evidence of lack of punishment for the offenders....
An article called, “The Real War,” written by Roger J. Spiller, begins with a quote by Walt Whitman, “The real war will never get in the books.” The author writes about an interview with Paul Fussell, who was a soldier in World War Two and has written many books about World War One and World War Two. Fussell is very opinionated and critical about other books written about these wars, asserting they are not realistic or portray the true essence of what really occurred by soldiers and other people participating in the wars. I claim that it is impossible to convey the actual personal feelings and emotions of those involved in a war in books or any other forms of media.
Tim O’Brien states in his novel The Things They Carried, “The truths are contradictory. It can be argued, for instance, that war is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty. For all its horror, you can’t help but gape at the awful majesty of combat” (77). This profound statement captures not only his perspective of war from his experience in Vietnam but a collective truth about war across the ages. It is not called the art of combat without reason: this truth transcends time and can be found in the art produced and poetry written during the years of World War I. George Trakl creates beautiful images of the war in his poem “Grodek” but juxtaposes them with the harsh realities of war. Paul Nash, a World War I artist, invokes similar images in his paintings We are Making a New World and The Ypres Salient at Night. Guilaume Apollinaire’s writes about the beautiful atrocity that is war in his poem “Gala.”
World War I was a very deadly war with over 100 million human casualties(deaths plus injured). Therefore war is a very transformative event for humanity, because it always affects individuals, societies, and even the world in a pessimistic way.
The common story from victims who report being raped, according to a Military Rape Crisis Center worker, is that they were “met with disbelief and skepticism, blamed for the crime, and disposed of one way or another,” (Kitfield). Until the military stops re-victimizing the victims it will never be able to completely eradicate rape from the ranks.
Stephanie Schroeder was twenty one when she joined the United States Marine Corps shortly after the attack on the World Trader Center. In 2002, Schroeder’s life changed when a fellow Marine beat and raped her in a bathroom. Rather than punishing her assailant, a non-commissioned officer told Schroeder, “Don’t come bitching to me because you had sex and changed your mind” (Martin). Shortly after, Schroder was discharged for a personality disorder that she claims was because she tried to report the incident. Unfortunately, Schroeder’s story is not uncommon. Each year, approximately 26,000 service people are sexually assaulted by other service people each year in the United States military (US Commission on Civil Rights). The Tailhook scandal in 1991, in which 90 service people were sexually assaulted by United States Navy and Marine Corps personnel, shed light on the harmful epidemic of sexual assault in the United States military, but it still goes on today, over twenty years later. Congress has created several pieces of legislation to crack down on the staggering amount of sexual assault that has been going on for decades. Some of the proposed solutions to stop this problem are extreme, such as removing women from certain combat roles, and others are helpful but inadequate, like Senator McCaskill’s recently passed bill, which makes smaller changes to the current military system of handling sexual assault. But neither of these solutions will eradicate the epidemic of sexual assault in the United States military.
... The General Accounting Office concluded in a hearing on May 8th 1999 that combat inclusion is the greatest impediment to women attaining higher military rank. Until qualified women are given access to assignments that are central to the militaries mission, they will be marginalized. Sexual harassment is a huge problem
In the surveys they have referenced in the article, it displays military sexual trauma increases among women during and after military deployment of unwanted sexual contact in recent years. The authors have recruited and conducted of twenty-two US servicewomen telephone interviews from May 2011 to January 2012 to participate a qualitative study with or without their MST experiences. They asked the participants questions regarding about MST during deployment and other factors which are disturbing their reporting and accessing to services against the perpetrators. The issues of sexism, high stress levels, and failed military leadership contributing factors which put these servicewomen in jeopardy of MST. Some of the interview women said that servicewomen do not report MST due to lack of support from peers, unreliable confidentiality, stigma, and other barriers. The interviewees feel more comfortable opening to medical care services after deployment in the United States that grips with sexual assault cases than throughout deployment around the world. The participants have suggested to improving the MST services: by increasing awareness, prosecution, investigation, cultural shift, and independence service providers. The interviewees recognized that Military se...
Ode, Kim. "Sexual Trauma: Women Vets' Secret War." ProQuest, 18 Dec. 2010. Web. 20 Mar. 2012.
Military Sexual Trauma, also known as MST. What is it and why is it important? MST refers to psychological trauma resulting from a sexual assault or repeated, threatening harassment experienced during military service (pg. 3). Now, let us take a moment and think about the relevance of this subject? When we think of our women in combat, what do we see? We see strong and courteous females. But have we ever thought about what could be lurking underneath all that armor?
In Kirby Dick’s influential documentary “The Invisible War,” filmmaker Kirby Dick uses pathos, ethos and logos to gain information and supplementary details to make his point that there is an epidemic of rape in throughout the DOD (Department of Defense) and the fact that military sexual trauma (MST) in the United States military goes unheard, mostly unpunished and needs to be addressed at a higher level.
The US Military has been one of the most powerful and respected fighting forces in the world; it is also a hotbed for sexual assault. Each year, thousands of men and women take an oath to serve and protect their country and each thousands of military service members are sexually assaulted. “Earlier this week, Pentagon officials released a new report which estimated more than 70 sexual assaults occur in the military each day.”(Shane III) Fear of retaliation, both personal and professional, and humiliation stop many service members from reporting their sexual assaults. Those few that make the bold choice to report incidents of sexual assault often finds themselves disappointed by the outcome; assaults that do get reported have an incredibly low rate of conviction of the offender. The US Military has proven over time that they are incapable of effectively dealing with the sexual assault problem that it faces.
Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War tells the story of William Mandella a former Vietnam Veteran that was drafted into the “Forever War”. Him and Millions of other soldiers were taught to kill these aliens called Taurans because they supposively killed humans and did many other horrible things to them for no reason and of course wanted to take over earth. With Mandella learning this and more about the enemy before he goes to base camp on an ice planet. When in training, he begins to learn that the battle gear they use is very dangerous if you don’t know how to use it. Many die from the use of the suit in training and thousands more die in the actual war. After hundreds of collapsar jumps and over500 years of war Mandella finds out that the war
The purpose of this essay is to discuss the issue of rape and sexual assault in the military. The number of attacks for rape and sexual assault in the military are at an all-time high. Women have recently been allowed to fight on the front line. While this may be a huge achievement for women-kind, for this woman, it is a very scary thought. I am a junior at Texas Academy of Biomedical Sciences; a school geared towards students wishing to enter the medical field. I may be forced to join the military one day if a war breaks out and women are needed to protect the country. I would be happy to serve my country if I did not have to be scared of my fellow soldiers. Rape and sexual assault are major issues in the military and have been for many years without much effort to decrease the attacks. I am suggesting that unless the rape and sexual assault issue is fixed, the amount of people joining the military, specifically the women, will decrease greatly.