Women in the Military More Likely to Be Traumatized by Sexual Assault Than Combat

[Shell B]

So, our women veterans are more likely to be traumatized by a sex assault by a fellow soldier, or a commander, than by their own battlefield or war experiences.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/...s-military

[Annik]

Lets keep in mind that women see less combat.

This does not surprise me at all (and count on the military to sweep it under the rug).

[cratehorus]

news reports document that suicide now outpaces death under fire as the leading cause of mortality among vets. It also seems that we are willing to look at military rape, in a way that we aren't at, say, college rape, which is just as systemic, because the icon of the "military woman" is one of the few we have of a woman who is blameless.

How can our culture imagine a military woman as a "virtuous" victim, and thus more readily look at what happened to her?

She has sacrificed herself – that ultimate cultural marker for female virtue – and is facing dangers on our behalf. She is not out on her own, uncontrolled, being wild or "asking for it". She is, rather, in a state of discipline, under command, subordinated to the ultimate patriarchal control system

that's not the fucking issue and you give two shits, about these people, your making some bullshit anti-aghan war statement, by appealing to the emotional reaction of "rape"........and it's bullshit........ As shocking as the description of those rapes were, the whole point was too explain why certain rape gets news coverage, and others don't (which is why you found it in the assange news section). In, fact that article's whole point seems to be that stories like this should not get coverage, a more appropriate title for this thread should be "Why you should not give two flying fucks about women being raped in the military"

[Gilgamesh]

making some bullshit anti-aghan war statement, by appealing to the emotional

You should realise that the government appeals to emotion like no other to make sure its citizens believe their soldiers are heroes.

[KichigaiNeko]

Let us keep in mind that it takes alot to really "piss - off" a female. ...

Then watch the fur fly.


Frankly I am upset that Zen won't let me near chainsaws or sharp implements When I am very "pissed-off"

[festive1]

Thanks for sharing. The only thing worse than being sexually assaulted is to be told that it doesn't matter, that the victim was somehow at fault, or some other play for minimization of the pain and trauma of being raped. As if the actual act of being assaulted isn't bad enough, being told or having nothing done about it is a revictimization, which brings it's own trauma and scars.

[TaraJo]

This actually doesn't suprise me, but that's mostly because current military policy is to keep women out of combat. It would be interesting to see what the stats are overall, without regard to gender or it would be interesting to compare the rates of women traumatized by sexual abuse compared to men traumatized by combat.

That's not to try to defend any of the sexual abuse that's happening, though. Honestly, if the military is set up in such a way that sexual abuse is allowed to happen and the CO's are more worried about their reputation than they are with protecting the people under them, especially protecting them from predators within their own, there needs to be some kind of serious overhaul of the oversight process to the military.

[Shell B]

Lets keep in mind that women see less combat.

This does not surprise me at all (and count on the military to sweep it under the rug).

Irrelevant. That's not the gist of the statistics. They take this into account. They estimate that half a million people in the military have been sexually assaulted in the military. Also, women do not see less combat by a large degree. There are simply fewer women in the military. They may not be in infantry positions, but female mechanics, medics, etc. can and do see combat regularly. They are also stationed with men in fobs where there is plenty of surprise combat to go around.

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news reports document that suicide now outpaces death under fire as the leading cause of mortality among vets. It also seems that we are willing to look at military rape, in a way that we aren't at, say, college rape, which is just as systemic, because the icon of the "military woman" is one of the few we have of a woman who is blameless.

How can our culture imagine a military woman as a "virtuous" victim, and thus more readily look at what happened to her?

She has sacrificed herself – that ultimate cultural marker for female virtue – and is facing dangers on our behalf. She is not out on her own, uncontrolled, being wild or "asking for it". She is, rather, in a state of discipline, under command, subordinated to the ultimate patriarchal control system

that's not the fucking issue and you give two shits, about these people, your making some bullshit anti-aghan war statement, by appealing to the emotional reaction of "rape"........and it's bullshit........ As shocking as the description of those rapes were, the whole point was too explain why certain rape gets news coverage, and others don't (which is why you found it in the assange news section). In, fact that article's whole point seems to be that stories like this should not get coverage, a more appropriate title for this thread should be "Why you should not give two flying fucks about women being raped in the military"

Are you fucking serious? I linked this article because of a documentary that discusses rape in the military going back much farther than the Afghan war. Furthermore, you might want to ask me my opinion on the wars in the Middle East before making those assertions, ya fucking twatwaffle.

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This actually doesn't suprise me, but that's mostly because current military policy is to keep women out of combat. It would be interesting to see what the stats are overall, without regard to gender or it would be interesting to compare the rates of women traumatized by sexual abuse compared to men traumatized by combat.

One percent of men in the military have been raped. All of these stats are available from the DoD and other organizations.

[TaraJo]

This actually doesn't suprise me, but that's mostly because current military policy is to keep women out of combat. It would be interesting to see what the stats are overall, without regard to gender or it would be interesting to compare the rates of women traumatized by sexual abuse compared to men traumatized by combat.

One percent of men in the military have been raped. All of these stats are available from the DoD and other organizations.

Oh, no, that's now what I'm mentioning. I'm not at all surprised a lot more women are raped than men in the military. Other than in prison, it's pretty much routine that women are raped more than men everywhere. But it's still a bit of a misleading statistic, mostly because women are specifically excluded from combat. I mean, it would be damn easy for me to claim that zero percent of women are traumatized by combat because zero percent of women in the military are allowed into combat (which is something else the military needs to change, btw).

[Shell B]

A significant amount more than zero women are in combat situations with our military. Furthermore, as I said above, the statistics take that into account. Of women who have served in combat, those women are more likely to be traumatized by sexual assault than by PTSD. Also, one percent is not an insignificant amount. That is thousands of men being raped in the military, mainly by other men. Again, these statistics are available from the Department of Defense.