Women at war: Sexual combat

[Rose Siding]

Gina W. went to Iraq, and came back with a different kind of war story. Her battlefields were in the barracks and the mess hall. The weapons were innuendoes and threats. And the enemy? Her own boss.

"When you go there, you have to be prepared for war," she says. "And then you have to be worried about being raped by your own people."

The former Army specialist is one of dozens of military women interviewed by The Bee who say they faced some kind of sexual harassment while in the combat theater in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Though publicity about sexual misconduct in the war zone has focused on rape, female soldiers said unwelcome advances, demeaning comments - and a feeling that being alone around male comrades in arms meant being unsafe - were far greater concerns........

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/projects/women_at_war/story/12523663p-13379149c.html

[Toots]

1. Any woman who joins the military and doesn't expect to get "hit on"

is pretty damn stupid. The military is made up of mostly teenage or early twenties boys that live in a world of testosterone and only thing on their minds is sex, drinking, and fighting. Unless a woman wants to be a part of that the military is not for them.... just my opinion.

[Rose Siding]

2. This isn't about just getting "hit on"

She complained after her boss started grabbing her.

snip>
The sergeant, meanwhile, threatened to beat up Gina and the other woman for filing the complaint. He began making crude comments about them to other soldiers and spreading gossip about how Gina and the other woman had received "irregular" results from their pre-deployment Pap smear tests for cervical cancer.

If she had threatened the sergeant the way he threatened her, Gina said, "I would have gone to prison."

[Misunderestimator]

3. Nice... I guess us women in male-dominated professions should just

expect sexually harrassing behavior and rape as well... :eyes:

Really constructive comment there.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

5. Yeah, that's a pretty assholish comment.

Sexual harassment and rape are not exactly acceptible under any circumstances.

[cap]

6. maybe we need a new model of what a military man is all about...

that doesnt include forcible sex.

I'm sure the men "hitting on" women were convinced that they weren't raping them. In short, dont join the military if you dont want to get rape, right?

I hope the recruiters are telling this to all the female prospects. But I dont think they will. there will be no military nurses. A lot of billets requiring higher mental aptitude tests will be impossible to fill. Think about the medical/computer/linguistic draft coming. A lot of those folks are female.

[beam me up scottie]

8. "teenage or early twenties 'boys'"?

"Most of the men who would hit on me were senior enlisted, warrant officers and officers," she said. "They feel they can do anything to you and nothing will happen."
These are not boys.

"hit on"?
Sexual assault, harassment and rape are NOT being hit on.
I suppose you also believe victims bring it on themselves for just being in the military.

Speaking of stupid...

[RaRa]

33. perhaps should have added "mentality of" as a prefix eom

[Protagoras]

11. The military is full of KIDS who aren't all that bright

of both sexes...there's a BIG reason why we recruit at 18...we don't want people who think things through. We do, however, expect their LEADERS to be a bit brighter in order to CONTROL the behavior of these lunkheads.

That being said...doesn't much matter to me how stupid, misled, or delusional the person (woman or not) is when they join the military, that still doesn't IN ANY WAY excuse their brothers-in-arms from treating them with no respect, harassing them, or violating basic ethics and LAWS. Young men may, on the average, live in a world of testosterone, but that in no way justifies us turning a blind eye to their terrible behavior. Excusing cretinism doesn't make it OK, it makes it worse there...and it makes it worse when they come back HERE. After all, if they aren't required to be controlled and disciplined in the barracks, why should they exhibit any humanity anywhere else?

just my opinion.

[Karenina]

14. Tell the TRUTH in plain language, Protagoras

What you wrote should be simple COMMON SENSE but we done fell down a rabbit hole sooo deep!!! Welcome to DU!!! :toast:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

13. And yet, if men end up being the only ones drafted, they'll whine

about that. Ain't irony grand!

[TahitiNut]

18. Solution: Draft women only.

:silly:

[madison2000]

20. Men in the military are supposed to act like disciplined

professionals. If they aren't capable of that, they should not be allowed to serve in the miliary.

[TahitiNut]

22. That would eliminate 75-90% of those serving.

:shrug:

[madison2000]

25. I think a lot of military men would disagree with that

[TahitiNut]

28. Newsflash: "Military men" think highly of themselves.

... and will kick the ass of anyone who disagrees?

Gee, color me surprised. (Not.) :eyes:

[Vladimir]

23. Yah cos its too damn much to expect boys to show

some respect towards anyone but their own dicks, ain't it? Tell you what, if we lived in a society that didn't spend 24/7 conditioning boys that all they should be interested in is tits, ass, and a shining red ferrari, maybe we might not have this problem. But then we might not raise enough 'killers' for the ranks of our army either...

[SemperEadem]

38. She should carry a razor on her and learn how to use it

since that is the lay of the land.

[Coventina]

4. Saddening, but not surprising. n/t

[Lithos]

7. Agreed

That's my feeling in a nutshell.

[Crankie Avalon]

9. I went to a military high school and during summers we went...

...to stay at a place called Ft. Devens in MA. SO MANY of the full and part-time military folks I met there each summer were the dumbest, most backward, and most unpleasant people you would ever want to meet. I had started out dreaming of someday going to West Point, but actually being around military people cured me of that pretty quick. I couldn't imagine having to be around people like that all the time, year after year, for an entire career. I thank God I eventually ended up having options and didn't need to accept an ROTC scholarship to pay for college (which would have obligated me to 5 years active duty).

And I'm a male. I shudder to think what it must be like for women to be around such people and I thank God no female I know needs to be around them.

Sorry in advance to any decent person from a military background reading this, but that's just how it is.

[beam me up scottie]

10. I'm an ex-marine.

It's much worse than you think.
Who can they go to for help?
One of the "boys" but with more rank?
Yeah, they'll not only NOT get help, but they will be in constant danger of retaliation.
And, when they leave the military in anger and frustration we can tell them "thanks for serving your country, bitch, too bad you expected to be treated like an equal, heh heh".

[Mari333]

12. My oldest son was at Ft Benning

when he went thru Guard training..he came back and told me "mom, remember how you told me the military might be sexist and homophobic? well its worse then you think..they hate gay people and women with a passion.."
Thank god I brought him up to question that kind of behaviour.

[TahitiNut]

19. Civilians are pond scum. Gays and women (who don't cooperate) are less.

This is the attitude of the military. The very people they're supposedly 'defending' are regarded as worthless. It begins in basic training. There are three insults constantly hurled at recruits: "civilian," "girl," and "fag." Women are only good for one thing: screwing. The message is clear: the military is a superior subspecies. There is no more common mythos in the military. It's fundamental.

Been there. Done that. Two years at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. One year in ROTC. Two years in the Army, including Basic Training of course.

I began to adopt those same attitudes. I looked at civilians and regarded them as soft, sloppy, and incompetent. I looked at women as less capable. I regarded gays with distaste. Military indoctrination works! The good news is it's reversible.

[beam me up scottie]

26. It is reversible for those who can actually think for themselves.

Thanks for the honesty. You speak the truth. They spend years programming Marines to be animals then wonder why they rape schoolgirls in Japan.

[atreides1]

39. What you say is true

It was the same for me, at first. Then it started to dawn on me that the some of those civilians were my family, and that some of the women that I worked with during my time in the service were just as
much of a hard worker as I was, as for gays, I was given the duty of accompaning my unit supply clerk during his outprocessing. He had come up positive for HIV, and yes he was gay, but during the time that I had worked with him, it made no difference. I didn't feel threantened by him, and would have had no problem if we had gone to combat together.

I spent 13 years on active duty in the US Army, and when the realization hit me, it was mind numbing to say the least. I do still have some contempt for civilians, but it's reserved for politicians and the kool-aid drinkng, brain dead sheep.

[beam me up scottie]

24. Thank you.

I apologize for the fact that I did not mention how often the decent guys came to my rescue. If it wasn't for them I would not have survived. Trust me, just offering support to a female soldier is a tremendous comfort, not to mention visible support from male Marines can be a deterrent to the abusive ones; and also to the gay Marines, (the danger is even worse for them if they're found out; if they don't get beaten (or worse) at the very least they are discharged). Gays can die for our country but yet are forced to lie about who they are. Another big thank you from the military

Thank you for raising your son to recognize bigotry

[Ripley]

15. Yeah, one more reason I should support the MALE TROOPS!

The officers encourage abuse. And gee, if the fucking bitch doesn't expect her ass to get raped or even verbally harassed day in and day out, she should just LEAVE THE FUCKING ARMY.

/sarcasm off.

[gatlingforme]

16. the military condones this behavior or it would not happen.

[beam me up scottie]

27. Yep. And some actually reward it.

nt

[AtTheEndOfTheDay]

17. The barbarity

of this entire enterprise in Iraq is so extreme that it would be a peculiar contrast if the women were actually treated respectfully.

[Vladimir]

21. I'm shocked

shocked I tell you

[Blue_Tires]

29. remember that story about a month ago which generated a 200-post

thread? The one about the women reservists putting on a scantily-clad mud-wrestling exhibition for 200+ drunken guys (including 'girls gone wild'-style flashing)?
I kept on saying WHY that was bad thing and HOW little incidents like this seriously damage the reputation of women in the military...About a third of the posters in that thread tried to pass it off as blowing off steam and harmless fun...I hope now that some people that didn't understand what i was talking about understand now...

[beam me up scottie]

30. Drat, I wish I would have seen that post.

Man, seeing that report made my blood boil. There are definitely way too many like that in the armed forces. IMO, they are just as bad, if not worse than the men. Court martials all around I say.
I suppose they think that ann coulter is harmless and just blowing off steam?
That kind of woman just reinforces the stereotypes that so many of us have spent years and years trying to destroy.
:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[Blue_Tires]

32. you can search for it in the archives

[beam me up scottie]

40. Looked up mentioned thread when I got home.

I'm even more pissed off now and I didn't think it was possible.
I don't care if a female soldier wants to have sex with a male, or another female, or two males or, you get my point. They can get it on in PRIVATE and nobody would notice (or care). When you strip and perform for the men THEN I have a problem with it, as should all women who ever had to fight to be treated as an equal. Jesus fucking christ, I worked my goddam ass off trying to get respect from knuckle-dragging jarheads (not all-just most) and cows like these have mud-wrestling contests for them???
Thank you, ladies, and I use that term facetiously, for confirming what all of the bigoted, chauvinistic, pig-headed neanderthals have been saying all along, we ARE only there for one reason.

[w4rma]

31. Need more women in the military so they will protect one another, better.

And need more women at higher ranks in the military so that there will be more of a threat to those at lower ranks of pulling this BS.

[beam me up scottie]

36. The higher ranking women I ran across

just "played along". After all, you can't expect them to promote you if you buck the system. And most career women care more about getting rank than protecting their sisters. (not just career women but men as well)

[Damien]

34. if this were any civilian group,

there would be a huge outrage (rightfully so).

I never understand why there isn't one in the case of it being the military.

[Senior citizen]

35. You really have to be pretty dumb

to rape or sexually harass someone who might have your back in combat or be in a fragging position some day.

[beam me up scottie]

37. Yes, if they keep giving us rifles and pissing us off,

you'll start to see more incidents of "friendly fire".
The only time our drill instructors were nice to us was on the firing range. I wonder why...