Sexual Violence In The Military Essay

Throughout history, the United States Military has faced numerous scandals. From its role in the Vietnam War, to the Iran-Contra Affair, to the Iraq War, to the abuse and denial of due process rights to detainees currently held indefinitely at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; the Department of Defense has undeniably raised many questions about its ethics and treatment toward both civilians and fellow members of the Armed Forces alike. One recent scandal, which would now appear to be becoming the standard, is that of sexual assault within the military. However, due to a campaign of awareness, grassroots activism, and pressuring elected officials to do what is right, things are now beginning to change.

US Armed Forces is historically an organization lead by men, for men. It is comprised of about 14.5 % female and 85.5% male according to a 2011poll (CNN U.S, Jan 2014). In an organization with a rich history and legacy of obedience and restraint, it is hard to imagine the secret society of “The good ol boys”. It has been acceptable for men to “work hard, play hard”. We have all seen the movies where the men come back from overseas, invade the bars, have a good time, take a girl home, and it is acceptable behavior. What happens after they leave the bar? What happens when she says no? In November of 2013, there were 3,553 reported sexual assault cases (ABC News, 2013).

In the article titled, ‘Feminism, Nationalism, and Militarism after the Cold War’, by Cynthia Enloe, the links between feminism and nationalism are discussed through the analysis of the Cold War. The article makes striking comments about the treatment of women in the context of masculine societies. War is often associated with masculinity as men are expected to take up arms and fight for nationalism. This narrative of war often excludes the stories of women, particularly women who survive sexual assaults during war. History lacks the female perspective on war, particularly because social justice is rarely achieved for women who were raped. Women are forced into war when men use the military tactic of rape to ignite a need for nationalism and

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

To explore the legacy of rape as a tool in war Nancy Toping Bazin’s and Jane Harmovit Lauter’s philosophy of domination is important to know. The philosophy of domination is the underpinning of all patriarchal institutions from domestic institutions, to government, and the military. Another usefully theory is one succinctly described by Katrina Lee Koo in “Confronting a Disciplinary Blindness: Women, War and Rape in the International Politics of Security”. Koo says, “the nation, the state, allies, and enemies intersect with gendered identities…sexual enslavement is politicized violence against women’s bodies that is both state-sanctioned and premeditated” in effect, during war time there is an intersection of gender with religion, ethnicity, nationality and anything else that represents the opposing side as an “other”. In this sense an assault on the women of a nation is a direct assault on their state, their culture, their religion, their ethnic group as well as the men in it. In her essay “Revisiting the Issue of Korean ‘Military Comfort Women’: The Question of Truth and Positionality” Hyunah Yang says, “by invading women’s bodies, rape attempts to possess the enemy’s property and leaves a rift in the most fundamental ground of the symbolic system that sustains the enemies group identity…belief that the woman’s body is a field underpinning the family, ethnic group, and/or nation” (61). During the comfort system the Japanese army was not only in control of the Korean

There are many different ways for the abuse of women to decline in the military. One thing is, which ones are going to be the solutions?

According to (WHO, 2002) & (Obote-Odora, 2005, p135), sexual violence is not limited rape, but a person conducting a sexual act on another person via coercion. Sexual violence can relate to violence psychologically and physically and this is aimed at the sexuality of a person and this could include forced acts such as sexual slavery and prostitution. Sexual violence is prevalent in peace and armed conflict scenarios. This is regarded as traumatic, pervasive a common violation that people suffer from. This is a grave health and human rights issue that affects the individual mentally and physically in the short term as well as the long term. Though women and girls suffer disproportionately from sexual violence, it can happen to anyone from any age. This can be caused and the

In the past, military news typically evolved tragic training incidents or deaths during overseas combat. However, over the last several years many incidents involving military personnel and sexual assault have made headlines across the United States. Military women and men have brought to light the lack of justice for victims of sexual assault, and the prevalence of such attacks. Questions arise as to why victims do not report incidents or seek assistance when they are physically or sexually assaulted. Many reasons are due to how the system of reporting is established within the military, retaliation and further re-victimization within the chain of command. Modifications to the current system have begun within the Department of Defense and

One estimate by The Guardian’s data editor, Mona Chalabi, suggests that “13.4 percent of all male Americans” have served in the armed services. If we assume that all of these men have families, it is easy to see that the risk for domestic violence is high. One source says that “reports of abuse from military communities are not only more frequent, but the level of violence they describe is more extreme” (Lutz). Around 42 million Americans, by these data, either are veterans or have direct intimate contact with veterans, putting them at risk for extreme domestic abuse. Childhood victims of domestic abuse can also become highly unstable, develop PTSD, and propagate the very violent culture that damages

While the soldiers are deemed “heroes”, the women are depicted as “victims”, that is weak and subordinated. This perpetuates women's lack of empowerment in peacetime situations and mask the reality of women’s experience of violence and insecurity.

Despite developments in human rights discourse and international law, abuses endure and there remains a certain poverty of explanations (Alison, 2007). Moreover, the fields of conflict resolution and peace studies have also historically been silent on the question of sexual violence and mass rape in armed conflict (Leatherman, 2007). The pressing problem of rape in wartime has, at long last, evoked worldwide concern (United Nations Security Council 2007). Accounts of the cruelty and massive amount of sexual violence committed by both government forces and members of the rebel groups have certainly alerted both global policymakers and advocate groups to the scope and lasting terror of sexual violence in the context of armed conflict and peace-building (Baaz & Stern,

The issue of women involved in armed conflict has been a reoccurring problem in countries that are plagued by war for decades. Due to this problem women are taken in by soldiers and are sexually violated, and sold as sex slaves. Also they are faced with economic, abduction's, and healthcare problems. They have a lack nutrition, physiological problems such as depression, and sexual transmitted diseases. After being sexually violated they have become outsider and are later rejected by their families and society.  In many countries that in present day are in war face many of these issues and they are reoccurring events that happen every day in these peoples lives. The most well known country is Afghanistan. Still today there is fighting going on in Afghanistan and every day women are sexually violated and abused by soldiers in what are called comfort camps.

Wartime sexual and gender based violence is one of the main concerns of SCR 1325. Violence against women in the forms of rape, torture, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization and murder has increasing become a routine weapon of war (Willett, 2010, pp. 153-154). A further concern is the persistence of widespread sexual violence, even after political stabilisation, where sexual violence becomes a ‘normal’ part of society and its systems. Sexual and gender based violence, including the threat of violence, is a powerful tactic of war that services to exclude women’s participation and enforce their victimisation and subservience (Willett, 2010, pp. 154).

Despite the existence of post-conflict programs aimed at reintegrating soldiers back into regular society, notably SSR and DDR processes, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin asserts that these programs are overly physical in nature and thus do not address the negative masculine mindset built into soldiers. Specifically criticizing DDR, she contends that militant attitudes, behavior and beliefs “are not in any sense undermined or addressed by a formal disarmament process”. She continues to affirm that “the disarmament of weapons is not the disarmament of minds” and I verge that even an approach concerned with the mindset of combatants after the fact would not be enough to disembed the militarization that takes place and forms a militant mindset during conflict (Ní Aoláin, 2008:1067). Therefore violence towards women in the post-conflict space is a result of the continued presence of militant attitudes and beliefs after a conflict and women who seek to augment their status “meet with a backlash against their attempt to redefine their rights”, as they are challenging the masculine social order reinforced through militarization (Meintjes et al, 2001:12). In conclusion, given the prevalence of militarization, particularly militarized masculinities, in the post-conflict space, it is an inopportune time for women to achieve an advancement in their rights

Armed conflict and violence are a common concern for communities living in conflict regions around the world. The additional impact of gender on the lives affected by violence is often overlooked or disregarded. Furthermore women and girls have traditionally been viewed as completely removed from war and violence or perceived as playing passive roles in conflict which impacts their ability to reintegrate into society after participation in armed conflict, or degradation and shame due to sexual and gender based violence and human trafficking. An increased promotion of gender equity in all societies in the last century has made the roles women play more evident in both the perpetuation of conflict and violence as well as the promotion of