Global Feminism

Misogynist Military

****RAPE/SEXUAL ASSAULT TRIGGER WARNING****

 

In a February 8 CNN opinion piece, writer and U.S. Representative Jackie Speier (Democrat-CA) addresses the problem of military rape and sexual assault. Currently, little is done to bring justice for the approximately 19,000 servicepersons who were raped or sexually assaulted in 2010¹. When an assault or rape is reported to a commander (the proper action in the military), it is completely up to the commander what is done with the report^2.. Many times, the report is ignored or even the victim is punished—an unacceptable action anywhere, let alone in a military in which a woman is more likely to be raped by a co-worker than killed by an enemy³.

Speier relays the story of Ohioan Army Spc. Andrea Neutzling as an illustration of the military’s failure to bring justice to sexual assault and rape victims. Neutzling was sexually assaulted by an intoxicated co-worker, reported the assault, and the co-worker received 5 days of base restriction as a punishment⁴. Three years later, Neutzling was raped by another soldier and did not report the attack, believing nothing would happen⁵. One month later, she was raped by two soldiers who took video of the incident⁶. Neutzling, once again, feared nothing would happen so she did not report the incident.

A chaplain was told about the incident and the video, but chose to accuse Neutzling of not acting “like a rape victim”⁷. Though video evidence apparently existed, Neutzling’s commander did nothing about the situation other than threaten to charge Neutzling with adultery, since she was married⁸.

After Marine Corps Private Stephanie B. Schroeder was raped in a public restroom, she was told by her commander “Don‘t come bitching to me because you had sex and changed your mind”⁹. The rapist denied Schroeder’s charge, prompting command to put Schroeder on restriction for lying and was told “Shitbags like you aren‘t allowed to have liberty”¹⁰. Pvt. Schroeder was sexually harassed and assaulted several more times throughout her military career¹¹.

Neutzling, Schroeder, and 26 other service men and women are “plaintiffs in a lawsuit against former secretaries of state Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates that accuses the military of failing to prevent or prosecute instances of rape and sexual assault”¹².

In her role as a U.S. Representative, Speier is pushing an act, the STOP Act, which will take investigation and punishment of military rape and sexual assault out of commander’s hands and place it in the hands of a new office in the Department of Defense¹³. This office would be staffed by military and civilian personnel trained to work with sexual assault and rape cases¹⁴.

The group Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN) supports the STOP Act. One of the group’s visions is “to transform military culture by securing equal opportunity and the freedom to serve in uniform without threat of harassment, discrimination, intimidation or assault”¹⁵.

While the STOP Act addresses an important issue—that of lack of justice for military rape victims—the underlying issue of rape and sexual assault themselves are not addressed. As with the ICC discussed several weeks ago, this is a punishment-based approach to rape and sexual assault. With this approach, an assault must actually occur before any action can take place.

While I fully agree that a better system for reporting in the military needs to be in place, I think it is also vitally important to stop military rape and sexual assault in the first place. Commander’s inaction and overall callousness to rape and sexual assault cases would not be an issue if rape and sexual assault simply did not happen in the military. If an effort was made to stop misogyny in the military, this issue, among many others, would be nonexistent.

 

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1. Jackie Speier, “Victims of military rape deserve justice,” CNN Opinion, February 8, 2012, http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/07/opinion/speier-military-rape/index.html.
2. ibid
3. ibid
4.  ibid
5. ibid
6. ibid
7. ibid
8. ibid
9. Virgina. The United District Court for the Eastern District of Virgina. Case 1:11-cv-00151-LO -TCB Document 9. http://timemilitary.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/cioca-et-al-first-amended-complaint.pdf
10. ibid
11. ibid
12. Jackie Speier, “Victims of military rape deserve justice,” CNN Opinion, February 8, 2012, http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/07/opinion/speier-military-rape/index.html.
13. ibid
14. ibid
15. Service Women’s Action Network, “Mission,” Service Women’s Action Network, 2011, http://servicewomen.org/about/mission/

 

 

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