Most Victims Are Men: 5 Realities of Rape in the Military

Our thoughts about the famous Cracked.com.

Re: Most Victims Are Men: 5 Realities of Rape in the Militar

Postby Kate » Wed Oct 14, 2015 6:46 pm

Oh yes, I think it can go without saying that we're all agreed on that. That is absolutely ridiculous. Tragic things like this happen far too often.
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Re: Most Victims Are Men: 5 Realities of Rape in the Militar

Postby Crimson847 » Thu Oct 15, 2015 1:09 am

sunglasses wrote:Ooooh yeah. I get so tired of that.

No one just assumes someone who's been robbed is lying to "ruin someone's life" because "they woke up and regretted something."


One problem is, robbery is mostly committed by people who are lower on the social totem pole than their targets. Who commits most personal robberies? Impoverished drug addicts. Who do they prefer to target? Working class people. The social calculus is easy. If you were poorly regarded in a given social environment and accused a well-liked and popular individual of robbing you, you probably would be met with a very questioning and at times suspicious response unless you had very convincing proof of your claims, like a surveillance tape or multiple credible witnesses.

Rape accusations that follow the same pattern as most robberies are also usually taken seriously (e.g. middle-class white woman claims an unknown black junkie jumped out of the bushes and raped her). The problem is that rape is very often committed by people with high status in their social environment against people with lesser status, which generates more suspicion of victims' claims than the reverse.
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"If it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them; but the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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Re: Most Victims Are Men: 5 Realities of Rape in the Militar

Postby Jack Road » Thu Oct 15, 2015 8:58 am

Possible Rape Trigger
As someone who is in the military, I have heard many stories of rapes, harassment, quid pro quo. Always from women though, never from men. Not saying it doesn't happen to men, just that it is such a vastly different culture.

Most of the women who have told me these stories chose not to report, because of fear of reprisal, of it getting out, of all sorts of things.

The military tends to act like a microcosm of society around it. You take a bunch of people and you keep them close together in a hierarchical society that is predominately male.

It is generally considered okay now for women to come forward and say that they are lesbians now, or bisexual. There are three or four lesbians in my unit, and nothing much happens to them.

I have only ever told a select few that are friends about my sexual orientation. Usually after they see me kissing a guy and I'm just like "Um...surprise!"

I have never felt comfortable telling anyone. No one else is really either. One guy in Basic was pretty bold about it, I remember when they woke me up to take him to the hospital to get his face stitched up, and his arm set in a cast. He isn't as bold about it now.

People argue constantly about whether rape is about sex or power. But I think with men raping men, it is very much about power, especially if the perpetrator doesn't consider themselves to be homosexual.

In this culture I am in, the idea of a woman raping a man is ludicrous. I recently came to terms with that belief myself. I have in the past, laughed at men that had a story like that, alongside everyone else who was also laughing. I won't go over that poisonous dialogue, go read the comments for this article if you want it, it is all over the place.

Sexism, like racism, is a lot easier when everyone around you who is talking is also sexist. It took moving out of those circles, and coming to new circles like this, to learn just how wrongheaded that thinking is. Sadly, like my racist grandmother, I didn't learn until well into several rather horrendous conversation on the subject. Which I have a lot of regret over.

I, like most men in the military, have been harassed in no uncertain terms. If it was a female on another female, or a male on a female, it would be definitely considered to be harassment, even if it wasn't reported. But there is no real acceptance of me reporting this.

Let me give an example. A certain male likes to approach me in group showers and invade my personal space and ask jeeringly what sort of soap I use. He is sort of grabby, and likes to make fun of my physique and possible homosexuality. One time he took a video of a man masturbating in a bathroom stall, and posted it on YouTube.

This same male raped my best friend when she first joined the unit, and she actually did report it, when she was still new enough to not know how things worked. Nothing happened to him, he remains in the same position he had before, and has had multiple other reports leveled against him since then. All that happens is that the victims are mocked.

Now, that all is horrible, but when it comes to his harassment of me, it is not even accepted for me to say that I think it is harassment. I am supposed to consider it "just goofing around" and to be honest, I do consider it goofing around. It is very ingrained in me and hard to shake. If I did report it, I would expect laughter and good-natured ribbing. If I persisted I think I would likely be called a bitch and shunned.

This is what I consider to be a very innocent story, with no real emotion or feelings beyond it. And that in itself is a problem. Because coming here, I shock people with things I don't even consider to be shocking. And that implies that my experience of military culture is colored by an extreme level of permissiveness towards sex-based crimes.

The problem with sexual crimes towards men is something cultural that is much too difficult for me to have a simple solution for. The reporting of sex based crimes is not, and the solution is really simple. Here is how they are reported right now.

Restricted Reports

Sexual assault victims who want to confidentially disclose a sexual assault without triggering an official investigation can contact a SARC/SHARP Specialist, VA/SHARP Specialist, or a healthcare provider. By filing a restricted report with a SARC/SHARP Specialist, VA/SHARP Specialist, or a healthcare provider, a victim can disclose the sexual assault without triggering an official investigation AND receive medical treatment, advocacy services, legal assistance, and counseling.

Victim conversations with a SARC/SHARP Specialist or VA/ SHARP Specialist about the sexual assault are confidential communications, not to be disclosed to others, including law enforcement or the chain of command, except in a few very rare circumstances.

Discussing a sexual assault with a chaplain is not the same as filing a restricted report, but communications with a chaplain are privileged under Military Rule of Evidence 503 and AR 165-1.

Unrestricted Reports

This option is for victims of sexual assault who desire medical treatment, counseling, legal assistance, SARC/SHARP Specialist and VA/SHARP Specialist assistance, and an official investigation of the crime. When selecting unrestricted reporting, you may report the incident to the SARC/SHARP Specialist or VA/SHARP Specialist, request healthcare providers to notify law enforcement, contact law enforcement yourself, or use current reporting channels, e.g., chain of command. Upon notification of a reported sexual assault, the SARC/SHARP Specialist will immediately assign a VA/SHARP Specialist. You will also be advised of your right to access to legal assistance that is separate from prosecution resources. At the victim's discretion/request, the healthcare provider shall conduct a sexual assault forensic examination (SAFE), which may include the collection of evidence. Details regarding the incident will be limited to only those personnel who have a legitimate need to know.

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Can you see the immediate problem with that system? Because it is amazingly obvious to me. You have two options. You can not seek justice, or you can seek it through your chain of command. One of the people in that chain of command is likely the person who you want to report, and many others in the chain of command have a vested interest in protecting that person. Also, we are generally close knit as unit, so that idea of keeping it "need-to-know" never quite happens. Everyone ends up knowing.

We need a third party, an internal affairs department that just handles sex-based crimes, and doesn't care about rank or chain of command. And department who only has the concerns of the victim at heart.

Anyways. If you have anymore questions or want to go into further detail, just ask me. I've been a medic in the military for six years now, and I have seen many things.
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