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I'm going to be upfront before I begin this: this is going to be hard for me to
write. As a young woman who went through all the typical traumas and
dramas of growing up in America, I, like many women, have seen and
experienced violence against women. I'll be the first one to admit
that the topic of rape is an emotionally charged one, a subject that
lends itself to flying off the handle, irate reactions and,
sometimes, even tears. Let me also preface this with the admission
that I am not exempt from this.
But I still was not prepared for the backlash of misogynistic comments on my blog
from Wednesday, entitled “1 in 3 Military Women Raped, and
Apparently the Pentagon Doesn't Think It's A Problem.” The purpose
of my blog was to call attention to both the alarming rate of
reported sexual assault among women in the military, and, more
importantly, the fact that the Pentagon was tasked with the
assignment to name a task force on the issue of rape in the military,
and after 4 years, has yet to do so. It was in no way, shape or form,
intended to blame the troops for this alarming problem.
Most of the comments were positive, expressing the normal reaction of alarm to
the high rate of reported rape, as well as outrage at the Pentagon's
inaction. But then there were some anomalies:
“I served two tours in the US army
and can safely say that this is utter and complete BS.”
“They're armed. And more
independent-minded. And trained. And confident. I wouldn't expect that rates would be higher than in the general
population for these reasons.”
“1 out of 3 is pure propaganda. Pls don't swallow.”
“This can mean anything from a giving someone a hug and the
woman not liking you to rape. God help the ugly guys, I am sure their
sexual assault charges are much higher then they should be.”
“Of course, [her] pathetic methodology does even take into
account false claims and has uses a loose definition of 'date rape' I
am sure.”
Shame on me for assuming that the atrocity of rape is universally
understood, and that to publicly infer that we all should be
suspicious of women who allege rape would be considered taboo in this
day in age. I understand that the statistic of 1 in 3 women reporting
having been sexually assaulted while in the military is daunting and
unbelievable to some. It's shocking, it's outrageous, but it is in no
way made up.
It is precisely the kind of attitude that would assume that it is common practice for women to falsely allege rape, or the attitude that any statistic that
seems outrageous either must be false or can be rationalized away,
that has allowed the Pentagon to stay inactive on this issue. And,
although the comments have me sidetracked, the fact that in the 4
years since Congress mandated a task force on rape in the military,
the Pentagon has yet to do it, that's
the real outrage here.
The rates are alarming and the Pentagon has yet to act. They've ignored a congressional mandate.
Meanwhile, sexual assault in the military is being reported at an
alarming rate. This deserves some investigation. We have enough
factors endangering our troops as it is, and they don't need another
one that could potentially be prevented or treated with better
sensitivity, if the Pentagon would have the will to do so. That's why
it's important that we get support for this petition, urging the
Pentagon's point person on sexual assault in the military to do what
was mandated: name the task force and call it to order.
