military sexual trauma

[2eclipse]

lots of people feel that women should be drafted equally with men.
in some ways i see the fairness of this. of course i am against any draft at all or any war at all for that matter. but i am back-listening to NOW podcasts and i recently listened to the episode about sexual assault in the military and it has changed my mind.
some interesting facts gleaned from the episode:
- after the first gulf war 15 % of women reported being raped in a government study.
- close to 25% reported being sexually assaulted, which lead to committess being established and a lot of rules and policies that apparantly are not enforced at all. One of the things that happened is a process were women can report in a limited capacity, get the help they need, but not initiate investigations and hearings. since then, the number of women reporting sexual assault and seeking treatment has DOUBLED!
- women who report rape or assault are often tormented by the people who are supposed to be helping them as well as people completely uninvolved.
- a low priority is put on keeping women safe. restrictions are placed on perpetrators, but are not enforced.

in my opinion it is a travesty that we are so failing the people who have stepped forward to help. how dare we even think of putting a draft on women when we can't/don't protect them from the other soldiers!
i also have some problems with the program for not addressing male rape. if it is happening with women, odds are it is happening with men too. i would like to know more about that side of things.

Comments

[keisolo.livejournal.com]

It's a really screwed up issue, that one. As far as rights and privelages and responsibilities are concerned, it should be equal. However, the issues you put forth here are more prevalent than any study indicates, and with the dropping of the bar for WHO can join the military (the laxing of mental stability standards leaps to mind) - it can only get worse.
As far as the male rape concept goes, it would be near impossible to find out what and how much and where that happens, and to what extent, as the military possibility on homosexuality is so bloody ridiculous to begin with.

[mirage897.livejournal.com]

I thought male rape was rare outside of prison settings.

I am sure there is very significant underreporting

[clare-dragonfly.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of something I read in high school for some debate thing... it was about the arguments for and against gays in the military. (I hate using "gay" as a noun but for some reason it's the only thing that works in that sentence...) And one of the arguments against was that supervisors would take advantage and stuff. I'm like "um... doesn't that happen to women too?" And yes, of course it does.

I suspect if there was more equality (in numbers and everything else) this wouldn't happen nearly so often. And if more women were in power there would be a much better system in place for sexual assault help.