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military sexual trauma
Oct. 9th, 2007 12:27 pmlots 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.
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.
