I was greatly surprised by these readings to learn about the frequency of crimes against women in the military. The women are serving alongside men as comrades fighting for the same purpose and it is upsetting that they would be so disrespected and abused. In the military you are trained and expected to trust your fellow soldiers; it is worrisome that this belief does not apply to the relationship between female and male soldiers. I do not mean to say that all male soldiers are a terror to female soldiers, but it is alarming how much more frequent such crimes are than in civilian society. I think this relates back to the social norms we discussed previously about patriarchal society as a whole. Being a soldier obviously changes a person, and being isolated from society can only further add to the differences in behavior. The violence that soldiers are constantly being bombarded with is a striking difference between the military and civilian society. Such a violent environment is obviously conducive to violent behavior, and it is understandable that some of that violence may be misdirected. The emphasis on masculinity and strength is clearly manifested in these attacks and it is upsetting that such violent exertions of masculinity are directed at women comrades. The military should and must take precautions to prevent conditions for worsening. How can we expect our soldiers to protect us if we cannot protect them?
I really liked how Carolyn brings up the concept of social norms in this post. Although we would not consider violence against women to be a social norm, I think that men feeling as though they have to exert their "manliness" is a characteristic that we would consider a social norm. Additionally, I think that maybe another perspective that we should be considering is, what women who are fighting in the military mean for feminism. Even though we typically think of feminism as meaning women exerting their rights to act and participate in professions that were previously male dominated, society as a whole gets uncomfortable when women act "too manly." Even though this is probably not the case in all situations, but it may be more interesting to consider if the power struggle between men and women who are both in the military plays a role in the violence against women that we have been reading about. With that being said, I really liked how Carolyn brought up the fact that it is concerning that women who are out fighting for us are at risk of not only being hurt int he violent situations that there careers presents them with, but they are also at risk of being injured by their peers, who they are supposed to be able to trust.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with Carolyn that "Being a soldier obviously changes a person, and being isolated from society can only further add to the differences in behavior. The violence that soldiers are constantly being bombarded with is a striking difference between the military and civilian society", I still don't think that there can be any excuse for abuse, no matter how harsh the environment or difficult the circumstance. Though it is easy to feel separated from the soldiers because they are far away, we need to be far more concerned than we are now about the conditions over there. It is not okay for this type of violence to be going on especially when both men and women are BOTH fighting for the same purpose.
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