THE STEALTH WAR AGAINST WOMEN
Part 1

This week cable and network news was immersed in a terrible tragedy -- a woman and her soon to be born child went missing. Many people turned out to hunt for her in vain. She had been murdered and buried by her significant other -- the father of her one born and one unborn children.

Most media reported the gruesome details ad nauseum. We heard only one commentator, Keith Olbermann, who actually took the trouble to research and tie in this murder with others where a woman and child in utero were killed by the father. Most reporters just kept the lid tightly on the burgeoning global war against women -- continuing the stealth.

The recent Ohio murderer was not a criminal -- he was a policeman, in a profession where violence is rampant. Law enforcement is a very similar occupation to the military in organization and male hierocracy.

In nearly every locality the rise of violence against women has occurred, been reported and dealt with by the authorities. The males committing the violence have various occupations, standards of living and cultures. The violence may be mental and physical cruelty, rape as well as physical restraints and murder.

What they all share is the certainty that society supports the premise that men are allowed to control women using whatever means they have to. Many times religious teachings that males are given this role by God form the basis for their actions.

So one might not be surprised to learn that rape and/or forced sexual contact is rampant in the military, from its schools to the battlefield and that the women they rape are their comrades in arms.

There is agreement that the greatest reason for this uncontrolled travesty is the indoctrination given recruits which can be summed up as obeying orders from superiors without question. Then the force of the pack chimes in with "keep your mouth shut or something worse will happen to you."

If deemed necessary, a raped woman is told that if she complains it reflects on the U. S. military that she has sworn not to dishonor. Further coercion is waiting in the form of a dishonorable discharge for lying.

So the rapes continue in academies, in training and in battle. Stealthy as the torture at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo while our valiant media mavens track every burp, fart and breath of Paris Hilton.

Military rape: The ugly secret in the American armed forces
by Gregory Flannery

"Women in the U.S. armed services are increasingly at danger -- not from foreign terrorists, but from men in the U.S. armed services. The deaths of four Army wives in six weeks this summer at Fort Bragg, N.C., allegedly at the hands of their soldier husbands, might be an aberration. But the number of rapes, sexual assaults and sexual harassment against women soldiers in the military has reached the level of an epidemic, according to Terri Spahr Nelson of Oxford, Ohio." http://citybeat.com/2002-08-22/news2.shtml

For Love of Country: Confronting Rape and Sexual Harassment in the U.S. Military
by Terri Spahr Nelson.

"It is estimated that two-thirds of female service members experience unwanted, uninvited sexual behavior in the military"

As in the society at large, Nelson finds social and institutional hurdles that prevent many cases of rape and sexual victimization from ever being reported. Many suffer in silent shame. But even worse, when women report attacks by fellow soldiers, the official response by military authorities is often less than supportive. When prosecution does result, almost all the accused perpetrators walk away free. A study by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense measured conviction rates for rapes reported to military criminal investigation offices in 1994-96.

"Another startling fact is that over 95 percent of the accused rapists in the Navy and Marines in 1992 were found not guilty of the alleged rapes and not convicted of the crimes," Nelson writes.

End of Part 1 - The Stealth War Against Women

gapperserve-at-peoplepc.com  
http://gendergappers.blogspot.com

2007-027

Copyright 2007 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: gapperserve@peoplepc.com.

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