Reader emphasizes the significant issues in military ‘rape culture’

This is in response to Heather Hentbrook’s letter criticizing your article about “rape culture” in the military. There are many aspects of this situation that I’d like to address, but I’ll confine myself to a few main points in the interest of space and time.

Ms. Hentbrook suggests that “the whole thing is a farce” and women are actually creating a culture of false allegations of rape in the military, apparently in some sort of conspiracy against men. At the same time, she conveniently fails to produce any actual hard evidence she may have regarding this supposed culture of false allegations.

As far as hard evidence regarding sexual assault in the military, I have some recommended reading for Ms. Hentbrook and anyone else interested. First, check out the Department of Defense’s own most recent report on sexual assault in the military, which has been widely covered in the news (Army Times, CNN, etc.). Of course, the DoD is not exactly an unbiased source on military matters, so, for balance, Google “Testimony of The Honorable Tillie K.
Fowler before the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2003,” and “Christine Hansen and ‘A Considerable Sacrifice,’” and “American Prospect and The Combat Within: Female Veterans and PTSD Benefits,” and “Conduct Unbecoming: Allegations of Sexual Misconduct at the United States Air Force Academy.” For a specifically feminist perspective, start with Ms. Magazine’s Fall 2008 feature “The Scandal of Military Rape,” and the publications of Dr. Cynthia Enloe.

It is important to clarify a few points about rape. No one is suggesting that sexual assault is solely confined to military culture; on the contrary, rape occurs throughout society. On the other hand, rape, as the original article indicated, is essentially about power and violence. Rape is being used as a weapon of genocidal warfare in the Sudan, for example. It is also a crime that is characterized by secrecy and intimidation, like domestic abuse. Thus, the under-reporting of sexual assault (a phenomenon widely acknowledged, including by the DoD) is most likely due to the fear and humiliation of the victim, a fear caused in part by the societal prevalence of similar attitudes to Ms. Hentbrook’s, the automatic assumption that rape isn’t a crime or doesn’t occur, or that a woman is just lying or “asked for it.”

The Veterans Administration reported that, between 2002 and 2007, 59,345 male veterans and 57,637 female veterans screened positive for having experienced sexual trauma during military service. Therefore, assumptions that only women suffer or report sexual assault are misguided: rape is certainly not only a “women’s issue,” but also a wider socio-cultural issue of perceptions and behaviors relating to masculinity. What kind of a society fosters attitudes that offhandedly dismiss reports of serious physical assaults solely on the grounds of gender?

Attitudes of reflexively “blaming the victim” and cavalierly eliding the actual criminal nature of rape are irrational, but they do demonstrate the bigotry and blindness on this issue that pervade society to such an extent as to become the default general response. How dare anyone just assume a wide category of reports of criminal behavior must all be unfounded, or that a victim must prove her own innocence before an alleged criminal can be charged? Such assumptions are not only irrational, but also immoral and undemocratic.


Elizabeth Bowman
Graduate Student, English

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