Uprooting the Culture of Sexual Assault in the Armed Forces: A Gender-Aware Perspective
Uprooting the Culture of Sexual
Assault in the Armed Forces through
a Gender Aware Perspective
By Cheryl Abbate
Agenda
(1)
Statement of the Problem
(2)
Diagnosis of the Problem
(3)
Solution to the Problem
Part 1: The Problem
The Problem
26,300 (approx) occurred in 2012 in the military (up
34.5% from 2010)
Only 3,000 (approx.) were reported
Only 300 (approx). were prosecuted; there is a .9%
conviction rate
23-28% of women will be sexually assaulted while
serving their country (this is twice as high as the
civilian sector); 11% will be raped
53% of these crimes were MALE on MALE assaults
◦
Only 14% of victims who report their assaults are males
**Source: SAPRO 2012 Annual Report
So, No….
Sexual assault in the military is not:
◦
A result of “confusion about consent”
◦
A result of “out of control hormones”
◦
A crime that happens after someone has too
much to drink
◦
A woman’s issue; it’s not about the “damsel in
distress”
There is still a misperception that this is a
women's issue and women's crime. It's
disheartening that we have such a differential
between the genders and how they are
choosing to report
.
◦
Nate Galbreath, the senior executive adviser
for the Pentagon's sexual assault prevention
office.
Proposed Solutions
Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO)
2013 Strategic Plan:
◦
Bystander Intervention
◦
Victim Reporting
◦
Holding Commanders more accountable
◦
Punishing wrongdoing
◦
Victim Support
Pentagon: August 2013 Memorandum from Secretary of
Defense Chuck Hagel:
◦
improved victim legal support
◦
expansion of victim rights
◦
enhancing protections
◦
enhancing pretrial investigation
◦
ensuring investigative quality
Congress:
◦
Military Justice Improvement Act (Senator Kirsten Gillibrand)
Put the authority to investigate and prosecute sexual assault crimes into the hands of
qualified legal experts
with legal training.
Inadequacies of the Proposed Solutions
Only addresses what has happened after
assault has occurred (
response
), rather
than sexual assault
prevention
.
We need a reevaluation of military
culture
in addition to
structural
changes
/criminal justice reform.
Part II: A Proper Diagnosis of
the Problem
What we need….
We need to take seriously the
psychological and sociological research
that has been conducted on gender,
specifically masculinity, and how
masculinity is connected to sexual
violence and other anti-social activities
…..we need a
Gender Aware Perspective
◦
(Christopher Kilmartin)
A note about Gender and Sex
Male Vs Female
Man vs Woman/ Masculinity vs Femininity
Hypermasculinity/ Militarized
Masculinities
Obsession with bodily strength
Homophobia
Obsession with power
Obsession with domination
Disdain for the emotions
Disdain for the feminine
My Focus
A critical reflection of the of the
hypermasculine
culture of the military,
which is connected with a desire to
dominate “feminine others” through
aggressive and violent means.
◦
Hypermasculinity= a recipe for sexual assault
Hypermasculinity and Vice
Bodily Strength and Domination
Stoicism
◦
Dominating one’s bodily weaknesses
Physical exertion, lack of sleep, and
exposure to climate variation
Performance of physically grueling
activities regardless of exhaustion, pain, or
injury
Pain is weakness leaving the body
Dehumanization and Dominance
Dominating one’s emotions; disabling
one’s empathetic responses to killing
others
Soldiers are formed into individuals who
are able and willing to kill other human
beings in order to protect the nation
◦
Mechanisms of moral disengagement
“Target acquisition”
Derogatory names such as “gook” “zit” “towel-
head” and “faggot”
Violence and Dominance
Desire to dominate others through aggression and
violence
Basic Training Traditions
◦
“What makes the green grass grow?”
◦
“Blood, blood! Blood makes the green grass grow! Kill kill
kill!”
Cadences that glorify killing and violence
◦
Bodies Bleeding Bodies:
Load another magazine, in my trusty M16.
Cuz all I ever wanna see is bodies, bleeding bodies.
Throw another hand grenade!
Should have seen the mess I made.
Cuz all I ever wanna see is bodies, broken bodies.
Stab em with the bayonet!
If he squirms you're not done yet!
Cuz all I ever wanna see is bodies, cut-up bodies.
Violent Cadences
Captain Jack
:
I’m gonna be a killin’ man
A cuttin’ man
A shootin’ man
A stabbin’ man
The best I can
For uncle Sam.
Down by the River:
Down by the river; took a little walk; ran into the enemy; we
had a little talk;
I didn’t like their attitude; didn’t like the way they walked;
So I pushed ‘em; I shoved ‘em; I threw them in the river;
laughed as they drowned.
Power and Dominance
Military’s Hierarchical structure
Top-down authoritarian structure which
fosters a master/slave dynamic between
subordinate soldiers and superiors who
have unlimited authority that
subordinates must accept without
question
Unquestioning obedience
Absolute authority
Conclusion: Militarized Masculinities
The “military virtues” which are assumed
to be necessary for effective fighting are
the following:
◦
Stoicism; non-femininity
◦
Emotional detachment
◦
Power
◦
Domination through violence and aggression
Consequences of Military Masculinities
Disdain for the feminine
◦
Those who are not real “men” should submit
to the power and demands of the truly
masculine.
A sense of entitlement
◦
Soldiers are indoctrinated with the same
lesson that motivates sexual aggressors: a
real
man has power and control, a
real
man
dominates; a
real
man is on top.
A sense of inferiority or frustration
How is this related to sexual assault?
•
Institutions, like the military, that endorse masculine
norms are found to have higher rates of sexual assault
and harassment than other organizations (Gutek 1985;
Gruber 1997)
Sexual violence is usually motivated by violence and a
desire to conquer and control the victim (Groth 1979;
Hunter 2007, 19; Kilmartin 2005)
◦
Hypermasculinity= a recipe for
sexual assault (and other anti-social
activities)
The psychological thesis
Sexual assault is often a response to a feeling
of
powerless
: society has defined a “real
man” in such a masculine way that certain
males hit a wall of despair trying to achieve
this masculine identity without success
Men attempt to overcome their
inadequacies
and express their masculinity
through means of sexual aggression:
finally
they are able to control at least one thing in
their life, namely, their sexual conquests
Psychological Thesis, Continued
When soldiers are unable to live up to the often
unobtainable hyper-masculine ideals of military
combat soldiers, they experience a sense of
masculine inadequacy and anger
This response is inevitable when we consider the
typical attitudes of men to
constraining
environments
, such as the military which is
authoritarian in nature: with such a rigid structure,
subordinates are prone to foster anti-social behavior
in order to protest such a constraining environment
Sexual aggressors, then, are often
insecure
, men who
are motivated by a desire to dominate or exert
power over another being (male or female!)
Restatement of the problem
Can we train Soldiers to be effective killers
without indoctrinating in them vicious,
hypermasculine character which gives rise to
a culture of rape and sexual violence?
Is there a dichotomy?
Effective fighters, with a culture of sexual
violence
Ineffective fighters, without a culture of
sexual violence
Part 3: Possible Solutions
Solution 1: A philosophy of killing
•
Martial arts
(Aikido), with a focus on the
meditative component, into military training.
•
Such training will help soldiers remain
less
aggressive and violent,
humble, and in
touch with their emotions, thus countering
hypermasculine tendencies of aggression,
violence, domination, and power seeking.
•
Allows individuals to “
vent negative
emotions in a healthy
way, lest they are
otherwise repressed and later manifest in
even darker ways” (Haffner & Vogel 2010,
148).
Aikido: A Philosophy of Killing
Self Defense
“No first strike”
Techniques to counter someone else’s initiation
of violence by blending the motion of the
opponent and redirecting the force of the attack
Neutralizers the attacker without using strength;
abandons the idea of fighting with “brute
force
”
Emphasizes “
soft techniques-
the art of
blending with an attacker’s vital energy,
redirecting that energy in order to harmonize
with it and so render it harmless” (Raposa 2003,
10-11).
Lessons from Aikido
We should eliminate fighting techniques that
are
excessively violent
and destructive
We should avoid violence and to approach
conflict with
minimal force
We should control violence
We should use
violence only as a last
resort
, thereby preventing him from
initiating demands for dominance or an act
of aggression, like sexual violence, in the first
place.
Solution 2
Can we soldiers be trained to kill without
cultivating hypermasculinity?
◦
Are there ways to effectively conduct military
operations that do not require military
personnel to foster anti-social traits?
The use of unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs)
Unmanned systems, unlike soldiers who fight in
ground combat, are
immune to frustration,
boredom, and anger which makes unethical
conduct less likely
(Lin, Bekey, Abney 2008)
Arkin (2009: 30): combat soldiers often act on
emotions such as anger, fear, frustration and
revenge which often causes them to disregard
military regulation and the laws of war. ….the use
of emotionless UAVs might, in fact, eliminate the
atrocities that stem from unraveling emotions
caused by the
direct experience of killing others
under the condition that they lessen civilian casualties and save lives
Questions?
Cheryl.abbate@marquette.edu
A Final Word About Victim Blaming
"We have to fight the cultural stigmas that
discourage reporting and be clear that
sexual assault does not occur because a
victim is weak, but rather because an
offender disregards our values and the
law," Hagel said.
This presentation sheds light on the pervasive issue of sexual assault in the military, emphasizing the need for a gender-aware approach to uproot the culture of abuse. It outlines the alarming statistics, challenges traditional perceptions, and discusses proposed solutions, highlighting the importance of prevention strategies and systemic changes over reactive measures.
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Presentation Transcript
Uprooting the Culture of Sexual Assault in the Armed Forces through a Gender Aware Perspective By Cheryl Abbate
Agenda (1) Statement of the Problem (2) Diagnosis of the Problem (3) Solution to the Problem
The Problem 26,300 (approx) occurred in 2012 in the military (up 34.5% from 2010) Only 3,000 (approx.) were reported Only 300 (approx). were prosecuted; there is a .9% conviction rate 23-28% of women will be sexually assaulted while serving their country (this is twice as high as the civilian sector); 11% will be raped 53% of these crimes were MALE on MALE assaults Only 14% of victims who report their assaults are males **Source: SAPRO 2012 Annual Report
So, No. Sexual assault in the military is not: A result of confusion about consent A result of out of control hormones A crime that happens after someone has too much to drink A woman s issue; it s not about the damsel in distress
There is still a misperception that this is a women's issue and women's crime. It's disheartening that we have such a differential between the genders and how they are choosing to report. Nate Galbreath, the senior executive adviser for the Pentagon's sexual assault prevention office.
Proposed Solutions Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) 2013 Strategic Plan: Bystander Intervention Victim Reporting Holding Commanders more accountable Punishing wrongdoing Victim Support Pentagon: August 2013 Memorandum from Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel: improved victim legal support expansion of victim rights enhancing protections enhancing pretrial investigation ensuring investigative quality Congress: Military Justice Improvement Act (Senator Kirsten Gillibrand) Put the authority to investigate and prosecute sexual assault crimes into the hands of qualified legal experts with legal training.
Inadequacies of the Proposed Solutions Only addresses what has happened after assault has occurred (response), rather than sexual assault prevention. We need a reevaluation of military culture in addition to structural changes/criminal justice reform.
Part II: A Proper Diagnosis of the Problem
What we need. We need to take seriously the psychological and sociological research that has been conducted on gender, specifically masculinity, and how masculinity is connected to sexual violence and other anti-social activities ..we need a Gender Aware Perspective (Christopher Kilmartin)
A note about Gender and Sex Male Vs Female Man vsWoman/ Masculinity vs Femininity
Hypermasculinity/ Militarized Masculinities Obsession with bodily strength Homophobia Obsession with power Obsession with domination Disdain for the emotions Disdain for the feminine
My Focus A critical reflection of the of the hypermasculine culture of the military, which is connected with a desire to dominate feminine others through aggressive and violent means. Hypermasculinity= a recipe for sexual assault
Bodily Strength and Domination Stoicism Dominating one s bodily weaknesses Physical exertion, lack of sleep, and exposure to climate variation Performance of physically grueling activities regardless of exhaustion, pain, or injury Pain is weakness leaving the body
Dehumanization and Dominance Dominating one s emotions; disabling one s empathetic responses to killing others Soldiers are formed into individuals who are able and willing to kill other human beings in order to protect the nation Mechanisms of moral disengagement Target acquisition Derogatory names such as gook zit towel- head and faggot
Violence and Dominance Desire to dominate others through aggression and violence Basic Training Traditions What makes the green grass grow? Blood, blood! Blood makes the green grass grow! Kill kill kill! Cadences that glorify killing and violence Bodies Bleeding Bodies: Load another magazine, in my trusty M16. Cuz all I ever wanna see is bodies, bleeding bodies. Throw another hand grenade! Should have seen the mess I made. Cuz all I ever wanna see is bodies, broken bodies. Stab em with the bayonet! If he squirms you're not done yet! Cuz all I ever wanna see is bodies, cut-up bodies.
Violent Cadences Captain Jack: I m gonna be a killin man A cuttin man A shootin man A stabbin man The best I can For uncle Sam. Down by the River: Down by the river; took a little walk; ran into the enemy; we had a little talk; I didn t like their attitude; didn t like the way they walked; So I pushed em; I shoved em; I threw them in the river; laughed as they drowned.
Power and Dominance Military s Hierarchical structure Top-down authoritarian structure which fosters a master/slave dynamic between subordinate soldiers and superiors who have unlimited authority that subordinates must accept without question Unquestioning obedience Absolute authority
Conclusion: Militarized Masculinities The military virtues which are assumed to be necessary for effective fighting are the following: Stoicism; non-femininity Emotional detachment Power Domination through violence and aggression
Consequences of Military Masculinities Disdain for the feminine Those who are not real men should submit to the power and demands of the truly masculine. A sense of entitlement Soldiers are indoctrinated with the same lesson that motivates sexual aggressors: a real man has power and control, a real man dominates; a real man is on top. A sense of inferiority or frustration
How is this related to sexual assault? Institutions, like the military, that endorse masculine norms are found to have higher rates of sexual assault and harassment than other organizations (Gutek 1985; Gruber 1997) Sexual violence is usually motivated by violence and a desire to conquer and control the victim (Groth 1979; Hunter 2007, 19; Kilmartin 2005) Hypermasculinity= a recipe for sexual assault (and other anti-social activities)
The psychological thesis Sexual assault is often a response to a feeling of powerless: society has defined a real man in such a masculine way that certain males hit a wall of despair trying to achieve this masculine identity without success Men attempt to overcome their inadequacies and express their masculinity through means of sexual aggression: finally they are able to control at least one thing in their life, namely, their sexual conquests
Psychological Thesis, Continued When soldiers are unable to live up to the often unobtainable hyper-masculine ideals of military combat soldiers, they experience a sense of masculine inadequacy and anger This response is inevitable when we consider the typical attitudes of men to constraining environments, such as the military which is authoritarian in nature: with such a rigid structure, subordinates are prone to foster anti-social behavior in order to protest such a constraining environment Sexual aggressors, then, are often insecure, men who are motivated by a desire to dominate or exert power over another being (male or female!)
Restatement of the problem Can we train Soldiers to be effective killers without indoctrinating in them vicious, hypermasculine character which gives rise to a culture of rape and sexual violence?
Is there a dichotomy? Effective fighters, with a culture of sexual violence Ineffective fighters, without a culture of sexual violence
Solution 1: A philosophy of killing Martial arts (Aikido), with a focus on the meditative component, into military training. Such training will help soldiers remain less aggressive and violent, humble, and in touch with their emotions, thus countering hypermasculine tendencies of aggression, violence, domination, and power seeking. Allows individuals to vent negative emotions in a healthy way, lest they are otherwise repressed and later manifest in even darker ways (Haffner & Vogel 2010, 148).
Aikido: A Philosophy of Killing Self Defense No first strike Techniques to counter someone else s initiation of violence by blending the motion of the opponent and redirecting the force of the attack Neutralizers the attacker without using strength; abandons the idea of fighting with brute force Emphasizes soft techniques- the art of blending with an attacker s vital energy, redirecting that energy in order to harmonize with it and so render it harmless (Raposa 2003, 10-11).
Lessons from Aikido We should eliminate fighting techniques that are excessively violent and destructive We should avoid violence and to approach conflict with minimal force We should control violence We should use violence only as a last resort, thereby preventing him from initiating demands for dominance or an act of aggression, like sexual violence, in the first place.
Solution 2 Can we soldiers be trained to kill without cultivating hypermasculinity? Are there ways to effectively conduct military operations that do not require military personnel to foster anti-social traits?
The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) Unmanned systems, unlike soldiers who fight in ground combat, are immune to frustration, boredom, and anger which makes unethical conduct less likely (Lin, Bekey, Abney 2008) Arkin (2009: 30): combat soldiers often act on emotions such as anger, fear, frustration and revenge which often causes them to disregard military regulation and the laws of war. .the use of emotionless UAVs might, in fact, eliminate the atrocities that stem from unraveling emotions caused by the direct experience of killing others under the condition that they lessen civilian casualties and save lives
Questions? Cheryl.abbate@marquette.edu
A Final Word About Victim Blaming "We have to fight the cultural stigmas that discourage reporting and be clear that sexual assault does not occur because a victim is weak, but rather because an offender disregards our values and the law," Hagel said.
