Objectify This

In the past, women who experienced rape or sexual assault were faced with the immediate decision of whether or not to prosecute, even as they still reeled from the trauma of violation, which is often manifested as post-traumatic stress disorder. This was necessary because any action such a woman took following her rape, such as showering, would likely diminish the evidence against her attacker.

Yet rape is a shock to the system, like any demonstration of overt oppression. Rape reminds women that they don’t have power, and attempts to prosecute rapists are so unsuccessful (and until recently, they usually consisted of a public examination of the victim’s sexual history, as if a decision to have sex with anyone was an open invitation to everyone) that most women thought twice about prosecution.

That’s only natural: anyone whose agency has just been squelched is less equipped to make decisions about prosecution; part of the reason that so little evidence is collected in rape cases is because survivors of rape so rarely decide to prosecute immediately, as perpetrators are often their acquaintances, friends, or relatives.

Luckily, as Jezebel reported in May, so-called “Jane Doe” rape kits are going national. This means that anyone can file a rape kit anonymously, indicating evidence of a rape, without necessarily deciding to prosecute right away. This is wonderful for three reasons: 1: rape victims have to make fewer instant decisions in the first few hours of recovery; 2: there is more of an incentive to report rape, since evidence of it no longer requires prosecution, and 3: the Jane Doe kits can be entered into a national database, so that the DNA of serial rapists can be matched and those sickos can be brought to trial sooner.

This is especially important because the government has historically created many loopholes for rapists, as in Iraq, where the Bush Administration has given defense contractors impunity and in the multiple military cases in which U.S. military personnel have been implicated.

These cases, which seem to indicate that a patriarchal system is at work, are not limited to the civilian communities around military bases. As Gregory Flannery reports in the Cincinnati CityBeat, “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.

The author of For Love of Country: Confronting Rape and Sexual Harassment in the U.S. Military, Nelson documents a problem that ought to give pause to women considering a military career.

“It is estimated that two-thirds of female service members experience unwanted, uninvited sexual behavior in the military,” she writes. “To exemplify the magnitude of this problem, consider what would happen if the U.S. armed forces were faced with a problem that affected two-thirds of the male service members. One would hope that there would be an immediate call to action, a stand-down and nationwide attention to the problem.”"

And there are more than 59,000 women in the military today; this problem is not affecting a tiny population. As this USAToday article reports, “Several problems link the complaints of the women who reported assaults to the Miles Foundation. Among them:

“•Poor medical treatment. Eleven women reported assaults to military authorities, but several said they were not tested for sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy. Nor did they receive psychological counseling. Assaults occurred in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, according to Summers, who wouldn’t reveal further details, citing the women’s privacy.

“An Army soldier who reported being raped last November in a camp in Kuwait that was a staging area for the Iraq war said she felt superiors ignored her assault and injuries, according to a spokesman for Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-Pa. Only after she attempted suicide last December and Pitts intervened with the secretary of the Army was she flown to her U.S. base, the spokesman said.

“•Condoned retribution. One female officer who reported an assault by a subordinate now faces a court-martial on charges of fraternizing with a subordinate and adultery because she is married. Summers said her alleged assailant has not been charged. Another officer, placed on medication for trauma after belatedly reporting an assault, said she lost her security clearance because of the drugs she was taking. The loss is a serious blow to her career.

“The recent allegations fit a pattern of female troops who have been sexually assaulted by servicemen in combat zones. A study released in 1998 found that a third of 160 women who served in the 1991 Persian Gulf War reported “physical sexual harassment,” including 13 who said they’d been assaulted. The study, conducted by researchers from the Department of Veterans Affairs, did not examine whether the charges were reported formally or acted on by the military.

“The latest accusations come a year after reports of commanders’ indifference to sexual assaults at the Air Force Academy. While the Pentagon reassigned the commanders, it failed to address the broader issue of sexual assaults in the military or commit to better protect female servicemembers.

“The Pentagon declined to comment on individual cases, but said it does not tolerate sexual misconduct. Commanders have a duty to prevent assaults, protect victims and punish attackers, it says. In 1994, the Pentagon started a program to assist victims and encourage their help in prosecutions.

“The military’s efforts to crack down on sexual assaults are hampered in part by the reluctance of some victims to report their attacks. And a study of veterans released last year found that is a common response. In fact, a majority of the 37 women told Miles counselors they did not file complaints because they feared damage to their careers or retribution from their attackers, who continued to work in the same vicinities.

“In spite of victims’ reluctance to step forward, enough assault accusations have been lodged to prompt closer scrutiny. That is the best way to determine why women who protect their country get so little protection themselves from the Pentagon.”

So scrutinize, if you don’t mind me getting a bit didactic, that culture that causes us to perpetuate this kind of violence against women in Pass the Gender Role, Bro; I’m Not a Manhater, I Just Dream A Lot, or Our Masculine Systems: Women’s Inequality Under the U.S. Consistution.