Response to The Invisible War
While watching the Invisible War, I was absolutely appalled. The fact that 20% of the women in the military have been sexually assaulted is infuriating. These women bring forward cases with tangible evidence and yet, they still sometimes take years to be dealt with and even then they aren't dealt with. These women are even blamed for being raped or accused of lying. And when physical damage is done, no one deals with it. As seen in the film with Kori, she waits 14 months for her case to be taken to an arraignment and even then has to wait up to 136 days for it to be dealt with. The V.A. just throws medicines at Veterans and at times, the mixtures if pills they give ti them kills them. The military just tries to cover up sexual assault or attribute it to the women rather than deal with it. The movie makes the point that women who are raped in the military are more likely to struggle with PTSD for a lifetime than men who were in active duty combat. But it's not just women that are raped in the military. The movie brings up accounts of males being sexually assaulted in the military as well. The movie says that 1% of males in the military have been raped which is still 20,000 members. The military needs to step up and do something about this rather than just recognize it and hide it. 15% of the incoming recruits have committed some sort of sexual assault, which is much higher than in the civilian world. There is a societal stigma that the military is above everyone else. That things like sexual assault don't happen. But statistics say that it's a bigger issue in the military than it is in the civilian world. Rather than ignoring this monstrous crime, there need to be something done about it.
Within the documentary The Invisible War by Kirby Dick the audience is shown the reality that service member who are victims of sexual assault face within the military. This documentary highlighted the limited options that these victims actually have and how within those options it is common to not have any satisfactory results. Such as an investigation against the perpetrator, a prosecution, that ends with a convention. It is also shown how these systems that are supposed to prevent and punish these assailants largely had either no effect on them or supported them.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the documentary all of the victims made it clear that they had no options but to really just sit and take it. One of the women and her husband, Kori Cioca and Rob, mention that victims really only have three options. They can either commit suicide, go AWOL, or deal with it. None of these are good options but its the choice that these victims have to make. We see that the victims that chose to deal with it since it is seemingly the best option, because they won’t lose their position and they can avoid other issues, however this either forces these victims to remain silent or they must attempt to initiate an investigation against their attacker. Those that choose to initiate an investigation receive a ton of push back from this system. Firstly these attackers are largely in positions of power or have friends in positions of power, in fact they could be the person that the victim is supposed to report these types of abuse to. But even when this is not the case these victims cases will commonly not be looked at and furthermore the victim might then face punishment for misconduct or adultery.
I thought it was interesting to see the ways in which this system not only completely failed these victims but also how it was just unable to create any good or anything of substance. I believe that this is closely related to the issue of veterans being unable to receive decence care due to the V.A’s lack of organization. However I also believe that it contrast with this in the way that the veterans issues do not benefit anyone where we see clearly that these systems benefit the attackers.
Is the way that this system benefits the rapist intentional set in place intentional or is it just left to its own devices because of ignorance and lack of priority?
The film “Invisible War” is one that is definitely difficult and disturbing to watch due to the traumatic events that the women who were interviewed had been through during their time in the service. At least to me, the events described in this film seemed shocking to me at first because when I think of the military, sexual assault is not something that comes to my mind, but it is definitely a real problem that is common throughout the service. It was hard to watch these victims tell their stories because it is clear how much their lives have been affected by the events they have been through. One woman in particular could not even eat the same foods or care for her children as she could have done before because the man who assaulted her had damaged her jaw so badly. A statistic that stood out to me in particular is the fact that 20% of female veterans claim to have been sexually assaulted at least once during their time in the military. This is a very high number of people and it goes to show how much of a problem sexual assault is in the armed forces. Even with the 20% number, it is known that most sexual assault victims continue without ever reporting the incident, so the number of assaults is much higher than what we can report. The fact that many victims go without reporting the assault is not good because it can just continue a vicious cycle of this issue. In the film it mentioned that many females never report because either the military itself doesn’t do anything because they don’t want to deal with any problems or the female herself is afraid of the unwanted attention or potential backlash of reporting someone. The fact that sexual assault is so prevalent in the military is obviously a major issue that needs to be addressed and handled, because the morals the military seems to value itself on such as honor, respect, and dignity seem like they are worth nothing when so many female soldiers are getting assaulted without much change. In an organization that seems male dominated and is still fighting for equal opportunity, I feel it is very important that steps are being taken in order to end sexual assault in the military. Too many people are getting away with their criminal actions and the obvious issue that is being presented within the film is not getting enough attention by the public in order to make a change.
ReplyDeleteWatching the film, Invisible War, really opened my eyes to how huge of a problem this is in our military. Throughout the film, they give many examples of persons who were sexually assaulted in the military. There are men and women, and they talk about their problems that persist, long after their time in the military. For example, one woman has jaw problems because the man who raped her hit her in the face. In addition, she can’t seem to get any help from the VA, and doctors want take x-rays of her back, instead of fixing the problem. Another example is a man who was held down and raped by a man. After leaving the military, he divorced twice, and hadn’t told anyone about his assault for a long time. He finally told his wife, however. In addition to the stories, they give statistics. For example, the film says that twenty percent of women in the military report a sexual assault. They also add that eighty percent of assaults go unreported. The film talks about how sexual assault victims are penalized for reporting, and the person who assaulted him or her never gets penalized. It seems almost expected. Those people should fight for these victims, instead, they sweep these assaults under the rug. It is clearly a broken system, and the military needs to change it.
ReplyDeleteWatching The Invisible War was hard to do. Listening to assault stories is never easy and learning that over 20% of women and about 1% of men are sexually assaulted are eye opening numbers. What is really problematic, however, is not the assaults, but the cover-ups. Honestly, some of the stories, like having the command turn around and charge the female with false testimony or adultery even though she was single, is so infuriating that the only response from me was to just sit there with my mouth open and say “Are you kidding me?”. The problem will never be fixed or addressed if command refuses to take responsibility and treat the assaults like the crimes they are. To turn around and punish the victim, who has evidence or eyewitnesses or both, is absolutely appalling and sickening. We see the brokenness of the V.A. in the film as well, something we have touched on in class before, and how the VA is so jammed and backlogged that it takes over a year for Kori for her case to be looked at. One thing that did not surprise me, and I don't know why it didn’t, was the Marine Barracks in Washington was by far the worst. I guess it does have something to do with the environment there. If you have a bunch of young Marines who think they are “the best of the best”, combined with weekly pub runs to the point of pissing themselves, that is a very toxic and dangerous environment.
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