Tolerating Sexual Assault in the U.S. Military

Veterans Kori Cioca, 25, and Panayiota Bertzikis, 29, were assaulted and
raped while serving in the U.S.Coast Guard

On yesterday's The Diane Rehm Show on NPR, radio host Diane Rehm spoke to two of the plaintiffs and the lead lawyer who are suing the Pentagon for mishandling cases of rape and sexual assault.

The plaintiffs, 15 women and two men who claim to have been raped or sexually assaulted by comrades while serving in the U.S. military, say the Pentagon created a culture that permits rape by ignoring sexual abuse complaints.

Anu Bhagwati, a veteran and the executive director of Service Women's Action Network, told Rehm that service members may be discouraged from coming forward with rape allegations because they know the likely outcome.

According to Bhagwati, these are some of the consequences victims who report rape are commonly faced with in a military culture:

• Risk of losing their careers
• Intimidation and punishment by fellow service members or their chain of command
• Accusations of lying
• Information on assault is filed away 
• Abuser never prosecuted and free to assault again

As horrifying as these claims are, I was most shocked and disgusted by the victim-blaming and excuse-making in the caller responses to the discussion.

One caller claimed that most rape claims are lies, while another suggested that the victims could have done more to have their claims heard.
  
But the most offensive call of the day came from a man named Hans, who attempted to explain rape using some distorted version of essentialist theory.

According to Hans, women in the military need to understand that men have substantially more testosterone than women, which means that they naturally NEED much more sex.

Hans went on to say that since women need to be "enticed and charmed" into having sex, the only possible solution for reducing rape in the military is to reduce the testosterone levels of the men who join.

The responses of these NPR listeners, who probably consider themselves to be "progressive" men, are indicative of a culture in which sexual violence is tolerated not only in the U.S. military, but in the larger American society.


Anyway, I sincerely hope this lawsuit gives other victims the courage to come forward and causes the military to change the way they handle cases of rape and sexual assault.