1. I chose to attend the Invisible War event on the OSU campus at the International Forum after hearing about from a fellow classmate in class. It was hard to take notes at the event because it was so dark and I was sitting in the back. After the classmate told our class about the event I went home and looked it up. I remember seeing it in a recommendation when I bought the documentary Half the Sky, and I am a huge sucker for documentaries. I was excited that this documentary was being shown on the OSU campus and I was also excited that there was going to be food there. (To my surprise they had a full meal! Mini hamburgers, chips, fruit, brownies, and juice!) I loved this documentary, and being a poor college student I loved it even more because the viewing was free and there was free food. Thank you very much to the classmate who recommended this event!
2. I didn’t realize how many women were being sexually abused in the military. When you think of the military you think of it as being save and respecting women. I know that some of the individuals in the military do not respect women because they sexually assault and harass women but it was astonishing to see that higher ranking officials choose to ignore the outcries of the victims. I think that this needs to addressed and women should not be afraid to join the military and protect their country. It is sick to see that men think that they can get away from punishments from rape and it is worse that an institution such as the military allows this to happen. It was tragic to see how many reported it, and even more tragic were the estimations of those who didn’t report being raped or harassed. Women in the military are raped and usually if they report it to someone higher in command, the perpetrator most often is not punished and held accountable. It is like the women were never raped and the men go on with their lives, continuing to rape and harass other women. One woman was raped and punched in the face. She now has been discharged and cannot collect the compensation she needs to treat her jaw injuries. She lives in pain. Another women was raped ans has PTSD. These women are veterans and they are treated differently than one would expect. They served our country and they are being treated like they did nothing.
3. Rape and harassment is what connects this event to my topic. Sexual assault is not always looked upon as being important but it is. I do not think that these women should have been raped. Men think that they need to have their sexual pleasures satisfied when in reality, it is just a sad excuse. I chose this event because it was brought to my attention by a fellow class mate. When I bought the Half the Sky documentary from Amazon, The Invisible War was a recommendation and I am thankful that it was showing at Oregon State.
4. The bigger picture; rape is a serious issue, not only in other countries but in our own country. People do not realize that sex trafficking is going on, they also do not realize that it is going on in our own military. A father of one of the rape victims said he regretted ever letting his daughter going into the military and he know how a different view on the military. This is coming from a man who was in the military. All of the women in the documentary said that they would never let their daughter join the military.
According to Dicker’s book, A History of U.S. Feminisms, in many cases, the victims of rape know the person who rapes them. (87) Watching the movie it was heartbreaking when the women have to continue working with the men that rape them. They live in fear. It is weird because we are in the third wave of feminism, and that wave usually fights against sexual oppression. (130. Dicker) Women should be fighting against sexual assault in the military. On page 290 in No Turning Back by Estelle Freedman, it says that women are often discriminated in the work place and sexual assault in the military is discrimination against women it is also gender inequality.
Works Cited:
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