Buddy System!

The first similarity I noticed between the two articles in this series, “A Peril in War Zones”, and “Living and Fighting Alongside Men” is that they both made a point to mention that too many sexual assaults are going unreported. While this is also a problem in everyday life, it is even worse in the confines of the military. I can understand when someone is sexually assaulted by someone they know that it may be hard to report them, but it must be even harder to report someone that they live among and when they are outnumbered in gender. There are so many more men in the military that if a woman accuses a man of rape or sexual harassment, she may be turned against because there are so many men to feel personally victimized by what she is doing to one of their male counterparts. Although people should not be divided strictly by gender and should develop their own opinions based on the situation, there is a type of “mob mentality”, a sort of “boys club” within the military where men learn to stand by men, and possibly forget about the women.

Another shocking part of these articles is that women are advised to travel with a buddy. It is astonishing to me that these women have to spend each day, basically in fear. Because army bases on not particularly large, they are essentially living with people that they must fear. It is incredibly wrong that women do not feel safe walking alone on an army base and that the army just says "don't walk alone then". They don't provide anything other than some weak advice. These women are living with potential attackers and even rapists. And it is kind of difficult to accuse the men that are fighting for our country of doing such terrible thing to woman, but it is true and it is happening. People tell tales of the horribleness of war and the mental toll it takes on someone who serves in the military. It is hard to imagine their mental state on a daily basis and sometimes we may be tempted to use that as an excuse, but we need to realize there is no excuse. Sexual assault is a much bigger deal than people think and I believe that is a major problem in our society. Even the other day, I was overhearing a girl joke about a guy she had no interest in trying to “hook up” with her and forcing himself on her. And although nothing happened, if it had gone a step further, it could have put the girl in a very dangerous situation. It is something we think is a typical occurrence and brush it off like it is nothing to be concerned about.