4/23 Summary

The New York Times articles for today’s reading were about the increasing role of women in the military, specifically the in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the immediate time after the military started to go to the Middle East, there weren’t proper facilities set up for soldiers, let alone females. In the years that followed, they made sure to create the infrastructure to accommodate women on the front lines, including things like having separate living quarters and bathrooms. Some women expressed that they faced some issues with either American soldiers or Iraqi soldiers recognizing that they were the leaders in charge, but for the most part, they felt a part of the team. One commander stated that there is not a difference between male and female soldiers; he has had to relieve male commanders but had not relieved a female commander at the time of the interview. The second article talked about the difficulty women, and men, faced in the military in relation to sexual abuse. They believe that many incidences of sexual abuse are/were not reported. This is because many women felt that they would not be believed or that raising an investigation would be a distraction from the team’s mission or that they were also engaging in activities that could have gotten themselves into trouble. Nevertheless, the military increased efforts to help women who were the victims of sexual abuse. They are trying to help women report these incidences.

Enloe’s chapters talked about men in the military and how that relates to the sexual abuse of women. She highlights a case of a Serbian man, Borislav Herak, who was charge with multiple rapes. In this particular case, the man did not exhibit violence before he went into the militia, but he, and others, committed these crimes while during the wars in the early 1990’s. When Herak was interviewed about the rapes, he admitted that it was not his idea and it was something that he felt guilty about and that he did not want to commit these acts.  He only did it because he was given orders from superiors to do so. He did not want to disobey orders in fear that he would be seen as unmanly and concern for his own property back home. He thought that they would take away his house if he disobeyed orders. Enloe also describes other cases to help place this story in a wider context. In many cases when rapes occur, they do so in situations when men commit the crimes in order to prove their masculinity. Masculinity is tied into nationalism. The only way to be a good member of a nation is to be as masculine as possible. In these cases, it is to show dominance, i.e. by over powering women by raping them.