=Eric -- All Comments -- In These Times

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=Eric

- 13 Aug 08
- 9:57 pm
The endemic misogyny in the military service is not the same as one finds in civilian life. No one uses misogyny to make more efficient construction workers. The US military uses it to make more efficient killers, free of conscience and without hesitation or compunction. It was no different in 1958, when I was a Marine. It served its purpose quite well then. It took me many years to understand, forgive, recover, and begin to make reparations. I will continue making reparations for the rest of my life. But until we publicly recognize it, we cannot stop it. At the same …

Posted to Why Soldiers Rape
- 14 Aug 08
- 9:10 pm
Research exploring the relationship of pornography to rape is inconclusive in that those with a stake in the outcome invariably find what they're looking for. Hard core feminists find that porn harms women. Other researchers find that if anything, access to porn is at least a partial substitution for other forms of sexual release. Rape is _not_ a form of sexual release, it's a form of torture which includes physical and psychological debasement and humiliation. That is, or should be the point of this article, and the author only confuses the issue by bringing in old feminist political points. Language is …

Posted to Why Soldiers Rape
- 15 Aug 08
- 7:50 pm
> Pornography often equates sexual release with rape and torture. There is your connection. < But there is still no statistically positive correlation between being exposed to pornography and then committing rape or abuse that has ever been demonstrated. The only correlation is mildly negative: people exposed to such images are slightly less likely to commit those acts. And yes, of course the people in those pictures and videos are indeed being criminally harmed if they have not given informed consent (which is why child porn _is_ illegal, because a child is by definition not of legal age to consent.) But …

Posted to Why Soldiers Rape
- 18 Aug 08
- 3:52 pm
Yup, our rights and freedoms are fine until they make somebody really, really nervous. Connection, yes. Similarly, a glass of water is _connected_ to waterboarding. So what? Positive correlation, no. (I've covered this earlier.) Yes, it's exactly like Abu Grahib in that people can be brainwashed into doing things they know they shouldn't do. It's exactly like Abu Grahib in that those brainwashed people will re-invent techniques out of their own imagination they've never before been exposed to, and give in to group pressure to conform even though they would never otherwise do so. All this was demonstrated in Milgrim's research …

Posted to Why Soldiers Rape
- 24 Aug 08
- 1:09 am
Wow, Phillip, I guess we just went overboard using strange words like "misogyny" and getting all hysterical about women's problems. Let me apologize for all the veterans here who have been so mistaken. (I think you'll find that's most of the commenters here.) How dare you brush this away as baseless fear when you aren't the one with a very real prospect of being raped by your comrades or superior officers. Thirty to seventy per cent abuse and rape is not a problem that's being handled. It's a standard condition that not just tolerated, but encouraged. If you don't see it …

Posted to Why Soldiers Rape