I could swear this documentary had been linked here a few years before, actually. Or maybe that was a different expose of military rape culture? Not that I mind; this ought to be shouted from every hilltop, church steeple and city street until something actually happens.

Police Violence was not "news to people" until Ferguson, despite common knowledge.
Often, all it takes is one very loud voice to break the veil of silence.

You're also leaving out an important factor, EH: What gender is responsible for those sexual assaults on men in the military?

Why is that an important factor? He said it negatively affects both genders.

Yeah, why does the gender of the aggressor matter? What makes that an "important" factor, in the context of this discussion?

The only two angles I can possibly see coming from that are either a) trying to establish that men are pigs, ergo male victims are irrelevant, they deserve to be raped, or b) setting yourself up to make a point against allowing gays in the military (which is actually a very common tactic used by opponents of the military's LGBT-friendly policies). I don't think you'd support either of those positions, SPK, so what's your point?

... and your reaction sort of ties in to my point above: that male victims of sexual harassment aren't taken very seriously. We've all got these deeply ingrained social assumptions, one of which being that men are "tough" and therefore "can't be raped". I work with a lot of vets who've survived sexual trauma, of all genders and orientations, and it's horrible for everyone. Moreover, the male victims are constantly reporting personal, social, and institutional resistances to their claims, resistances which are really no different from those faced by women untik relatively recently. The unconscious narrative here is "women have to be victims / men have to be aggressors" - which is clearly false once you think about, but being unconscious, it's often difficult to recognize.

I don't blame you for having an issue with what I said, SPK, nor trying to reflexively poke holes in it, even though there are really no holes to be poked. It's not *you*, it's normal, social behavior, the same sort of ideological trap that this film director is falling into.

You know Homie, the Army sounds an awful lot like prison, with the notable difference that you get paid to kill people rather than paying for it.

...and looking at the stats for prison and the army, percentage chance of rape track pretty closely.

Sexual assault?

What a shame.