The Invisible War Exposes the Banality of Misogyny and Sexual Violence in the US Military

by Tracy Bealer

In Hannah Arendt’s 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem, she argues that profound historical evils are not usually committed by deranged psychopaths, but rather otherwise ordinary people who have been conditioned through state institutions to accept and perpetuate dehumanizing fictions about other human beings.

The Invisible War (now available on DVD and streaming on Netflix), filmmaker Kirby Dick’s 2012 documentary on the epidemic of sexual violence in all branches of the United States military, extends this thesis to not only the perpetrators of rape and sexual assault, but also the command structure that actively colludes with military justice to shield these criminals from prosecution, and to stigmatize and in some cases criminalize the male and female victims.

There isn’t anything particularly innovative or groundbreaking in the form or style of The Invisible War. What is shocking, sickening, and enraging is the content. The film chronicles the stories of a half dozen former servicewomen and servicemen in detail, with their individual traumas meant to stand for the thousands of women who endured the twin betrayals of physical and institutional violation while serving. To the film’s credit, it also includes the often overlooked voices of male victims of sexual assault. In so doing, The Invisible War implicitly asserts the truth that rape is not about sexual desire, but rather violence and domination.

Though each interviewee’s story of escalating harassment and stalking culminating in rape is treated with dignity and care, the similarities among the accounts, particularly in the treatment of the victims after reporting the crimes, reveals the way misogyny and sexual violence have become institutionalized into military culture. The women and men endure not only physical but also emotional and professional violation, as their experiences are alternately dismissed, devalued and denied by the military commanders who held (until a recent directive by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta) the sole authority to prosecute their rapists. Read more

Posted on November 29, 2012 by jarrahpenguin in Feminism, Politics, Pop Culture 1 Comment

The Invisible War: Breaking the Silence Around Military Sexual Trauma

by Jessica Critcher

I recently watched a screening of The Invisible War, a heart-wrenching documentary about the epidemic of rape and sexual assault in the US military. I should probably state up front that I have deep and long-standing ties to the armed forces—I even got a military discount on my ticket to this film. In addition to grand parents and great-grand parents serving, my father served twenty years in the Marine Corps. So did my father-in-law. I have two brothers-in-law who served in the Army. My husband has been in the Coast Guard for almost five years and will probably make it a career. My younger brother is about to join the Navy. My younger sister is about to join the Air Force. To say this film and this issue strike close to home would be an understatement.

I expected to cry during this film. I expected to leave the theater with my eyes red and swollen because the subject matter is so painful. But I couldn’t cry. Instead, I endured a 90 minute panic attack. Tears are cathartic. Crying is an emotional release. There was no release while watching this film, because the emotions it inspires cannot be purged and forgotten. Days later I am still haunted by the survivors’ stories. This was not a pleasant film to watch. It’s an unpleasant topic that most would probably rather ignore. That’s the premise in a nutshell: this is horrific, and even though we don’t like to think about it, ignoring it won’t make it go away.

As a feminist with a particular interest in militarism, the disappointing statistics about Military Sexual Trauma (MST) were not new to me. And yet, no matter how much I study or talk about this issue, the information is always heart-breaking. In 2012, in the institutions that claim to be defending our freedom, rape is considered to be an occupational hazard. Here is a tiny portion of the information provided, as quoted by Al Jazeera:

Approximately 33 per cent of servicewomen and men don’t report their assault because the person to report to is a friend of the rapist; 25 per cent don’t report because the person to report to is the rapist. Incidents of rape triple in units where assault is tolerated, say analysts.

Part of what makes this so troubling is the fact that, historically, the military has provided many opportunities for women’s advancement. In World War II, the military invited women to join and to earn the same pay as men. To this day, military ranks and pay-grades are standardized and publicly available. In a country where the gender wage gap for civilians hasn’t budged since the 70’s, the military honors equal pay for equal work, with adjustments for cost of living.

The military was also desegregated in 1948, before “Separate but Equal” was deemed unconstitutional. They recently allowed gay and lesbian service members to serve openly, something many employers are still not ready to do. And, the military also offers socialized medicine, something critics of government-funded health care like to ignore. Yes, the American taxpayers covered my many doctor visits as a child, and they pay for my birth control today. Through this lens, the military could actually be considered progressive.

The reason I bring up these facts is not to sugarcoat the many problems inherent in the military or to defend its treatment toward the survivors of MST. These facts are to serve as reminders that the military is not unchangeable. Read more

Posted on July 21, 2012 by jarrahpenguin in Feminism, Politics 1 Comment

Snow White and the Huntsman: Feminist Fairy Tale?

by Jarrah Hodge

Despite my love of re-imagined fairy tales I didn’t think I’d enjoy Snow White and the Huntsman. I’m already predisposed to hate anything with Kristen Stewart after I suffered through the first Twilight movie and Adventureland, and the movie was getting some flak from feminist blogs. The Ms. Magazine blog ran an article called “10 Reasons NOT to go see Snow White and the Huntsman.” Among the reasons:

The evil feminist. At the outset of the film, the Queen kills her latest husband and says with vengeful breathiness, “Men use women. They ruin us and when they are finished with us, they offer us to the dogs like scraps.” The film thus sets her up as a straw “man-hating feminist” for us to revile, but her brand of feminism is one no Ms. reader would recognize. Actually, the Queen is the one to ruin people and treat them like scraps, in a decidedly un-feminist matter.

It wasn’t hard to persuade me that this was not going to be the subversive story it was promised to be. And I had no hesitation accepting it wouldn’t be up to the caliber of an Angela Carter or Margaret Atwood fairy tale re-telling. (Read the rest of the review after the jump. Warning: includes a few spoilers!) Read more

Posted on June 23, 2012 by jarrahpenguin in Feminism, Pop Culture Leave a comment

The Lady Makes the Personal Political

by Jarrah Hodge

French Director Luc Besson’s new biopic The Lady is a moving portrait of the life of Burmese activist and political leader Aung San Suu Kyi. However, for a movie that clearly has a political goal (to raise awareness of the situation in Burma*), it focuses mainly on Suu Kyi’s family and personal life. As a result, while I enjoyed the movie overall it still left me feeling unsatisfied.

The movie opens in 1947 with the assassination of General Aung San, Suu Kyi’s father, who had just negotiated Burma’s independence from Britain. While it’s a poignant scene and crucial historical event it’s really all we see of Suu Kyi’s early life.

From there we go forward to meet the main characters in the movie’s romance, Suu Kyi (played by Michelle Yeoh) and her professor husband Dr. Michael Aris (David Thewlis). They and their two sons are living in Oxford when she receives the news that her mother has had a stroke. When she returns to Burma she witnesses the military-run government massacring protesting students in the streets. When she is then approached to lead a pro-democracy movement she decides to stay.

From this point the film becomes a bit plodding, seeming a bit like a visual representation of an encyclopedia article. It moves through every interaction Syu Kii has with the military junta and their attempts to intimidate and imprison her and her followers, leading to her 15-year house arrest and years of separation from Aris and their children. While we also see Syu Kii touring the country and speaking to locals about democracy, for the most part her Burmese allies and followers in the film remain nameless and voiceless.

Ultimately while the film brings the audience to tears more than once, it’s not over the plight of Burma or ordinary Burmese citizens, but over Suu Kyi and her husband’s drawn-out separation. Read more

Posted on May 1, 2012 by jarrahpenguin in Feminism, Pop Culture 2 Comments

The Secret World of Arrietty: For the Activist and the Child in All of Us

by Jessica Critcher

To say that this has been a strange few weeks in the women’s rights movement would be an understatement. The Susan G. Komen foundation pulled its support from Planned Parenthood, and then doubled back with a faux apology in a manner of days. The president promised he would make birth control covered by all insurance, and a few members of religious communities cried discrimination. They then proceeded to lose their minds and host a panel on birth control and reproductive health, specifically without allowing any women to speak. An amendment currently being pushed argues that any employer can object to covering any medical procedure on moral grounds.

More and more states are pushing personhood bills, which would give fertilized eggs all of the legal rights of human beings. The state of Virginia narrowly escaped a bill that would have forced women seeking abortions to undergo mandatory vaginal probing, or as I prefer to call it, state sanctioned rape. And don’t even get me started on the Republicans currently vying to run for president. I might just start screaming. I keep checking to make sure. Yes, it’s 2012, not 1512. No, this is not The Onion. This is the current climate of the women’s rights movement in my country.

Understandably I’ve been anxious. It’s been hard to write lately, for example. I feel too preoccupied with whether or not I will continue to have access to birth control, or indeed, bodily autonomy. I worry about the women I know who’ve had miscarriages, or those who might have them in the future, and about the sadness they would feel at being interrogated for murder under the conditions of zygote-as-person. Even though these ridiculous bills will not pass, the fact that they are actually being proposed is still depressing.

Meanwhile, I am writing less. My novel languishes in its awkward, unfinished second draft. I sit and hesitate on opinion pieces, wondering just how much rage is publishable. While my family planning has not been interrupted yet, my energy is still being wasted in keeping track of politicians and which or how many of my rights they want to take away. The effect is the same: my voice has to travel further to reach the global conversation. It would be irresponsible to ignore, but it’s not exactly helpful to let it eat me up inside.

I needed to escape, if just for an afternoon. So I went to the movies and saw The Secret World of Arrietty. The film comes from Studio Ghibli, the makers of Ponyo and Spirited Away, just to name a few examples of their stunning work. They are known for producing strong female characters as much as they are for beautiful animation and captivating stories. The movie is based on The Borrowers, a novel by Mary Norton about tiny people who live in secret among humans. As I sat wide-eyed, munching popcorn in a theater full of children, I allowed my expectations, both as a feminist and a lover of stories, to soar. I was thrilled to see them met and surpassed. Read more

Posted on February 27, 2012 by jarrahpenguin in Feminism, Pop Culture 5 Comments

Young Adult: Getting Help vs. Growing Up

Coming out of the movie Young Adult, which stars Charlize Theron as a late-thirties former prom queen who returns to her hometown in an attempt to seduce her now-married high school sweetheart, I knew it was going to be tough to write about.

It’s tough to write when you’re angry, and I know it’ll be tough to explain why I felt that way after seeing what had looked from the trailer to be a comedy, which the movie certainly was not. Instead it is a portrait of a tragically flawed and ill young woman. Mavis (acted superbly by Theron) is not only obsessed with her looks; she is also an alcoholic who suffers from depression and trichotillomania (a likely neuro-biological illness that leads to compulsive hair pulling).

Whether you like the movie or not seems to have a lot to do with what you’re able to take away from it.

Molly at Bitch Flicks has a point when she says the movie can be seen as feminist because it shows the artificiality of an existence based on beauty. But when I went to see the movie with my friend Becca, we didn’t find that to be a clear message to the audience.

- Spoiler Alert -

What made me react with anger, though, was its treatment of mental health issues. Even though alcoholism, depression, and trichotillomania are clearly illnesses, the film is framed in a way that the onus is put on Mavis to just “grow up” instead of seeking help. Read more

Posted on January 3, 2012 by jarrahpenguin in Feminism, Pop Culture 36 Comments

The Muppets Treads a Fine Line on Women’s Roles

Can I just say I’ve been ridiculously excited about the new Muppet movie for months? The fact that Flight of the Conchords‘ Bret McKenzie would be writing songs, and all the parody trailers only psyched me even more:

Luckily, the film was just as awesome as I had hoped. The Muppets tells the story of Walter, a Muppet with a human brother Gary (Jason Segel). As they grow older, obsessed Walter, who’s become a big fan of The Muppet Show starts to realize he doesn’t fit in in their small town. When Gary decides to take his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) on a trip to Los Angeles, he brings Walter along knowing he’d like to see Muppet Studios.

When they arrive in LA, Walter overhears a plot by the evil oil tycoon Tex Richman (Chris Cooper), who wants to raze the studio and drill for oil. Walter’s only hope to save the studio is to re-unite the estranged Muppet Show cast members for one final fundraising performance.

The Muppets was hilarious with just the right amount of Muppet cheese, and the way its storyline evoked nostalgia for The Muppet Show struck a chord with those of us who grew up watching it and the early Muppet movies.

(Besides, if the Fox Business Network thinks the movie is communist propaganda, that only makes me respect it even more.)

Unfortunately, the movie seemed to struggle a bit with how much independence to give its women characters. While Miss Piggy continues to use both karate chops and more traditionally feminine wiles to get her way, and Mary repairs cars and electrical circuits without breaking a sweat, the two have the same ultimate goal: marriage.

As J. Lee Milliren says in her review at Bitch Flicks:

“One of my biggest issues with these two having the same motivation is that they both only have One motivation and goal. All the other (male) characters have more than one goal and motivation throughout the movie. Walter wants to save the theater, reunite the Muppets, and find his place. Gary wants to be with Mary, and he wants his brother to be happy but struggles with maybe having to let go of him. Kermit wants to save the theater, be with the family that is the Muppets and re-kindle his relationship with Miss Piggy. Even Animal has two goals: wanting to save the theater AND to control his wild side.”

Avital at Bitch Magazine Blogs took a slightly more positive view, saying: “Fight it all you want, but Miss Piggy is a feminist. While she does play into some poor stereotypes (being a little boy-focused…or rather frog-focused), the thing most folks remember her for is her fierce, take-no-shit, strong personality.”

Overall I think the movie didn’t stray too much into gender-regressive territory. At one point Mary and Piggy even sing a girl-power independence song: “Me Party/Party for One”:

Even though Piggy/Mary’s goals are centered around marriage, the movie does show that they’re independent and unwilling to put up with bad treatment from boyfriends. With all of the movie’s other awesomeness, that makes it a big success in my books.

-Jarrah

Posted on December 7, 2011 by jarrahpenguin in Feminism, Politics 1 Comment

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