A Forum for the New World Order

C-Span is right now holding hearings on Sexual Assault in the Military. Questions point to the recommendations given to Military personnel upon sexual assault/rape revelations. One woman tells her tale of following protocol, informing authorities, yet being met with ridicule and marginalization.

One question raised by Rep. Carol Shea-Porter pointed to the counterproductive practice of removing victims of abuse from their posts. Such a practice leaves perpetrator environments in place and focuses the problem on the victim.

Alienating sex crime victims ices the slope toward more egregious systems of “justice” in which male-controlled institutions and nations actually condemn women for being victims of sex crimes, for example, penalizing a woman with 200 lashes and six months in prison for being gang raped.

My personal struggles with sexual harassment were just that, harassment, and therefore pale in comparison to the threats too many women face on their lives by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, oh, and, by having two x chromosomes.

My cases mirror only, in that I, as victim, was the one coerced into flight; leaving perpetrators behind to remain vindicated in their behavior.

My subjugation began in high school. And the insidiousness was the perpetrator’s inability to hide their obvious titillation inherent in missing my provocatively tough-girl point altogether. A perpetrator missing the point should never translate into a victim “asking for it”. I didn’t ask to demonstrate whether I could fit my fist in my vagina. They did. And other such zingers were carried out within earshot of my chemistry teacher. I kept my cool, but a well-meaning counselor was called in. Her answer to my problem was to transfer me to a different school. This, without any regard for my A and Honors average. This in light of my bright future. This transfer to a “special” school threatened my academic career. And I didn’t ask for it. And, luckily, I refused.

What’s missing from discussion about victims of sexual assault is the acknowledgment that these women risk so much in coming forward with their testimonies. I know an unnamed victim of rape who, in being subpoenaed to testify in the prosecution, knew that her participation in that process exposed her to potential security problems, the least of which was exposing her identity to the known perpetrator and his comrades. Luckily, she refused.

There is no doubt progress has been made in addressing the safety of potential victims in American institutions. But the bedrock of inequality keeps women from breaking the glass ceiling toward positions which could jurisdictate female perspectives on empowering, and not exiling, assault victims.