Thread by @JABell27

I think I'm ready to talk about the Fort Hood Independent Review Committee report. This is the 1st of what will be either 2 or 3 threads. Might take a couple of days to get it all out there.

PART ONE: THE "CULTURE" HAS TO CHANGE. 1/x

I want to start by observing that, while the report is the best document of its kind I've seen since I started watching this stuff—& my twilight tour was w/NAVINSGEN, so I've seen a lot of these kinds of reports—it isn't perfect, comprehensive, or exhaustive. 2/

And, as @_pamcampos —who has done so much excellent and meaningful work on this issue has pointed out elsewhere, the report is not, and is not a replacement for, justice for Spc. Vanessa Guillén. 3/

What caught my eye 1st about the report was that it states that the "culture" that led to the murder of Vanessa Guillén, the problems w/the investigation, & the high incidence of sexual assault etc. at Fort Hood has to change. I don't think the report says clearly, but I will— 4/

that culture isn't unique to Ft. Hood or to the Army. I also have yet to see anyone define that aspect of military "culture" in a way that feels satisfactory to me. If we stick to abstract terms for problems, & don't articulate them specifically, we can't begin to fix them. 5/

So Imma take a stab at specificity. I came up w/four aspects of military culture that I think contribute to the incidence of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and intimate partner & domestic violence in the armed forces. There may be others. 6/

The 1st is what I'll call "performative masculinity." It centers around some fictional notion of being "tough enough to take it," whatever abuse "it" might be, rather than a healthier attention to resilient response to stressors. You can't take stressors out of 7/

a military environment, but there's a line between necessary & appropriate stressors (for example, in a training scenario) & abusive behavior. Abusive behavior—which includes SA & IPV/DV—is about inappropriate exercise of power & control over someone else. 8/

@kwilliams101 said something to me the 1st day we met that is relevant here: many young men join the armed forces thinking it will turn them from "boys" into "men"; no WOMAN every signed up so the armed forces could "make a man out of her." Maybe turning boys into men isn't 9/

why the armed forces exist. Maybe their purpose is defense of the Constitution against all enemies, foreign & domestic? And the desire to look "tough" (as opposed to showing genuine strength/resilience) is possibly even more unhealthy for men than women, just saying. 10/

Second aspect of the culture that needs to change: the pervasive assumption of male sexual entitlement. I could write a dissertation on how that assumption manifests itself in military culture, from pinups to porn to strip clubs— 11/

And don't EVEN get me started on military sexual exploitation of Asian/Pacific Islander women. I did an excerpt of a short story about Olongapo at a reading last year; several women ran from the room, one crying hysterically. It was fiction—but every word of it was true. 12/

This has to get fixed starting in accession training: no one, male or female, is entitled to have sexual contact w/anyone else w/o enthusiastic consent. Not b/c they're senior in rank, not b/c they think their dress blues make somebody's panties fall off, not b/c s/he drank 13/

enough to think him/herself irresistible & the other party interested. Recognizing that there are significant legal challenges to successful prosecution of SA cases, convictions have got to have TEETH. 14/

Third toxic aspect of military culture: devaluation of women. Culture is a reflection of what our society values. Separate thread on this at a later time, b/c I have a lot to say about that, too. In summary: women in the armed forces are too often devalued through 15/

speech, through action, and through institutional practices. It would be possible to make a list w/plenty of specifics. Here's a little example from my own experience: 16/

Fourth & finally, there needs to be an evaluation of the ways in which military culture grooms young people for SH/SA & silences them. I wrote about this cycle for @WrathBT last year: 17/ wrath-bearingtree.com/2019/06/sexual…

The fixes are both institutional, & at the deckplate level. Lots of smart people are writing about institutional change. Here's one of the best corrections I ever heard of—one that anybody at almost any paygrade could use in many circumstances. 18/

Overheard this in the gaggle after a presentation at USNA in 2016. Lt Kayla Barron, USNA '10, was speaking to some junior officers. Barron was one of the 1st women assigned PCS to a submarine, & at the time was aide to the commandant. I think she's now in astronaut training— 19/

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Anyway. These thoughts aren't complete/exhaustive. I'd be interested in what specific aspects of military culture others think need to be changed. A thread on devaluation of women, & possibly some thoughts on training & prevention, will follow later. 21/end