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A Brigadier General in the US Army has been charged with rape. Well, actually, Brig. General Jeffrey Sinclair has been charged with a veritable laundry list of offenses, as set forth in an Army press release, among them
forcible sodomy, wrongful sexual conduct, attempted violation of an order, violations of regulations by wrongfully engaging in inappropriate relationships and misusing a government travel charge card, violating general orders by possessing alcohol and pornography while deployed, maltreatment of subordinates, filing fraudulent claims, engaging in conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman and engaging in conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline, or of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces.
While details are still sketchy, the charges apparently involve misconduct with several female subordinates.
Over on The Spearhead, W.F. Price bravely takes on the real villain here: women. Apparently their mere presence in the Armed Forces is enough to provoke male soldiers and generals alike to rape them and, while they’re at it, to buy booze and porn, mistreat their subordinates and rack up unauthorized purchases on government issued charge cards. In a post with the title “How’s that Women in the Military Thing Going Now?” Price gets right to the heart of the matter:
I suspect that the more combat-oriented environment an environment is in the military, the more likely these problems with women are to come about. For one thing, fighting men are more passionate by nature, and then there’s the fact that these men also turn women on more.
Yes, because when male soldiers rape female soldiers, the problem lies with woman in uniform getting “turned on” by men in uniform.
A forward base in hostile territory is not likely to have the same atmosphere as an assignment stateside. The sense of danger actually tends to make people more sexually charged, or so I’ve heard from those who survived battles and sieges on the Eastern Front in WWII, where female-operated AA batteries behind the front lines became de-facto brothels.
Of course, male soldiers are also known to rape civilian women, so by Price’s logic women should neither serve in the military, nor not serve in the military. In times of war, they should just do all us dudes a favor and cease to exist at all.
If not, well, women just need to face up to the danger of “hanky panky” that their mere existence creates:
[O]ur personnel are serving in a remote Muslim country with no access to local females to speak of, and things are bound to happen. As to whether Sinclair “forced” anything on anybody, we don’t know at this point, and it seems unlikely, but it isn’t surprising at all that some forbidden hanky-panky may have occurred.
At this point, virtually all we know about the alleged crimes here is contained in that laundry list of charges I posted above. Yet someone Price is able to deduce that Sinclair is likely to be innocent here. Evidently Price is convinced that anyone who is a “real combat general” and who has “earned a number of awards related to combat arms and parachuting” is someone who is to be implicitly trusted.
In the comments, the Spearhead regulars offer their own unique takes on the issues of women in the military.
Keyster seems to dream of a day when women can not only be kicked out of the military but also out of pretty much everything else as well, except presumably the kitchen:
It’s not safe to work or serve with women.
The potential for trouble is way too high.
Once they invaded the workplace the last vestige of male only space was the military. Now even this is no longer true. I don’t know where men can go and work with other men without female interference anymore. Even if you own your own business, the government forces you to hire them…and invest in all manner of special female accommodations, like breast pumping stations and tampon dispensors.
Ironically the safest “male only” space is a Gay Bar. And even then curious women wander in to meddle and cause disruption.
Numnut drops some biotruths on us all:
Appears women are very horny once a month and will have sex with the most aggressive male available to them at that time.This re-enforces the “thinking with the vagina” theme that a women herself espoused.
Now that the lawz have given wymyn free pass to act out their base animals nature,no man is safe from the Whiplash regret post-sex.(ref to OT)
No doubt these milfem cursors were ovulating and thinking with the gash when they asked to be screwed.
The proper thing for the law to do is recognize this animal instinct and either regulate wymyns behaviors of legalize male sexuality again.
Women want it both ways,a rough man for sex,and prison for rough men.
Jean Valjean hopes that this case will help to expose women for being the filthy sluts they really are:
The question on my mind is will this man fight the charges and reveal the sexual nature of many women in the military or will he go meekly to his fate?
A commenter with the highly ironic name Reality offers up this bit of secondhand shitthatneverhappened.txt.
There was a guy who had been in the military who told me that in actual warfare when the bombs start dropping & the gunfire starts coming at them in an actual combat situation, women just throw down their guns and start running screaming like they would do any other situation.
We’re doomed. All so we can pretend ‘women are just the same as women’ [sic] – that’s more important to all these idiots that run this country & half the idiot population than the security of the country. It’s that way in any situation in life- this political correctness & diversity shit is becomes more important than success, life or death- you name it. In that sense it’s like drugs or alcohol addiction – you throw away your whole life for this one stupid, trivial thing.
Equality: Stupid and Trivial.
I learn new things every time I read The Spearhead.
For some actual facts on the epidemic of rape in the military see:
Leon Panetta: Military’s handling of rape is an “outrage.”
Naomi Wolf: A culture of coverup: rape in the ranks of the US military
Victims say military condones rape
Rape in the Military: America’s Dirty Little Secret
New military rape lawsuit filed
I know King has said some unkind things about that book, but I really enjoyed it.
That’s a big surprise
Yes, because having a greater mean and variance on certain measures means that group X is superior to group Y. I’m interested in what this toy thinks about reversals, things that women are, on average, better at than men and things that certain groups of African origin are better at than White people.
And yes, a lot of Latinos are White, even the ones from south of the border. Like myself.
Also, before you were like Black people were disenfranchised. And now you’re like Black people suck because they weren’t actually part of the legislature that passed civil rights legislation (also, legislation was the only significant achievement of the civil rights era). Does… not… compute. Segfault.
He referred to a two year old as a “whore”.
Ah, the Tom Martin school of misogyny.
Much like an ingrown toenail.
Well damn dude, you probably just could have opened the conversation with “I am an underinformed, bigoted piece of human-shaped trash” and linked to your blog as proof.
Coulda saved yourself a lot of time, you know?
Since the racist troll is still racist and boring, I would like to encourage people to visit this website: http://mysteriesofvernacular.com/
It has cool animated videos about the origins of words; eventually there will be one video for each letter of the alphabet. (The videos are from Vimeo, so I don’t think they will embed here.)
better at than men and things that certain groups of African origin are better at than White people
What, like trying to put a ball through a hoop? Who cares?
I’m interested in what this toy thinks about reversals, things that women are, on average, better at than men
You must not be a 3rd waver because the ladies at Feministing insist that there are NO differences in any ability between men and women and that any appearance of such is purely a result of social conditioning.
You do realize women haven’t even had the right to vote for 100 years? That’s a BLIP in terms of human evolution.
You do realize that white men were not fully enfranchised for about 150 years? Even less time in some places.
Property owning women were voting in most US states well before the unwashed masses of men were.
Also, why were women oppressed in EVERY culture EVER if they weren’t inferior in the first place?
Some choice quotes from Otis:
“Women are incompetant and worthless.” http://waragainstwomen.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/insecurity-of-cunts.html
“Men beat women at everything 100 out of 100 times if we are on equal footing but when we get complacent women can sneak in a victory over us.” http://waragainstwomen.blogspot.co.uk/2008/05/billy-jean-king-sucks.html
“in conclusion, all women are awful.” http://waragainstwomen.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/girl-power-feminism.html
“Were I interested in relationships with women myself I would have to drop my woman-hating.”
“Some women would be happy with that kinda life but some women are as driven as some men and they got every right to go out there and compete. If they start bitching about “opression” or talking about how “independent” and “equal” they are then they deserve a smack across the face.”
http://waragainstwomen.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/feminist-lays-down-law.html
“Women are so gay it is not even funny.”
“Plain women on the other hand just suck.”
http://waragainstwomen.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/what-women-cunt.html
“If my sister ever got raped she would know better than to come to me for help because I know that most rapes are imaginary and that she is just trying to frame an innocent man.”
“A woman cannot rape a man.”
http://waragainstwomen.blogspot.co.uk/2007/12/attacking-manginas.html
“In conclusion: rape is funny”
http://waragainstwomen.blogspot.co.uk/2007/10/womens-greatest-weakness.html
“Any woman who feels so strong and empowered can come give that shit to me and see what I do to your fucking face. Listen to me you stupid bitches, you are not my fucking equal! I will fucking kick the shit out of you if you try that “independent” shit with me.”
http://waragainstwomen.blogspot.co.uk/2007/10/more-on-mangina-asswipe-steven-king.html
“Fuck you, women! Fuck. You. Stupid ass cunts. Fuck your empowered bullshit. A man needs a woman like a bicycle needs a fish you entitled uppity cunts. Fuck your goddamn independence you fuckhead cumwads. You can all fucking die! Fuck your goddamn mangina slave-soldier guardians, Fuck em! I will fucking put your teeth on the curb and stomp the of your head you stupid twats. Die you stupid bitches! Just fucking die! You worthless bitches should be cut into pieces you cunt headed bitch heads!”
http://waragainstwomen.blogspot.co.uk/2007/10/thought-provoking-essay.html
I could go on.
And now we have conclusive proof that we are under no obligation to answer or speak to Otis.
I actually agree that Insomnia was kind of a shitty book. I was pissed when Patrick showed up at the end of the Dark Tower, he didn’t deserve to be associated with Roland. What a crock of shit that was.
King’s best book remains the Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. That was badass. I related, too, because I was about the same age as the girl when the book came out, and I can verify that, if you were a young Red Sox fan circa 2000, Tom Gordon was basically Jesus. He’d come on in the 8th inning or whatever, and the game was fucking OVER. No outs, bases loaded, one-run lead? Didn’t matter, might as well print off the results and update the standings right then.
Why do you assume that all women everywhere were/are oppressed in all cultures? A good number of indigenous cultures around the world afford men and women reasonably comparable rights. Not exactly the same ones, but no indications of outright oppression.
There are some tribes where women aren’t quite as oppressed, but every sedentary civilization that has ever existed has oppressed women. And as you indicated, even hunter gather societies never give women fully equal status, and in some women are just flat out slaves. Why are there no tribes where women rule and the men are slaves?
Hey, you’re the one who apparently thinks that physical strength = superiority. Literally all the male running world records are held by non-White people and all but one by Black people. (Apparently while White men can jump, they can’t run.) Weight lifting records are pretty evenly split by Middle Eastern, Slavic, and East Asian people. My interest in finding population studies on physical fitness is pretty low.
@Tosca – OK, I probably oversold my Army experience’s comedic value. Although how I injured my hip was pretty choice: during the third week of basic training I jumped off the side of a tower and landed badly.* Then I proceeded to try to muddle through the pain for another eighteen months of training and work (I did get pulled out of basic for several weeks and sent to a rehabilitative unit in attempt to let me heal). A physical therapist finally leveled with me at Fort Gordon and told me that I was probably never going to get better. He recommended me for a medical discharge, and about five months later I was a civilian again.
I feel guilty about getting out early like that. I could meet PT standards and do my job, even with a bum hip and my diet of prescription-strength naproxen. I received a few commendations during training and at Fort Gordon, and when he got my paperwork my first sergeant actually called me into his office and asked me to stay in the army. But at the end of the day – ouch. And that physical therapist was right. I still hurt every.
So I’m probably your worst nightmare 🙂 But this all happened ten years ago, and they’ve completely revamped BCT since then. I haven’t found any stats on the new injury rates, but I’m betting they’re lower. Also, though I was skinny and nominally healthy I have to say that my endurance and overall conditioning could have been better before I enlisted. And seriously – the chances of getting seriously injured are pretty slim. Out of close to seventy female soldiers in my initial BCT unit, there were only three of us who were hurt so badly we couldn’t initially finish training. There were a bunch of soldiers in the rehab unit who healed and went on with their careers, too, instead of limping along to a slow finish. My experience definitely isn’t the rule
*Insert “Full Metal Jacket” Private Pyle joke here.
Why have men oppressed women in so many cultures and times? I dunno sweaty. Why don’t you ask yourself why you need to see women as so inferior, why we must be kept lower than yourself.
*should be: “I still hurt every day.”
Why are there no tribes where women rule and the men are slaves?
Well, according to the men’s rights movement, wouldn’t one be the United States c. 2012?
Oh look. A new troll. And he’s really unoriginal and trite in his crap. Racist, sexist, not particularly articulate.
IOW, boring troll is boring.
Cloudiah – cool site! Here’s one of my faves that you might enjoy – http://www.worldwidewords.org/
And in case anyone is tempted to take one pathetic klutz’s tale of military mediocrity and spin it into a story about the general delicacy and inferiority of women, some citations!
*Women represent about 13.4 percent of the active Army, 23.7 percent of the Army Reserve and 14.0 percent of the Army National Guard as of fiscal year 2009 (Women also make up 13.
*The percentage of female officers in the active Army in grades O-4 (rank of major) and above increased from 11.5 percent in fiscal year 1995 to 13.3 percent in fiscal year 2009.
*The same is true for enlisted active-duty women in grades E-7 (rank of sergeant first class) through E-9 (rank of first sergeant), who went from 8.3 percent in 1995 to approximately 10.8 percent as of fiscal year 2009.
Making up 13.4% of the overall Army, but 13.3% of senior commissioned and 10.8% senior non-commissioned officers is pretty good. Though you could of course just count that as the PC brass promoting the ladies so that they make nicer window dressing. Whatever.
(source: http://www.army.mil/women/today.html)
Rahu, that’s cool! This entry should be required reading for the wordsmiths at AVfM, who all seem to have a bad case of perissology.
In short? Human societies are complex. I would ask you to cite which societies, exactly, where women are absolute slaves.
The thing is, in studying societies, historians and anthropologists come in with biases. Like you, they see what they want to see in order to ratify their views of the world. Marcel Mauss looked at the Kula exchange in Polynesia, mostly at what the men were doing. He ignored the women’s roles. In looking back, the women’s exchange of other goods is as important in maintaining social ties, if not moreso.
Evans-Pritchard in Africa said “the whole village left” and that the “women and children stayed behind.” It seems that he had a pretty fucked up view of what the “whole village” consisted of. He did not see women and children as actors. And that was HIS problem. Not the people he was studying. It was his bias that made women and children non-actors or not worth including.
So, even in places where women are “total slaves,” I would be critical. There’s relationships that are subtle, things that happen under the surface that aren’t always seen on the surface.
One of my own professors (born and raised in Burma) shed a lot of light on the bullshit that was coming out about Burma, because he knew that there was more complexity that the anthropologists weren’t bothering to look at. Not because they were necessarily idiots or such, but because they did not know to ask the questions.
These are older examples, just for the record (30s-50s).
Also, there’s the Marine girl who went to Marine prom with Justin Timberlake.
Apparently physical superiority is only important when it “proves” that men are better than women, but it’s totes irrelevant when it makes white folks look bad. I am totally for realsies shocked that Racist McNazi over here isn’t consistent in his evaluation of evidence.
Why won’t Otis understand that in most societies, EVERYONE is under some leader of some sort- who is often the person who takes advantage of all the power and resources available while everyone else gets the leftovers? This isn’t just a question of “women are oppressed” (it is, however VERY socially effective to create divisions in gender and phenotypical appearance in order to keep ancient and lazy power structures in place), it is the fact that if you have a hierarchy and a pecking order, it is much easier to keep a society (especially a larger one) running. But easier is not necessarily BETTER. It is easier to just go find a cave for shelter than build a house, but creating infrastructure for heat/electricity/plumbing and building a house, but a house is a lot BETTER than cave-dwelling.
Sure, it may not be perfect now, but things got a whole lot better once we stopped having such a disproportionate wealth distribution of upperclass and poverty, because infrastructure is one of the biggest predictors for overall cultural advancement. One king who has all the wealth may be able to finance a toilet or something, but it’s much easier to create more advanced technology when many people are using it. Countries that have a wide swath of middle class individuals have the ability to create a market for innovation in such a way that would not be possible with just the odd eccentric billionaire philanthropist or two. This is largely why the military and the government have been some of the largest initial financiers for some of our most beloved civilian use technology such as the Internet and cell phones- the money that goes towards military and government spending comes largely from ALL citizens, instead of just a select one or two people who want to have ALL THE THINGS.
Women are an important group in society- all humans have something to offer a just and egalitarian society if they themselves adhere to justice and egalitarianist modes of behavior.
Attempting to discredit certain groups and their worth as beings (and then attempting to argue that this means they deserve abuse or to be treated as inferior) by using poor definitions of “worth” and otherwise creating a false and simplistic dichotomy where some people are “doers/makers” and others are “lazy/takers” and then extrapolating that to an entire population that shares one phenotypical appearance factor (female), is fucking bullshit, and you know it. It’s easy to say that men are superior because PENIS (and that’s useful and benefits you since that apparently is the only thing you have going for you on the so-called superiority front), but it’s not so easy to actually QUANTIFY that statement with, ya know, actual FACTS.
I wonder why so many societies were so intimidated by women that they took (and still take) so many measures to control and oppress them.
More importantly, here is a cat who likes to give hugs: