Abstract
The following chapter will outline the political climate that has surrounded military sexual assault since the 1980s and the “episodic amnesia” and “attitudinal virus” that the military unwillingly participates in around the issue of military sexual trauma. The chapter explores the culture of the military, and the author hypothesizes a “military rape subculture” that exists within the more dominant military structure. Theories of aggressive masculinity, military law, military training academies, and the concept of the “military family” can create a subculture of rapists within the ranks and how the military culture consistently fails to protect those that are victimized.
“It was an astounding admission when Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., confessed that he had advised the mother of a young woman interested in joining the military that he couldn’t in all good faith tell her it was the right career path for her daughter. McCain wasn’t faulting the military for lack of opportunity, or for gender discrimination, but for something far more basic, the continued inability to protect service women, and men too, from sexual assault, and to give those who are the victims of assault or sexual harassment a fair hearing without fear of retribution.”
(Protect our uniformed women, 2013)
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Zaleski, K. (2015). The Military Rape Subculture Hypothesis. In: Understanding and Treating Military Sexual Trauma. Focus on Sexuality Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16607-0_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16607-0_2
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