Army cadets told sex assaults must go
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Graduating adets attend the 215th commencement ceremony at the United States Military Academy at West Point on Saturday, May 25, 2013, in West Point, New York.
By The Associated Press
Published: Saturday, May 25, 2013, 6:12 p.m.
Updated 2 hours ago
WEST POINT, N.Y . Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told cadets at the U.S .
Military Academy at West Point on Saturday that they must stamp out the scourge of sexual assault in the military.
A new report shows that the problem of sexual misconduct is growing . The challenge is particularly poignant for West Point, because an Army sergeant was charged last week with secretly photographing and videotaping at least a dozen women at the upper New York state academy, including in a bathroom.
Sexual harassment and sexual assault in the military are a profound betrayal a profound betrayal of sacred oaths and sacred trusts, Hagel told 1,007 graduating cadets during a cold, rainy outdoor ceremony . This scourge must be stamped out.
Female cadets interviewed after the ceremony said they felt secure during their four years at the academy on the Hudson River.
We’ve had issues here and there that the press really highlights .
But overall I know that my classmates, my friends, we all feel very safe, and we do think that was the exception, said Abigail Osman of Hershey.
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In Cases Of Military Sexual Assault, Victims Are Victimized Twice …
SAN ANTONIO (AP) Army Pvt. Anna Moore spotted the man approaching as she knelt on the hallway floor, scraping off a dingy layer of wax. He was a sergeant from another battery with no apparent reason for entering the empty third floor of her barracks.
Why was he there, she wondered.
“Look at you, all sexy covered in paint,” he said.
Moore worried about her isolated spot that morning. She was a Patriot missile operator, on light duty and recovering from kidney stones, while the rest of her unit in Hanau, Germany, worked in the field.
The sergeant edged closer. He tried to make small talk as he watched her work.
Suddenly, he grabbed her between the legs. She jumped and pulled away from him.
“Knock it off,” she told him, then turned and headed for her nearby room. The sergeant followed.
He rushed at Moore and pulled her close, groping and fondling her.
She fought back and screamed for help as he repeatedly tried to force her onto the bed. Her battle buddy, who had just returned from the field, heard her screams and called back. The sergeant fled.
She reported the October 2002 assault to her first sergeant, but he instructed her to drop the complaint.
He said the sergeant who attacked her was preparing to transfer back home to his family, that it was better for everyone’s career hers included to just move on.
Then he tore up her sworn statement.
“I said, ‘I don’t think that’s the answer,’” Moore recalled in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News (http://bit.ly/13M8IUG). “He told me to get out of his office. He yelled at me.”
Less than a month later, she began to receive bad job reviews and went to a mental health counselor for support.
What followed is familiar to many sexual-assault victims in the military, according to active and former troops, families, victim advocates and veterans groups.
Less than eight months after she reported the assault, Moore was diagnosed with a pre-existing psychiatric illness that she had never heard of: personality disorder. The Army kicked her out.
Similar accounts from members in every branch of the military show that those who disclose a sexual assault face commanders who often disregard their reports and send them to uniformed counselors, who subsequently find them to be mentally unfit for duty, a seven-month San Antonio Express-News investigation shows.
Through dozens of interviews with experts and victims, and a review of thousands of pages of military and medical documents, the newspaper found the problem to be pervasive and long-standing, with cases spanning three decades.
The pattern of expulsions continues, defying policies to limit the psychiatric discharges and to ensure qualified doctors evaluate sexual-assault victims.
The mental health diagnoses can come with little or no psychological evaluation, and many are disputed by doctors outside the military.
Victims often had no history of mental health problems.
Among them were soldiers who had established promising careers, passed the rigors of boot camp and attained top security clearances.
Yet, military mental health officials diagnosed victims with disorders they claimed existed before their service, making them ineligible for medical benefits or re-enlistment.
No one tracks how often it happens. But women are disproportionately diagnosed with psychiatric disorders and discharged at higher rates than men, according to records obtained by veterans aid groups and reports from the Defense Department.
A survey of 1,200 service members who sought help since 2003 at the nonprofit Military Rape Crisis Center found 90 percent of victims who reported sex assaults were involuntarily discharged from the military.
Most commonly, victims are told they have personality disorder, while others are labeled with adjustment disorder and bipolar disorder, said Panayiota Bertzikis, executive director of the Boston-based center.
“It’s a constant problem. They’re saying the victims are not credible because they’re crazy.
They just want them to go away,” said Bertzikis, who was diagnosed with adjustment disorder and pushed out of the Coast Guard in 2007 after reporting a shipmate threw her to the ground, punched her in the face and raped her. “My medical records say I had problems adjusting to being raped.”
The pattern ties to larger failings with how the military handles sex crimes within its ranks.
The Express-News found victims encounter an insular justice system in which superiors often interfere with sex-assault reports. Many face harassment and retaliation, or become targets of investigations into their own conduct. Others who seek transfers away from their bases are held in place for months, despite a policy to let them relocate quickly after an assault.
Commanders who supervise the accused and may hold them in high professional esteem have broad discretion over how to handle the cases and often choose not to prosecute.
Instead, they routinely handle accusations as administrative matters that never reach a courtroom.
A series of lawsuits against the Pentagon and an ongoing sex-abuse scandal at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, where 33 instructors have been investigated for illicit conduct with 63 trainees, have turned a spotlight on the epidemic of rape in the military.
The Defense Department estimates 26,000 troops were victims of sexual assault last year, a 35 percent increase over 2011.
Military women are far more likely than civilians to be victimized. One in four female soldiers has been sexually assaulted, compared with one in six women in the civilian world.
The prevalence of the problem is aggravated by a lack of faith in the justice system. By the Pentagon’s estimate, the vast majority of victims 89 percent don’t report sex crimes.
By comparison, in the civilian justice system, about 65 percent of sexual assaults go unreported, the Justice Department says.
The numbers are rooted in complex cultural dynamics. In a world where good soldiers must sacrifice for the sake of the survival and cohesion of the unit, victims who break the silence say they are ignored, discredited or even punished.
“After reporting it, I became the problem,” said Lola Miles, an Air Force helicopter mechanic who was discharged in 2005 with borderline personality disorder after she told her superiors that a fellow airman had pinned her to a car seat, grabbing and kissing her.
Commanders told her she had invited the abuse by acting like “one of the guys,” said Miles, now a family therapist with a master’s degree in mental health counseling. “They told me I needed to repair my reputation.”
To distance her from the perpetrator, she was moved to the overnight work shift. She was told that if she pushed her complaint higher up the chain of command, she would receive a written reprimand.
After Anna Moore reported the sexual assault in her room, she faced mounting harassment from fellow soldiers in her unit of about 100 men and five women.
She was groped and subjected to degrading remarks.
“Usually, a comment that went with it was that I have a black chick’s butt,” she said.
The worst of it came from a higher-ranking specialist in her unit while deployed in Israel.
“He would say I was worthless because I’m a woman and women shouldn’t be in the military,” she said.
She reported the harassment to the same superior who destroyed her sexual-assault report and was told nothing could be done. When she objected, saying she would be forced to protect herself, her superiors interpreted the remark as a threat.
“So they took my weapon after that,” she said.
The Pentagon has implemented a flurry of reforms aimed at improving care for victims, developing better criminal prosecution and changing military culture. Last year, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta required a higher level of commanders to decide how sex-assault cases are handled.
Growing awareness of the problem has prompted legislative proposals to remove or limit the power of commanders in the military justice system.
New provisions in the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act require the creation of specially trained victims’ units for each service branch.
Col. Alan Metzler, the deputy director of the Defense Department’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, said the services are broadening new protections for victims.
One key provision would give victims who file an open sexual-assault report the right to appeal an administrative discharge, regardless of whether they feel they were targeted for speaking out, he said. Accounts of retaliation against victims, including complaints of being pushed out for mental disorders, resonate with top military officials, he said.
It’s unclear how many sexual-assault victims have been cast out of the military for specious mental health problems.
But about 31,000 service members were discharged for personality disorder from 2001 to 2010, according to a study released last year by the Vietnam Veterans Association of America.
The report was spurred by longtime complaints that the military’s medical bureaucracy washes out combat soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress and brain injuries on the basis of alleged personality disorders. Thomas Berger, executive health council director for the veterans’ group, contends sexual-assault victims are subjected to the same practice.
“It’s a lot easier to get rid of folks under those types of diagnoses than to evaluate them properly and treat them properly, because that takes time and money,” Berger said
Numbers compiled by the Veterans Legal Services Clinic at Yale Law School show women in every branch of the armed services are discharged with personality disorder at disproportionate rates. The widest disparity appeared in the Air Force, where women make up about 20 percent of the population, but account for 35 percent of personality discharges, according to data released by the Yale law clinic.
A Defense Department report released in June shows servicewomen are far more likely to be diagnosed with mental disorders.
The study, published in the Medical Surveillance Monthly Report, tracked active-duty service members from 2000 to 2011 and found women were diagnosed with personality and adjustment disorders at more than twice the rate for men.
None of the studies identified the number of troops who reported assaults.
The consequences for victims extend beyond the loss of their careers.
The Pentagon considers personality disorder to be a condition that existed prior to service and thus does not qualify as the basis for a medical discharge.
The diagnosis can prevent veterans from obtaining lifetime disability benefits and health care.
It also may be a red flag for future employers, who can see the diagnosis listed in military paperwork.
In some cases, sexual-assault victims have been forced to repay their enlistment bonuses.
Army Photography Contest 2007 FMWRC Arts and Crafts An …
Army Photography Contest 2007 FMWRC Arts and Crafts An Eternal Lullaby
Photo By: SSG Robert Stewart
To learn more about the annual U.S . Army Photography Competition, visit us online at www.armymwr.com1
U.S . Army Arts and Crafts HistoryAfter World War I the reductions to the Army left the United States with a small force .
The War Department faced monumental challenges in preparing for World War II . One of those challenges was soldier morale . Recreational activities for off duty time would be important .
The arts and crafts program informally evolved to augment the needs of the War Department.On January 9, 1941, the Secretary of War, Henry L . Stimson, appointed Frederick H . Osborn, a prominent U.S .
businessman and philanthropist, Chairman of the War Department Committee on Education, Recreation and Community Service.In 1940 and 1941, the United States involvement in World War II was more of sympathy and anticipation than of action . However, many different types of institutions were looking for ways to help the war effort . The Museum of Modern Art in New York was one of these institutions .
In April, 1941, the Museum announced a poster competition, Posters for National Defense . The directors stated The Museum feels that in a time of national emergency the artists of a country are as important an asset as men skilled in other fields, and that the nation s first-rate talent should be utilized by the government for its official design work Discussions have been held with officials of the Army and the Treasury who have expressed remarkable enthusiasm In May 1941, the Museum exhibited Britain at War , a show selected by Sir Kenneth Clark, director of the National Gallery in London . The Prize-Winning Defense Posters were exhibited in July through September concurrently with Britain at War .
The enormous overnight growth of the military force meant mobilization type construction at every camp . Construction was fast; facilities were not fancy; rather drab and depressing.In 1941, the Fort Custer Army Illustrators, while on strenuous war games maneuvers in Tennessee, documented the exercise The Bulletin of the Museum of Modern Art, Vol .
9, No .
3 (Feb .
1942), described their work . Results were astonishingly good; they showed serious devotion to the purpose of depicting the Army scene with unvarnished realism and a remarkable ability to capture this scene from the soldier s viewpoint .
Civilian amateur and professional artists had been transformed into soldier-artists . Reality and straightforward documentation had supplanted (replaced) the old romantic glorification and false dramatization of war and the slick suavity (charm) of commercial drawing.
In August of last year, Fort Custer Army Illustrators held an exhibition, the first of its kind in the new Army, at the Camp Service Club . Soldiers who saw the exhibition, many of whom had never been inside an art gallery, enjoyed it thoroughly .
Civilian visitors, too, came and admired . The work of the group showed them a new aspect of the Army; there were many phases of Army life they had never seen or heard of before . Newspapers made much of it and, most important, the Army approved .
Army officials saw that it was not only authentic material, but that here was a source of enlivenment (vitalization) to the Army and a vivid medium for conveying the Army s purposes and processes to civilians and soldiers . Brigadier General Frederick H . Osborn and War Department leaders were concerned because few soldiers were using the off duty recreation areas that were available .
Army commanders recognized that efficiency is directly correlated with morale, and that morale is largely determined from the manner in which an individual spends his own free time . Army morale enhancement through positive off duty recreation programs is critical in combat staging areas.To encourage soldier use of programs, the facilities drab and uninviting environment had to be improved . A program utilizing talented artists and craftsmen to decorate day rooms, mess halls, recreation halls and other places of general assembly was established by the Facilities Section of Special Services .
The purpose was to provide an environment that would reflect the military tradition, accomplishments and the high standard of army life . The fact that this work was to be done by the men themselves had the added benefit of contributing to the esprit de corps (teamwork, or group spirit) of the unit.The plan was first tested in October of 1941, at Camp Davis, North Carolina . A studio workshop was set up and a group of soldier artists were placed on special duty to design and decorate the facilities .
Additionally, evening recreation art classes were scheduled three times a week . A second test was established at Fort Belvoir, Virginia a month later . The success of these programs lead to more installations requesting the program.After Pearl Harbor was bombed, the Museum of Modern Art appointed Mr .
James Soby, to the position of Director of the Armed Service Program on January 15, 1942 . The subsequent program became a combination of occupational therapy, exhibitions and morale-sustaining activities.Through the efforts of Mr . Soby, the museum program included; a display of Fort Custer Army Illustrators work from February through April 5, 1942 .
The museum also included the work of soldier-photographers in this exhibit . On May 6, 1942, Mr . Soby opened an art sale of works donated by museum members .
The sale was to raise funds for the Soldier Art Program of Special Services Division . The bulk of these proceeds were to be used to provide facilities and materials for soldier artists in Army camps throughout the country.Members of the Museum had responded with paintings, sculptures, watercolors, gouaches, drawings, etchings and lithographs . Hundreds of works were received, including oils by Winslow Homer, Orozco, John Kane, Speicher, Eilshemius, de Chirico; watercolors by Burchfield and Dufy; drawings by Augustus John, Forain and Berman, and prints by Cezanne, Lautrec, Matisse and Bellows .
The War Department plan using soldier-artists to decorate and improve buildings and grounds worked . Many artists who had been drafted into the Army volunteered to paint murals in waiting rooms and clubs, to decorate dayrooms, and to landscape grounds . For each artist at work there were a thousand troops who watched .
These bystanders clamored to participate, and classes in drawing, painting, sculpture and photography were offered . Larger working space and more instructors were required to meet the growing demand . Civilian art instructors and local communities helped to meet this cultural need, by providing volunteer instruction and facilities.Some proceeds from the Modern Museum of Art sale were used to print 25,000 booklets called Interior Design and Soldier Art .
The booklet showed examples of soldier-artist murals that decorated places of general assembly . It was a guide to organizing, planning and executing the soldier-artist program . The balance of the art sale proceeds were used to purchase the initial arts and crafts furnishings for 350 Army installations in the USA.In November, 1942, General Somervell directed that a group of artists be selected and dispatched to active theaters to paint war scenes with the stipulation that soldier artists would not paint in lieu of military duties.Aileen Osborn Webb, sister of Brigadier General Frederick H .
Osborn, launched the American Crafts Council in 1943 . She was an early champion of the Army program.While soldiers were participating in fixed facilities in the USA, many troops were being shipped overseas to Europe and the Pacific (1942-1945) . They had long periods of idleness and waiting in staging areas .
At that time the wounded were lying in hospitals, both on land and in ships at sea . The War Department and Red Cross responded by purchasing kits of arts and crafts tools and supplies to distribute to these restless personnel . A variety of small Handicraft Kits were distributed free of charge .
Leathercraft, celluloid etching, knotting and braiding, metal tooling, drawing and clay modeling are examples of the types of kits sent.In January, 1944, the Interior Design Soldier Artist program was more appropriately named the Arts and Crafts Section of Special Services . The mission was to fulfill the natural human desire to create, provide opportunities for self-expression, serve old skills and develop new ones, and assist the entire recreation program through construction work, publicity, and decoration . The National Army Art Contest was planned for the late fall of 1944 .
In June of 1945, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., for the first time in its history opened its facilities for the exhibition of the soldier art and photography submitted to this contest . The Infantry Journal, Inc . printed a small paperback booklet containing 215 photographs of pictures exhibited in the National Gallery of Art.In August of 1944, the Museum of Modern Art, Armed Forces Program, organized an art center for veterans .
Abby Rockefeller, in particular, had a strong interest in this project . Soldiers were invited to sketch, paint, or model under the guidance of skilled artists and craftsmen . Victor d Amico, who was in charge of the Museum s Education Department, was quoted in Russell Lynes book, Good Old Modern: An Intimate Portrait of the Museum of Modern Art .
I asked one fellow why he had taken up art and he said, Well, I just came back from destroying everything . I made up my mind that if I ever got out of the Army and out of the war I was never going to destroy another thing in my life, and I decided that art was the thing that I would do . Another man said to d Amico, Art is like a good night s sleep .
You come away refreshed and at peace . In late October, 1944, an Arts and Crafts Branch of Special Services Division, Headquarters, European Theater of Operations was established . A versatile program of handcrafts flourished among the Army occupation troops.The increased interest in crafts, rather than fine arts, at this time lead to a new name for the program: The Handicrafts Branch .
In 1945, the War Department published a new manual, Soldier Handicrafts , to help implement this new emphasis . The manual contained instructions for setting up crafts facilities, selecting as well as improvising tools and equipment, and basic information on a variety of arts and crafts.As the Army moved from a combat to a peacetime role, the majority of crafts shops in the United States were equipped with woodworking power machinery for construction of furnishings and objects for personal living . Based on this new trend, in 1946 the program was again renamed, this time as Manual Arts .
At the same time, overseas programs were now employing local artists and craftsmen to operate the crafts facilities and instruct in a variety of arts and crafts . These highly skilled, indigenous instructors helped to stimulate the soldiers interest in the respective native cultures and artifacts . Thousands of troops overseas were encouraged to record their experiences on film .
These photographs provided an invaluable means of communication between troops and their families back home.When the war ended, the Navy had a firm of architects and draftsmen on contract to design ships . Since there was no longer a need for more ships, they were given a new assignment: To develop a series of instructional guides for arts and crafts . These were called Hobby Manuals .
The Army was impressed with the quality of the Navy manuals and had them reprinted and adopted for use by Army troops . By 1948, the arts and crafts practiced throughout the Army were so varied and diverse that the program was renamed Hobby Shops . The first Interservice Photography Contest was held in 1948 .
Each service is eligible to send two years of their winning entries forward for the bi-annual interservice contest . In 1949, the first All Army Crafts Contest was also held . Once again, it was clear that the program title, Hobby Shops was misleading and overlapped into other forms of recreation.In January, 1951, the program was designated as The Army Crafts Program .
The program was recognized as an essential Army recreation activity along with sports, libraries, service clubs, soldier shows and soldier music . In the official statement of mission, professional leadership was emphasized to insure a balanced, progressive schedule of arts and crafts would be conducted in well-equipped, attractive facilities on all Army installations.The program was now defined in terms of a Basic Seven Program which included: drawing and painting; ceramics and sculpture; metal work; leathercrafts; model building; photography and woodworking . These programs were to be conducted regularly in facilities known as the multiple-type crafts shop .
For functional reasons, these facilities were divided into three separate technical areas for woodworking, photography and the arts and crafts.During the Korean Conflict, the Army Crafts program utilized the personnel and shops in Japan to train soldiers to instruct crafts in Korea.The mid-1950s saw more soldiers with cars and the need to repair their vehicles was recognized at Fort Carson, Colorado, by the craft director . Soldiers familiar with crafts shops knew that they had tools and so automotive crafts were established . By 1958, the Engineers published an Official Design Guide on Crafts Shops and Auto Crafts Shops .
In 1959, the first All Army Art Contest was held . Once more, the Army Crafts Program responded to the needs of soldiers.In the 1960 s, the war in Vietnam was a new challenge for the Army Crafts Program . The program had three levels of support; fixed facilities, mobile trailers designed as portable photo labs, and once again a Kit Program .
The kit program originated at Headquarters, Department of Army, and it proved to be very popular with soldiers.Tom Turner, today a well-known studio potter, was a soldier at Ft . Jackson, South Carolina in the 1960s . In the December 1990 / January 1991 American Crafts magazine, Turner, who had been a graduate student in art school when he was drafted, said the program was a godsend .
The Army Artist Program was re-initiated in cooperation with the Office of Military History to document the war in Vietnam . Soldier-artists were identified and teams were formed to draw and paint the events of this combat . Exhibitions of these soldier-artist works were produced and toured throughout the USA.In 1970, the original name of the program, Arts and Crafts , was restored .
In 1971, the Arts and Crafts/Skills Development Program was established for budget presentations and construction projects.After the Vietnam demobilization, a new emphasis was placed on service to families and children of soldiers . To meet this new challenge in an environment of funding constraints the arts and crafts program began charging fees for classes . More part-time personnel were used to teach formal classes .
Additionally, a need for more technical-vocational skills training for military personnel was met by close coordination with Army Education Programs . Army arts and crafts directors worked with soldiers during Project Transition to develop soldier skills for new careers in the public sector.The main challenge in the 1980s and 90s was, and is, to become self-sustaining . Directors have been forced to find more ways to generate increased revenue to help defray the loss of appropriated funds and to cover the non-appropriated funds expenses of the program .
Programs have added and increased emphasis on services such as, picture framing, gallery sales, engraving and trophy sales, etc New programs such as multi-media computer graphics appeal to customers of the 1990 s.The Gulf War presented the Army with some familiar challenges such as personnel off duty time in staging areas . Department of Army volunteer civilian recreation specialists were sent to Saudi Arabia in January, 1991, to organize recreation programs . Arts and crafts supplies were sent to the theater .
An Army Humor Cartoon Contest was conducted for the soldiers in the Gulf, and arts and crafts programs were set up to meet soldier interests.The increased operations tempo of the 90 s Army has once again placed emphasis on meeting the recreation needs of deployed soldiers . Arts and crafts activities and a variety of programs are assets commanders must have to meet the deployment challenges of these very different scenarios.The Army arts and crafts program, no matter what it has been titled, has made some unique contributions for the military and our society in general . Army arts and crafts does not fit the narrow definition of drawing and painting or making ceramics, but the much larger sense of arts and crafts .
It is painting and drawing . It also encompasses:* all forms of design. (fabric, clothes, household appliances, dishes, vases, houses, automobiles, landscapes, computers, copy machines, desks, industrial machines, weapon systems, air crafts, roads, etc )* applied technology (photography, graphics, woodworking, sculpture, metal smithing, weaving and textiles, sewing, advertising, enameling, stained glass, pottery, charts, graphs, visual aides and even formats for correspondence )* a way of making learning fun, practical and meaningful (through the process of designing and making an object the creator must decide which materials and techniques to use, thereby engaging in creative problem solving and discovery) skills taught have military applications.* a way to acquire quality items and save money by doing-it-yourself (making furniture, gifts, repairing things ).* a way to pursue college credit, through on post classes.* a universal and non-verbal language (a picture is worth a thousand words).* food for the human psyche, an element of morale that allows for individual expression (freedom).* the celebration of human spirit and excellence (our highest form of public recognition is through a dedicated monument).* physical and mental therapy (motor skill development, stress reduction, etc ).* an activity that promotes self-reliance and self-esteem.* the record of mankind, and in this case, of the Army.What would the world be like today if this generally unknown program had not existed ? To quantitatively state the overall impact of this program on the world is impossible .
Millions of soldier citizens have been directly and indirectly exposed to arts and crafts because this program existed . One activity, photography can provide a clue to its impact . Soldiers encouraged to take pictures, beginning with WW II, have shared those images with family and friends .
Classes in How to Use a Camera to How to Develop Film and Print Pictures were instrumental in soldiers seeing the results of using quality equipment . A good camera and lens could make a big difference in the quality of the print . They bought the top of the line equipment .
When they were discharged from the Army or home on leave this new equipment was showed to the family and friends . Without this encouragement and exposure to photography many would not have recorded their personal experiences or known the difference quality equipment could make . Families and friends would not have had the opportunity to see the environment their soldier was living in without these photos .
Germany, Italy, Korea, Japan, Panama, etc were far away places that most had not visited.As the twenty first century approaches, the predictions for an arts renaissance by Megatrends 2000 seem realistic based on the Army Arts and Crafts Program practical experience .
In the April 95 issue of American Demographics magazine, an article titled Generation X fully supports that this is indeed the case today .
Television and computers have greatly contributed to Generation X being more interested in the visual arts and crafts.Connect with us:www.Facebook.com/FamilyMWRwww.Twitter.com/FamilyMWRwww.YouTube.com/FamilyMWR234
References
- ^ www.armymwr.com (www.armymwr.com)
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- ^ www.YouTube.com/FamilyMWR (www.YouTube.com)
Amanda Bynes' Downward Spiral Is Outta Control: A Recap Of …
Things have gone from bad to worse for Amanda Bynes1!
We knew something was out of whack with the retired actress, but shizz REALLY hit the fan in the last few days and now her downward spiral is moving faster than EVER!
If you’re not sure what we’re talking about then take a minute to relive the whirlwind disaster, starting with the story about the shocking release of pics showing her HORRIBLE living conditions:
Amanda Bynes’ Living Conditions EXPOSED By Revealing Photos; Surrounded By Drugs And More!CLICK HERE2 Amanda Bynes Furious With Tabloids, Calls Dirty Drug/Sex Pics Doctored! Read Her Diatribe HERE!CLICK HERE3 Amanda Bynes REJECTED From Private Jet For No I.D., Tries To Use GOOGLE Instead!CLICK HERE4 Amanda Bynes Continues Her Hate Against ‘Ugly’ People; Tweets Borderline Racist Message!CLICK HERE5 Amanda Bynes Arrested In New York City AND Taken To Psychiatric Hospital!!!!!!CLICK HERE6 Amanda Bynes & Her Blonde Wig ARRESTED! WATCH The Video HERE!CLICK HERE7 Amanda Bynes’ Drug Arrest Proves She Needs Conservatorship?!CLICK HERE8 Amanda Bynes Bares Her Bald Head In MUGSHOT!
See It Here!CLICK HERE9 Amanda Bynes Post Arrest: Arrives At Court With Her Head Down And Wig PlatinumCLICK HERE10 Amanda Bynes Claims She Threw A VASE, Not A BONG! Plus MORE Deets From Her Arrest!CLICK HERE11 Amanda Bynes Reportedly Called 911 ON HERSELF! Said Cops Were Going To ASSAULT Her!!CLICK HERE12 Amanda Bynes’ Trouble With The Law; She’s Not Alone!CLICK HERE13 Amanda Bynes Post Arrest: Covers Her Face Through The Crowd On Way Home!CLICK HERE14 Amanda Bynes Moving Out Of Dirty Apartment & Into Jail Due To Probation Violation?!CLICK HERE15 Amanda Bynes’ Poor Mental Health To Blame For Drug Problems!?
Parents Want Her In Hospital, NOT Rehab!CLICK HERE16 Amanda Bynes’ Wigged Out Arrest!
Deets On Her Stripper-Inspired ‘Do!CLICK HERE17 Amanda Bynes Allegedly Stiffed Her Cabbie $7 After Leaving Manhattan Criminal Court!!CLICK HERE18
Image via Twitter.]
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What Do Dress Codes Say About Girls' Bodies? – Ms.Magazine
You re not going out dressed like that!
What mother would let her child wear such a short skirt?
Think about it: How often do we police girls bodies? Recent talk of school dress codes reveals that it happens an awful lot, and for some confused reasons.
After a New Jersey middle school banned1 strapless dresses from a school dance, more schools2 have been making headlines with various clothing bans and restrictions. Some of these bans focus on attire for dances3 while others target daily wear4 such as yoga pants and low-cut tops.
All, however, focus only on girls clothing, and most5 of these6 restrictions7 are put in place to avoid distracting other students (i.e. the boys).
The concern for overly exposed young bodies may be well-intentioned. With society fetishizing girls8 at younger and younger ages, girls are instructed to self-objectify9 and see themselves as sexual objects, something to be looked at.
A laundry list of problems can come from obsessing10 over one s appearance: eating disorders11, depression12, low self-worth13. Who wouldn t want to spare her daughter from these struggles?
But these dress codes fall short of being legitimately helpful. What we fail to consider when enforcing restrictions on skirt-length and the tightness of pants is the girls themselves not just their clothes, but their thoughts, emotions, budding sexuality and self-image.
Instead, these restrictions are executed with distracted boys in mind, casting girls as inherent sexual threats needing to be tamed.
Dress restrictions in schools contribute to the very problem they aim to solve: the objectification of young girls. When you tell a girl what to wear (or force her14 to cover up with an oversized T-shirt), you control her body. When you control a girl s body even if it is ostensibly for her own good you take away her agency.
You tell her that her body is not her own.
When you deem a girl s dress inappropriate, you re also telling her, Because your body may distract boys, your body is inappropriate. Cover it up. You recontextualize her body; she now exists through the male gaze.
Says15 Soraya Chemaly in The Huffington Post,
What is a girl supposed to think in the morning when she wakes up and tries to decide what to wear to school?
They aren t idiots. The logical conclusion of the distracting issue is, Will I turn someone on if I wear this? Now who is doing the sexualizing?
My daughters would never have thought these things without the help of their school.
Suddenly, offensive hypersexuality isn t just something a girl sees in music videos or magazines: It s embodied in her, and her dress-coded school reminds her of that every day.
So what about those distracted young boys? Where do they come in? By barring particular outfits from school, dress codes help boys identify and objectify16 inappropriate girls and women.
Girls who violate dress codes are violating rules, and girls who violate rules are bad. Bad girls can be17 desirable and sexy18, but they don t necessarily deserve respect19 (even from other girls20).
And where respect is absent, objectification is easy. In her guide to self-objectification21, Caroline Heldman explains how sexually objectified women are dehumanized and viewed as less competent and worthy of empathy by both men and women. Those who are dehumanized may be mistreated22 and made to feel inadequate23.
And if poor self-image is linked with objectification, it isn t hard to see that this cycle feeds itself: Those who are objectified by others are treated as less than human, and in understanding themselves as less than human may self-objectify.
Asking girls to cover up is a Band-Aid solution to far more socially ingrained problems such as general misogyny and rape culture. As long as a girl or woman is always sexualized, it won t matter how much she covers up she ll still be faulted for24 her inappropriate behavior.
It s unfair to expect a young girl to understand the full implications of her body implications put in place by an all-too-often misogynistic society and punish her for not knowing better. A girl needs empowerment, not more complications in her relationship with her body.
Jada Pinkett Smith had the right idea when asked why25 she would let her daughter Willow shave her head:
This is a world where women, girls are constantly reminded that they don t belong to themselves; that their bodies are not their own, nor their power, or self determination.
I made a promise to endow my little girl with the power to always know that her body, spirit, and her mind are her domain.
Willow cut her hair because her beauty, her value, her worth is not measured by the length of her hair even little girls have the right to own themselves.
Photograph credited to Lindsay Kamikawa via SanClemente Patch26
References
- ^ banned (www.nbcnewyork.com)
- ^ more schools (www.care2.com)
- ^ attire for dances (www.newsnet5.com)
- ^ daily wear (www.startribune.com)
- ^ most (www.startribune.com)
- ^ these (jezebel.com)
- ^ restrictions (www.actionnewsjax.com)
- ^ fetishizing girls (www.tlc.com)
- ^ self-objectify (carolineheldman.wordpress.com)
- ^ obsessing (www.sciencedirect.com)
- ^ eating disorders (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
- ^ depression (www.springerlink.com)
- ^ low self-worth (link.springer.com)
- ^ force her (www.theatlantic.com)
- ^ Says (www.huffingtonpost.com)
- ^ identify and objectify (www.facebook.com)
- ^ Bad girls can be (www.spencersonline.com)
- ^ desirable and sexy (www.spencersonline.com)
- ^ hey don t necessarily deserve respect (dicipres.wordpress.com)
- ^ even from other girls (www.youtube.com)
- ^ guide to self-objectification (carolineheldman.wordpress.com)
- ^ mistreated (www.huffingtonpost.com)
- ^ feel inadequate (www.nydailynews.com)
- ^ faulted for (www.howaboutwe.com)
- ^ when asked why (www.refinery29.com)
- ^ SanClemente Patch (sanclemente.patch.com)
Woman suing Salvation Army; claims sex abuse
A woman is suing The Salvation Army, claiming the organization moved a minister from Oahu to Maui after she reported he sexually abused her in the 1950s . Nancy Spencer’s lawsuit filed on Maui this week claims she was 11 when Maj . Richard Taba molested her .
She says her mother told The Salvation Army what happened and believed he had been terminated . But Spencer read in Taba’s obituary last year that he continued to serve as the Salvation Army’s chaplain on Maui for 40 years . A spokeswoman for The Salvation Army in California said Thursday the organization will try its best to investigate the allegations .
The lawsuit is possible because of a 2012 state law that suspends the statute of limitations for sex abuse cases until April 2014.