Third, What is Sexism?
Welcome back to Episode 3 of Command and Signal- a limited run podcast about vets, propaganda, patriotism and other bullshit. Today’s episode is about sexism. What is sexism? Well, more or less, it’s the discrimination against someone on the basis of sex or gender.
Honestly, as far as definitions go, this has been one of the easiest yet!
BUT, what’s not easy is explaining how the military treats women. There are a lot of issues we could focus on right now- sexual assault, quid pro quo, rumors, disparities, oh goodness the list goes on… what I want to focus on is systemic issues. Specifically, culture.
When we think about military culture, we think about one that is hyper masculine- which many would call toxic masculinity. So, you might be wondering where toxic masculinity reared its ugly head in the Military.
Marines in the facebook group Marines United were sharing nude pics of women in the Marine Corps without their consent. And that’s just the tip of the spear- other Facebook groups like “JTTOTS,” “POG Boot Fuck,” And “F’kn Wook” all participated in various social shaming practices in which they’d take women’s photos without their consent and subject them to sexualized ratings, degradation and- in some cases- doxxing.
It’s fucking gross.
And as I was writing this all down, it begged the question- what’s it like to be a woman in the military? So, I called one up. Staff Sergeant Lupe Campos is an active duty Marine and she spoke with me about her experiences. Want to hear what she said? Listen to the podcast.
Anyways, why is this important? Well, beyond the obvious that women are being harassed, assaulted and abused just for being women and we should want that to stop, this is important because, like race, gender is ANOTHER way foreign governments are manipulating us. To refresh your memory, the Vietnam Veterans of America wrote a report on foreign governments trying to manipulate veterans.
The report’s author, Kristopher Goldsmith, wrote:
“Content featuring women in uniform almost always highlights their gender, though it may be to exploit them in a sexual manner, to doubt their femininity or capabilities as service members... Regardless of the spin that foreign admins put on the content that features military women, memes of this category are often the most effective engagement-bait.”
Now, the question then turns to why is this effective? Well, it’s a wedge issue. To get a top down view, I spoke with retired Lt. Col. Kate Germano. She was the commanding officer of 4th Battalion at Parris Island when she was fired. And the reason for her firing? Well, it’s kinda bullshit and I’ll let her tell her story. Check out the audio for the details.
To close this episode out, I want to bring up former Marine Corps Commandant General Robert Neller’s official reaction to the Marines United scandal. He said a lot of the right things but one stuck out to me:
Gen Neller says trust is vital to success on a battlefield. Interesting choice of words when we recall the words Lt. Col. Germano just said about how Marine Corps boot camp instills a distrust of women from the onset.
See ya next episode.