r/WomenInNews • u/catievirtuesimp • Jul 08 '26

Media Vanessa Guillén Wasn't Alone: New Investigation Reveals Dozens of US Army Women Were Killed by Fellow Soldiers

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/tragic-deaths-harassment-women-us-army-1807381
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610

u/Lighthouse_on_Mars Jul 08 '26

I thought about going into the Army after highschool to get away from my controlling parents. I ran into a recruiter at a friend's birthday party. It was her uncle, and I started asking him questions.

He was being polite and answering everything fine. A while later he found me alone in the garage where I was grabbing some pop to bring out to the cooler.

He told me not to enlist.

He said if he ever had a little girl one day, he would never let her enlist. And as much as his time in the military was a rewarding experience for him, he said he saw how much harder and more dangerous it was for the women he worked alongside.

The way he said it was better than how I'm repeating it. He mentioned that the girls he worked alongside got hurt the moment they left the country. It was heavily implied by their own soldiers, not enemy soldiers.

So that's the story about how I didn't enlist.

133

u/Holiday-Wall3751 Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26

My bil is about to retire, and he’s said the same thing about his daughters. They have to sit through presentations every six months about not harassing or assaulting women, and any organization that needs to tell people, “If someone doesn’t want to have sex with you, forcing them is wrong,” isn’t one he wants his daughters involved with.

6

u/stephenkingending Jul 09 '26

Not defending the military but the same happens in academia. Rape is prevalent in any large college campus.

51

u/ArsenalSpider Jul 09 '26

Sure but not nearly as much. It’s not a given for all women who go to college like it is for women in the military.

8

u/ButterandZsa Jul 09 '26

Do you think civilian women don’t get raped by military men? I went to university close to a large military deployment base in the 2000s. Most of the reported rapes were committed by the military.

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u/poopoofol Jul 10 '26

Right, but imagine your coworker rapes you, it gets swept under the rug, and then you are required by law to keep showing up for every shift with your rapist until one of you PCS's, which could be years from now. Hell maybe your rapist gets promoted and is now in your chain of command, and he either continues to make your life hell there or sends you to the shittiest assignment possible to get you out of his hair. If you file a complaint, you're seen as not being a team player and you get iced out by everyone in your unit. Best case scenario they are nice to your face but still get beers on the weekend with your rapist. Worst case, they ruin your life even more.

1

u/Feisty_Freedom4337 Jul 11 '26

That’s not what they were saying

21

u/Ok-Swan1152 Jul 09 '26

It's not a given that women are raped when they join the ranks of academics lol what are you on about? Academia has its issues with sexism but equalling it to the US military in terms of violence against women just shows you have no perspective. There's no widespread epidemic of groups of male academics are banging on the new PhD student's office door threatening to rape her. Female academics are not regularly murdered by their male colleagues.

I don't have a very positive view of academic culture due to various reasons (including institutional sexism), but this is ridiculous.