A. Describe and analyze the so-called culture of rape and sexual harassment in West Point. How may the cultural components suggest to the male and female cadets what is right and wrong about sexual harassment?

B. Discuss how email messages may reinforce the culture of rape and sexual harassment among the rugby team. Compared with person-to-person sharing of jokes and photos among cadets in the old days, how is email technology different which helps promote the culture?

“Charges that an Army sergeant secretly photographed and videotaped women at West Point are part of a military-wide pattern of sexual misconduct,” Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said on 23 May 2013. West Point is an academy in the US whose purpose is to produce leaders of character who are prepared to provide selfless service to the Army and the country. It provides a broad-based and balanced curriculum to equip graduates with the knowledge, skills, and attributes necessary for them to effectively address the complex and uncertain challenges they will face in their personal and professional lives. The academy is internationally recognized for its academic, military, and physical excellence. The students who are trained in the academy are called cadets. On 22 May 2013, a sergeant Michael McClendon assigned to the academy from 2009 until April 2013 was charged with secretly photographing and videotaping at least a dozen women at the academy without their consent, sometimes when they were undressing in the bathroom or shower. McClendon was a staff adviser reportedly “responsible for the health, welfare and discipline” of 125 cadets, including attending to their “moral-ethical” well-being. Gillibrand said the West Point charges illustrated a culture and reporting system that allows predators to remain in service. Service members afraid of retaliation or jeopardizing their careers often are reluctant to bring charges of sexual misconduct to their superiors, she said. 

Until 22 May 2013, the vast majority of the cadets in the academy didn't know about the case. When they read it on the newspaper, one male cadet's remarked, “I didn't like him [McClendon], but I really respected him. He was framed because that one girl wanted to switch companies, anyway. It wasn't his fault.” Statistics In 2012, there were 15 reports (either restricted or unrestricted) of sexual assault at West Point, an increase of 33% from the previous year. According to a survey of the Service Academies, 11% of cadets/midshipmen who “experienced unwanted sexual contact” reported their assault, which likely means that an estimated 135 cadets experienced sexual assault during the 2011-2012 academic year. According to the 2012 Service Academy Gender-Relations Survey, 49% of women and 8% of men at West Point said they experienced sexual harassment. About 52% of women and 12% of men said they experienced unwanted sexual attention. In addition, 82% of women and 43% of men said they experienced “crude/offensive” behavior. But Sue Fulton, a 1980 West Point graduate, said that sexual offenders are “a tiny minority that don't reflect the kind of people who sign up to serve. That said, I can't help but agree with Senator Gillibrand that we need to change the culture.” Comments from a Veteran Charles Clymer, a 26-year-old veteran who failed to graduate from West Point due to medical reasons and is now attending Georgetown University, commented on his blog that there was a prevailing line-of-thought among cadets at the Academy and service members in the wider military: women who bring forward allegations of rape, sexual assault, or harassment must be lying, particularly to cover their tracks. 

During Clymer’s time at West Point, hearing about rape in a conversation with any male cadet was always coupled with the assertion that the woman involved was only saying it to avoid trouble since cadets aren't permitted to engage in sexual activity on campus. “She was simply ‘crying rape’ to escape the considerable punishment that comes with this,” the cadets commented. Accused rapists were given the benefit of the doubt among a vast majority of men in the Academy. The stereotype of “crying rape” is so pervasive in the Academy that real victims hesitate to report harassment for fear of being accused of false allegations. The vast majority of women at West Point try the best to avoid the negative spotlight and to build goodwill with their classmates in a male-dominated environment. A few of them even actively criticize those women who complained of being harassed in order to gain acceptance by the men. An environment has been created in which women are not respected in the same way as their male counterparts. Sexist remarks, including rape humor, are open among male cadets, even in the most public of settings at the Academy, Clymer concluded. He called this “a culture of rape and sexual harassment” at West Point. Alcohol, In addition, one issue that complicates reporting rape is the consumption of alcohol, which is explicitly forbidden for the under two classes and for everyone on the main campus and outside of designated special events. When girls were raped after the use of alcohol, they face a tough choice: report the rape and take the punishment for alcohol consumption (which is severe) or simply let the rape go and avoid the trouble that comes with it, altogether. Thus, for any predatory male cadet, it's a great protective action: get the victim to drink before forcing yourself on her, and then, not only will she inevitably be considered “crying rape” but also get punishment for consuming alcohol. Because of this, most victims would rather keep silent. Unfortunately, the victim would experience intense guilt and shame, anger and hatred at herself for “being so stupid” and not seeing the warning signs the night she was raped and not fighting back and not being able to talk about it to anyone, lest she bring regulatory punishment on herself. Incidents Clymer recalled that during his first year in the academy, a female classmate was raped. 

She told a civilian professor, who attempted to report it with her, but the case went nowhere because the rapist is the son of an officer with ties to the Academy. Later, the professor's contract was not renewed, although it was unclear if that was related to the case. In 2012, a 20-year-old Pennsylvania woman sued West Point for “systematically and repeatedly” ignoring “rampant sexual harassment,” claiming that the institution had a “history of failing to prosecute and punish - those students found to have sexually assaulted and raped their fellow students.” The woman resigned from West Point after she became suicidal following her rape by a roommate’s boyfriend, who remained in her unit after she reported she was attacked. Derogatory Email Chain In April 2012, the entire Army Men's Rugby team was brought up on a misconduct board for innumerable instances of sexual harassment. Each week, an obscene e-mail was sent out via the Academy's email system with the “highs and lows” for the previous week, with overtly sexual remarks about team member's girlfriends or just women at the Academy. Members forwarded the emails to their friends, etc. A former cadet, who had seen the emails, said: “There were jokes about putting people in cages and forcing them to dance while being leashed.” There were also sexual references to a female cadet eating a burrito. “The females were referred to as manly, disgusting, sluts and fat.” Pictures were taken of women on campus without their permission, tampered with captions added to be sexually suggestive and generally demeaning. Other pictures were of women who were not aware that their boyfriend was circulating photos of them among the team. E-mail threads full of sex jokes about these women, including rape comments, were a weekly thing. Racist remarks were also an occasional theme. The cadet added that photographs of naked women had been exchanged among more senior members of the team by text message, but this had not been investigated. An investigator at the school concluded in May that there was no “evidence of sexual assault” or of “inappropriate pictures of cadets,” West Point officials said. But the investigation found that members of the team violated several tenets of the Cadet Disciplinary Code. The cadets were ordered to complete an “intense respect rehabilitation program,” which involved self-assessment, reflective journals, and role-model interviews, supervised by a mentor. That program normally takes between 6 and 18 months (it varies) but has been shortened to 8 days to allow them to graduate on time. None of this stays on their record following graduation. Those seniors were also demoted, stripped of leaves, and forced to March 120 hours in full dress uniforms. Army spokesman George Wright said West Point is working to prevent sexual harassment and assault and to cultivate cultural norms that prevent it in the future.

 

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This is a complex and sensitive issue that involves understanding the culture and dynamics at play in West Point A The culture of rape and sexual hara... View the full answer