Troop workplaces to be checked for degrading images of women

[RedPatriot]

Quote:

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered a close-up and comprehensive inspection of all military offices and workplaces worldwide to root out any “materials that create a degrading or offensive work environment.”

The extraordinary searches will be similar to those the Air Force conducted last year and prompted officers to scour troops’ desks and cubicles in search of photos, calendars, magazines, screen-savers, computer files and other items that might be considered degrading toward women.

The inspections will now target soldiers, sailors and Marines. They come amid heightened concern about sexual assault in the military and a new Defense Department report that suggests more than 70 troops every day experience some type of sexual assault.

Also on Tuesday Pentagon officials were reeling from reports that the officer in charge of the Air Force’s sexual assault prevention program, Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski, was arrested Sunday and charged with sexual battery after he allegedly groped a woman in a parking lot several miles from the Pentagon in Crystal City, Va.

“We need a cultural change where every service member is treated with dignity and respect,” Hagel said Tuesday in announcing a list of new initiatives to prevent sexual assault.

Hagel also unveiled the Defense Department’s annual report on sexual assault, which estimates that about 26,000 troops experienced some form of “unwanted sexual contact” during the past year. That’s roughly one in every 50 troops in the active-duty force. Those numbers are derived from anonymous surveys designed to estimate the prevalence of sexual assault in the military.

Those surveys suggest that only a fraction of troops who are the victims of sexual assault ultimately come forward to make a formal report with the intent of either filing a criminal complaint or seeking medical treatment. The number of official reports of specific military sexual assaults in 2012 was 3,374, or less than 15 percent of the total assaults that occurred based on the anonymous surveys, according to the report.

Office searches coming soon
The workplace searches will be conducted by “component heads” before July 1, and Hagel expects each service to submit a report summarizing the findings. The Air Force leadership will submit a report based on inspections it ordered in late 2012 and will not be expected to conduct a new round of searches.

The searches by the Air Force last year were sparked by an enlisted airman at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., who filed a complaint with the inspector general and senior Air Force leaders in October 2012 describing how her chain of command ignored for months her reports of sexual, violent and graphic images, songbooks and other documents on a computer server. She went public with her complaint in November.

The inspections were controversial and many airman complained that it felt like a “raid” and arbitrarily targeted materials such as fitness magazines and beer posters. Air Force officials said the prevalence of those items may be correlated to sexual harassment and sexual assault in the workplace.

Hagel outlined several other measures aimed at cracking down on sexual assaults. He ordered the service chiefs to develop ways to hold commanders accountable for maintaining a command climate of “dignity and respect”.

Hagel set a deadline of November for the chiefs to provide details on how that will be measured and how, if at all, that assessment might be integrated into the promotion or command-screening process.

Another initiative will require the results of all command climate surveys to be provided to commanders the next level up the chain of command. That’s an effort to give high-level commanders insight into potential problems within their subordinate commands.

Hagel said he wants these measures to “really drive the cultural change.”

The anonymous surveys of troop show that victims of sexual assault are distinctly unhappy with the way they are treated, said Army Maj. Gen. Gary Patton, the director of the Defense Department’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office.

“They perceive retaliation in the form of social retaliation, in the form of leadership retaliation,” Patton said.

Only a fraction of troops accused of sexual assault face a court martial, the report shows. Of the 1,714 troops who were specifically targeted with an allegation of sexual assault in 2012, about 302 ultimately faced a court martial and about 238 of those were convicted on at least one count, official said.

The majority of cases were resolved through other means, including the sexual assault allegations being dropped, non-judicial punishment or discharge from the military, according to the report.

Source;
http://www.militarytimes.com/article/20130507/NEWS/305070032/Hagel-Troops-workplaces-will-checked-degrading-images-women

[MemoriesOfGreen]

What a ********.

[Kaiser Khorosho]

You know...without porn the number of sexual assaults will probably INCREASE. If males don't have a release some will opt for rape instead. Just sayin'.

[Divine_Malevolence]

Define "Materials that create a degrading or offensive work environment", Hagel.

[David2074]

I believe the problem of sexual assault is real and needs to be addressed but the rule changes in this article sound like a knee jerk reaction by brass upset they look bad in the spotlight and need to show the press they are 'doing something'.

1. The rule changes are sexist. Apparently they are only targeting images of women. Gays and women can keep their fantasy photos. Men can be sexually harassed too, especially when you are including stuff like 'respect in the workplace'. I've heard plenty of women make very disrespectful remarks about men. It's a two way street.

2. it's over the top. Really? Beer posters and fitness magazines? If they are banning these commercial publications that a child in my local library is allowed to pick up and read I hope they are also making rules that women in the military are not allowed to wear swimsuits when on liberty. Because - you know - that is apparently automatically degrading to women.

3. I find it ludicrous that a swimsuit model on a beer poster or a fitness magazine is going to cause someone to sexually assault a coworker. Not to put too fine a point on it but having some fap material around might have the opposite effect.

Both men and women deserve a respectful workplace and I can see not having 'pinup' posters of either sex (swimsuit girls or sexy fireman calendars) in plain view but taking it to the point of confiscating fitness magazines is just stupid. When I was in the navy you could subscribe to Penthouse or Playboy and it was no big deal. You couldn't hang centerfolds in the work space but no one cared what you read on your own time.

[Keltoi Samurai]

Divine_Malevolence

Define "Materials that create a degrading or offensive work environment", Hagel.

to go by traditional definition, a calendar with bikini girls and sports cars would count, whereas a "fireman's calender," in the traditional sense of shirtless men in fire fighter helmets and suspenders and the like, would not.

the reasoning being that women are more than eye-candy, and thus to view them as such is objectification, whereas men are . . . different, and thus cannot be objectified.

[Hasuki Aatisuto]

Kaiser Khorosho

You know...without porn the number of sexual assaults will probably INCREASE. If males don't have a release some will opt for rape instead. Just sayin'.

This.

A friend of mine would get increasingly agitated when he doesn't have sex (or doesn't masturbate), and it really shows in his attitude and behavior. I told him several times just to masturbate, but he didn't want to "because it just doesn't feel the same". He finally gave in and did it... and he told me that he felt a LOT better afterwards, and now he does it regularly.

A bit TMI, I know, but sexual release can help calm down people. If the army is going to take away any sexual stimulant, then it's likely the cases of rape will go up since they do not have any other stimulant since they have been taken away and the only stimulant left are, well, real, breathing people.

[Divine_Malevolence]

Keltoi Samurai

Divine_Malevolence

Define "Materials that create a degrading or offensive work environment", Hagel.

to go by traditional definition, a calendar with bikini girls and sports cars would count, whereas a "fireman's calender," in the traditional sense of shirtless men in fire fighter helmets and suspenders and the like, would not.

the reasoning being that women are more than eye-candy, and thus to view them as such is objectification, whereas men are . . . different, and thus cannot be objectified.

Seems stupid.
Would a list of sexist jokes count? What is the standard they're adhering to? 'Cause it feels like they're just saying, "half naked or less, take it".

[Keltoi Samurai]

Divine_Malevolence

Keltoi Samurai

Divine_Malevolence

Define "Materials that create a degrading or offensive work environment", Hagel.

to go by traditional definition, a calendar with bikini girls and sports cars would count, whereas a "fireman's calender," in the traditional sense of shirtless men in fire fighter helmets and suspenders and the like, would not.

the reasoning being that women are more than eye-candy, and thus to view them as such is objectification, whereas men are . . . different, and thus cannot be objectified.

Seems stupid.
Would a list of sexist jokes count? What is the standard they're adhering to? 'Cause it feels like they're just saying, "half naked or less, take it".

probably would, tbh.

and the standard probably is a little more detailed than "half-naked or less," in that it probably includes women who are more than half-dressed but are showing cleavage, fully dressed women in "sexy" poses such as this and does not cover men in any state of undress or in any manner of pose.

traditionally speaking, objectification is only bad when it's of women, after all.

[OtakuJeannie]

Kaiser Khorosho

You know...without porn the number of sexual assaults will probably INCREASE. If males don't have a release some will opt for rape instead. Just sayin'.

Actually, rape is more about having power over your victim than 'needing release' .

[Kaiser Khorosho]

OtakuJeannie

Kaiser Khorosho

You know...without porn the number of sexual assaults will probably INCREASE. If males don't have a release some will opt for rape instead. Just sayin'.

Actually, rape is more about having power over your victim than 'needing release' .

In certain circumstances, I'd believe that. Take away a man's way to blow his load, IE stimulants, such as porno mags or naughty images on his computer, then some (not all) might get desperate.

And you're saying its more about power, eh? I could see that if it were a serial rapist or something like that, but I can't believe that most rapists want to feel empowered, I think they want to have sex with something.

[OtakuJeannie]

Kaiser Khorosho

OtakuJeannie

Kaiser Khorosho

You know...without porn the number of sexual assaults will probably INCREASE. If males don't have a release some will opt for rape instead. Just sayin'.

Actually, rape is more about having power over your victim than 'needing release' .

In certain circumstances, I'd believe that. Take away a man's way to blow his load, IE stimulants, such as porno mags or naughty images on his computer, then some (not all) might get desperate.

And you're saying its more about power, eh? I could see that if it were a serial rapist or something like that, but I can't believe that most rapists want to feel empowered, I think they want to have sex with something.

Yes, it's about power and men veiwing women, or more accuratly their bodies as things they are entitled to. So instead of giving a man way to blow their load, objectifying images feed into the mindset that women are objects for their use. Rapists feel empowered by taking what they feel they deserve, using natural urges as an excuse for ignoring the wants of their fellow soldiers and attacking them in one of the worst ways possible.

[Bricked Up Mule]

There should not be sexual type articles of any kind in the work place whether it's contents be of the male or female variety. Sex does not belong in the workplace. That stuff should be put away with other personal affects at the bunks and such.

[Yavetil Longnight]

I don't see anything wrong with our troops having erotic images in their desks, its not being displayed in public view....and even if it was have people forgotten about what was common place in earlier years? Betty Grable, Betty Paige, Nothing wrong with guys having a thought of the girl of their dreams to keep their morale up!! They risk their lives on a daily basis to protect our rights and freedoms. Let hem have what they like to see. Its not bothering anyone.

[Bricked Up Mule]

Aimie Wyldwind

I don't see anything wrong with our troops having erotic images in their desks, its not being displayed in public view....and even if it was have people forgotten about what was common place in earlier years? Betty Grable, Betty Paige, Nothing wrong with guys having a thought of the girl of their dreams to keep their morale up!! They risk their lives on a daily basis to protect our rights and freedoms. Let hem have what they like to see. Its not bothering anyone.

Other places of employment would not allow for erotic images at work, the images create an unneccessary distraction for everyone. Having it at the workplace instigates more than just 'daydreams'. Most guys don't want to see other naked guys and their junk on a desk and most gals don't want to see girls junk either. Allowing such content at the workplace sends the message that the army condones that kind of thing.

Nobody is saying they can't have that stuff period, just keep it with your personal items.