Backlash

The December 2003 issue of Vanity Fair featured an exposé of the substantial sexual assault epidemic at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado. Two months later, Donald Rumsfeld ordered a 90-day review of sexual assaults against female soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait. You know if Rumsfeld cares, this is serious. According to the Pentagon, the Army had 80 allegations of sexual misconduct among service members in 2003, the Air Force had seven, and the Marine Corps had one. What’s worse, Christine Hansen, Executive Director of the Miles Foundation, has reported that only 2 to 3 percent of sexual assault cases in the military are actually court-martialed, and that three-quarters of women sexual assault victims are remaining silent about it. What is going on here? Maybe it’s time we all re-read Susan Faludi’s Backlash. Ugh.