Chapter 15: Militarism; Structural and Interpersonal Violence

Some questions that came to mind from this chapter dealt with the discussion on "shark attacking" and homophobic tendencies in the US military. The topic of military rests on a blurred gray line to me. There is no topic that is black or white. To start with, many people say why did that officer make that soldier do that specific operation, etc., but what people are forgetting is that the military is just one big chain of superiors. It was not the officers decision to send the troops into a certain mission, but a superior of a superior and so on's decision. The President is technically the "boss" of all these men and women. Many people in the military do not always agree with what they have to do, but they do it because that is what they are told to do. Here is where the gray line rests. The military consists of incredibly large amounts of paperwork and moving up the chain. The Army's motto is, "hurry up and wait". That is a large part of these soldiers lives.

Chasin mentions how sergeants call the soldiers names as an insulting maneuver in training. This is called "shark attacking". Drill sergeants are taught this in drill sergeant school. The maneuver is done to break the soldiers down and rebuild them into the soldier that they want. It is also used as a way to get people to listen and pay attention. While this may seem innapropriate, extreme, and cruel in a way, people have to remember becoming an infrantymen, transporter, etc. in the Army is not the same as working a 9-5 job in a cubicle. Soldiers have to be prepared to defend, protect, and at all costs possibly kill other human beings. The training that goes into this has to be extreme and different from any other organizations form of training. People forget the situations that these soldiers have to be put in. If you are not mentally tough enough than you are going to get yourself and others killed. The examples of names and terms used in shark attacking in Chasin's book are not nearly as bad as what I have heard soldiers talk about when it happened to them. Why sergeants find it ok to use racist and degrading terms is not exactly clear to me, but I am assuming a lot is ignorance. Not all of them do this, but it is still done.

As far as the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the military I feel it is somewhat justified. The soldiers are placed into large rooms full of bunks and nothing else. There is no privacy or separation. The bathrooms are the same. There are no doors on the stalls or anything. So placing a person that is gay in a room full of people of the same sex could make the other people uncomfortable. I do not think it has anything to do with judgements against the person that is gay, just that the facilities provided to the soldiers are not equipped for providing privatization. It would be the same as putting women and men together in the same bathroom and "dorm room". There would be uncomfortableness among both parties. It is a touchy situation and hard to find a compromise that would work for both parties without someone being offended.

Gender (from Anne Serene's Trans Reference site handout)

I used to always think that gender meant female or male and that was it. Last year I took a sociology class and was introduced to the idea that gender is much more than that. In fact, gender is not really scientific, but more theoretical. There is no biology behind the word. That would be sex. For much of my life I never really thought outside the box about gender. There was either female or male and than there were people that chose to be trans gender or what have you , but I never really thought about how to categorize them because it was something out of the "norm" to me that I did not think much about. This article really enlightened me to the idea that gender is something society has created as a way to label people. I think it was done more in a way to put people's thoughts at ease. Meaning, people do not like to have to think about what "gender" you are. If it takes a minute or to for someone to try and figure out if you are male or female than that someone may become uneasy, uncomfortable, and possibly upset. Our society likes things to be simple and straight to the point, but not everything is like that. In fact, sometimes society makes it even more difficult. Gender is more of a cultural theory and view than anything else. A label so to say that society tries to hang over our heads so that others know what we are and can choose how they want to treat us and react to us. A male who comes across another male will treat him differently than that same male coming across a female. What society does not understand is usually than considered something bad. What we do not know frustrates us which is why I think society tries to impose by creating groups and labels for everyone and everything.

Job within group on "Gender" and "Power"

My job was as a scribe to keep track of everything that was said as we talked and discussed the words. I helped write down a more clear definition of our idea of "Gender". This job was interesting because I was able to speak my mind even though I was writing as well. The topics that came up were enlightening and made me realize that just two words came be extremely difficult to define and label.

SAE Chp. 8 Ideas (presentation reading)

I felt like I did ok, but there were some ideas and topics I forgot to mention or add just because I think I was a little worked up right before my presentation. This subject is very special and in a way emotional to me just because I have such close ties to the subject at hand. Also, I feel like all we hear now a days is negative opinions about the United States so my goal was to remind people that really it is not ALL of America, but a select group that creates this opinion.In my life I get to see soldiers every day which helps remind me who we are as a nation and what so many people are doing for our country right now just so that we have the freedom to go to school, drive our cars, and live our lives the way we want to. I feel a lot of people are losing hope and patriotism in our country and giving in to what others are saying about us. Just because a book or newspaper says it does not mean it is true.For instance, the Army ROTC is in charge of raising and retiring our flag on campus. A few weeks back I went to watch my boyfriend and his cadets retire the colors for the night and as I watched I noticed how not a single person stopped to watch our flag be lowered or even really look at what the cadets were doing. Some looked as if they were puzzled and confused as to what was going on, but nobody did anything to show any sign of respect. In fact, as they were marching in line back to Avery a couple of guys actually blocked their formation and almost made them lose stride. That upset me so much because it just shows ignorance and lack of respect. I am not trying to say we all need to be crazy patriots, but to at least remember who we are and that there are people out their fighting for us with little to no support from the USA. Like I was trying to say in my presentation I hear so many people grill my boyfriend and our friends in the Army about how they think they are dumb or crazy for doing what they are doing, but they never stop to think about how much that really hurts these guys. To them they are doing one of the most noble things they could do and really enjoy all the blood, sweat, and tears it takes to make it in the military. These people are dedicated individuals doing what so many would never have the guts to do. We don't have to support the cause, but at least support our men and women in the services. What is sad to me is that they are defending people that don’t even care to be defended.At the same time a majority of the world is trying to point fingers and blame, blame, blame. Instead of exurting all that energy in blaming and being negative why don't we use that energy towards something positive and towards a solution. Let's work together to find a cure. We always hear about the past and how it was so bad for whatever reason, but let's start looking to the future and how we can make it so nothing like the past will happen again. As a society let's look past the media and ignorance and use common sense and knowledge. Overall, I thought I did fairly well. I enjoyed the responses more than I thought I would because I knew that my ideas and feelings towards the subject are fairly controversial to a lot of people. I was not sure how everyone would react, but in actuality the responses were exactly what I was looking for. I hope I was able to make some sort of impact and open people’s eyes to the distorted images created about America, my home, your home, our home.