Short Post 4/19

Enloe’s chapter, All the Men are in the Militias, All the Women are Victims, focuses on the idea of men being socialized to display masculinity in regards to being in a militia. The story of Borislav Herak was not at all a surprise to me. You do not have to be a crazy person to do something you know is wrong. This topic of men doing bad things in the company of other men is extremely interesting in how our society is socialized. We see horrible events like the rapes of the Bosnian women frequently in the United States. While reading this chapter, I drew a parallel to male athletic teams. We have seen in the United States how sometimes when guys get together, especially on a team, do things that they would never dare do alone. For example, we look at the Duke lacrosse team and see the scandal that shocked their school dealing with sexual assault. I agree with Enloe in that together, men feel the need to basically impress each other and commit acts they would normally see as horrible. Most guys find it easier to just join in or allow a situation to happen then stand up and put an end to the event. Enloe discusses a case where Nazi soldiers killed a group of innocent Jews and the nonshooters pleaded to the police officers, “Not that they were ‘too good’ but rather that they were ‘too weak’ to kill” (112). It is thought of cowardly and embarrassing for men in a militia to speak  up for what is right and wrong. It was really interesting to read Enloe’s second chapter, The Spoils of War, because I was not aware that the soldiers participated in such behaviors as prostitution. Enloe brings up the point of how when a woman is raped by a U.S. soldier it makes the headlines, but when women are paid to have sex and dance for the soldiers nobody cares. This is a problem because women who offer these services send the message that we are allowed to be treated worse than men and are allowed to be look at as objects. In order to solve this problem of women getting sexually assaulted we have to fight for all women and not just for the “respectable” women. The NY Times articles were very contrasting with each other. It was interesting to learn about Warhouse and how women are Captains and fight alongside men. It seems that most of the men here respect the women, maybe not at first, but in the end. However, I was kind of shocked to learn that sex was a common thing at bases. I guess that makes sense because they may have a lot of down time, but it just surprised me.