Response to "The Invisible War," a film directed by Kirby Dick - Allie Khori

http://invisiblewarmovie.com/

While I know that I am probably the last person in our entire class to watch this movie, and doubtless anything I say will be something my classmates have already considered, I must say that I was particularly impressed with this piece of documentary film making.

            The effect that this movie had, whether as grand as it claimed (making the DOD change its policy after viewing it) or not, gave me a lot of confidence in the power of art to make positive social change.  Television as a medium is in itself innocuous, simply a tool, a method of presenting images and sounds to a wide audience.  It can be used to numb or to incite, to quiet rumblings or fan the fire.  Telling extremely personal stories to a camera, knowing full well that these images will be seen by millions of viewers, requires a special kind of bravery, one that is full of hope and courage, and it was very powerful to see.

            If the military is like a family, and service members see each other as siblings and their commanding officers as a close authority figure, then rape within a unit and denial/punishment of the victim by the CO is akin to a sister being raped by her brother, telling their father, and then having the father punish his daughter for this crime.  This betrayal of a most intimate trust is traumatic in the extreme, and the PTSD associated with it is comparable to that male soldiers experience in combat. 

The preceding fact (above, in italics) made me think of the following sentence.  “The taking of a body in a sexually violent manner is akin to the taking of a body in a physically violent manner.”  Switch out the word “body” with the word “life” and you get an even more potent sentence.  The taking of a life in a sexually violent manner is akin to the taking of a life in a physically violent manner.  Combat trauma, which is often related to the taking of another life or seeing a comrade’s life taken, is akin to the trauma women service members experience during and especially after being raped by another service member.  This is a comparison which I believe cannot be overemphasized.

            Another fact that stood out to me was the reminder that there are, numerically, more men than women who have been subjected to sexualized violence in the military.   And if men have been in the military since its inception, the number of survivors must be absolutely astronomical.  How many suicides have been caused by this and why is no one talking about it? 

            This movie was an extremely potent reminder to me of why the debate about upping female enrollment in the armed forces is so problematic to feminists.  It’s not just the statistical potential for women to become victims of sexualized violence, but the fact that, when examined closely, the military is an arena of human interaction that has basically institutionalized sexualized violence.  Could it even exist without the fundamental tenets which encourage such violence?  Related to this was the study which showed that 15% of service members had attempted or committed an act of sexualized violence BEFORE ENLISTING.  This highlights, in neon, glowing, blindingly bright ink, the idea that something about the entire military structure encourages the traits of people which lead to sexualized violence.  Such a deep-seated problem would surely be nearly impossible to remove entirely.  Or perhaps it would transform the American Military into the proud, upstanding defense force that it claims to be, the force I want it to be

Barklow, T.K., Newson, J.S., Scully, R. K., (Producers), & Dick, K. (Director).  (2012). The Invisible War [Motion picture]. United States: Film Sprout.