The Marine Corps Photo Scandal: Why it’s Time to Stop Treating Service Members Like Saints by Stephen Carlson, Washington Post
The American people largely venerate their service members. There is nothing wrong with this. These men and women sign their lives away in exchange for low pay and generous benefits mired in bureaucracy. In times of war, they face uncertainty and sacrifices that would make most Americans quail. Disappearing for a year or more while leaving family behind to pick up the pieces is hard enough without the threat of injury or death. It is what comes with the job, and if any soldier, Marine, airman or sailor complains about that, they never should have signed the dotted line.
For all the hagiography, though, these people are not saints. They are young middle-class and poor people who often joined up because they had no idea what else to do with their lives. I was the same way. They cover every demographic, every social class and every degree of morality. For the most part, these people are not patriots looking to lead a charge while holding a flag over their heads. They are looking for a steady job, social advancement and, if they can stomach it long enough, a pension. These are classic working stiffs.
And sometimes they act like criminals and sociopaths. Witness the horrific scandal involving countless Marines posting thousands of nude photos of female colleagues. It is hard to decide which is worse, the disgusting commentary on these closed Facebook sites referencing rape and molestation, or the fact that these Marines made a contest out of getting sneak peeks of nude women.
Sadly, none of this is new. In my old Army unit in Afghanistan, sexually explicit pictures of a female soldier at headquarters floated around. Instead of someone in charge putting a stop to it, the photos were treated as a joke, with a bunch of men laughing over the young woman. The photos were taken with her permission, but the sharing of them was not, and she didn’t deserve any of the abuse she received from her fellow soldiers.
The military is built on machismo, and I will never truly understand what female service members have to deal with every day. Idiocy abounds with Joe, the standard term for the standard soldier…
Comments
After I retired I substitute taught in a Public school system. The first HS I subbed in three boys were being taken out by the police, one in cuffs who was 18. They sexted photos of having sex with a 15 year old girl who legally did not consent but willingly participated.
Sexting is possible because of new technology. And cultural shifts in morality.
It is hard to believe that 10 to 20 years ago this would be an issue.
But in perspective this is a societal problem and not simply a military one.
Last summer this issue arose when service men and women were posting nude selfies, inappropriately and received to my knowledge less national attention. It makes me wonder how political this issue is now that Marines are fighting the Islamic State in the west Iraqi desert and Syria.
Sexual politics have become a new form of anti-militarism.
I agree with Mr. Carlson about a majority of people who venerate military service. But the anti war peace movement is hardly dead just more subtle. They may not be able to mass hundreds of thousands of draft resisters but they are able to influence political policy and manipulate media and wage "lawfare".
Scarlett Johansenn's phone was hacked, she had taken several nude selfies and fought their distribution in court her instance was not an aberration.
Can we disparage thousands of Marines just for going to a publicly accessible site where nudes were posted?
When the net first got going there were bulletin boards and several instances arose where one member posted kiddy porn and unsuspecting members accessed the site without knowledge they were breaking the law, many were arrested in some cases for simply going to the bulletin board. Should that go on their permanent record? Are thousands of nude photos being posted or thousands of Marines visiting a few sites with nude postings, that isn't clear to me. Are only Marines going to the sites?
When I was deployed when I returned to home station an officer had posted nude photos of his girl friend (He was married) and she was in the same unit. To my knowledge nothing was ever done about it. On another deployment a young soldiers wife sent him nude selfies, she wasn't deployed but she was in the unit and he was proudly showing the photos and I asked him if his wife approved of his sharing there was no way she wasn't going to hear he was sharing photos she meant only for him. I'd rather stand before the man than have faced we he had to when he got home.
This happened because of new technology which only facilitates without condoning distribution of nudes and pornography that is a violation of an individuals expectation of privacy; if there is any.
That the USMC and other services are addressing the issue and appear to be held to a higher standard of behavior should be expected. But whereas on some sexual political issues the services have been criticized for lagging behind women in combat LGBT etc.,. I have not yet formed a conclusion on whether or not the attention this is getting in mass media is warranted. It is hardly a military only issue. I do believe it is getting the attention it merits, even more so.