The Power Issue 2014: Shock To The System (The War At Home)

The Politics article of this issue is on the topic of rape within the military, covered by Mimi Swartz.  Swartz interviews two female victims of sexual harassment/rape, a Navy Seal Sexual Assault Prevention officer, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a political figure who is set on preventing sexual assault in the military environment.  In the US Military, there were approximately 26,000 reports of men and women being subjected to "'unwanted sexual contact' from fellow service members" in the year of 2012.  Out of this 26,000, 3,374 were actually reported.  Out of that, 238 resulted in some sort of conviction, and out of those, only 176 served time.  176.

An article like this is what makes Vogue so great.  To the eye of an outsider, Vogue appears to be a frivolous fashion magazine for women to look at pretty pictures of other women wearing pretty clothing.  On the inside, Vogue is an influential magazine that covers real world issues and topics that affect everyone, not just the fashion world.

Yes, this article is primarily about the sexual assault that 1 in 5 women have to face when they join the military, but women are not the only people traumatized by experiences like this; men in the military are subjected to sexual assault and rape as well.  In their case, justification is even less likely.  Male victims are convinced that it is their own fault that they got raped; they are in the United States military, which means they should have been able to defend themselves.

Two very different instances of power are a theme in this article: the power that has been metaphorically stripped from the men and women that were victims of rape, and the hope for power in future situations of sexual assault. Rape in the military has a tradition of being ignored, but men and women all over the nation are doing what they can to fight back.  Whether it is people who experienced the violation themselves, relatives of these victims, or third party objectives who just believe in the cause itself, voices are popping up more and more throughout the nation.  This article is so powerful because it is an issue that affects each and every one of us in some way; it is an issue taking place in our own back yards.

Things I Might Have Done Differently:

• Get more information on Senator Gillibrand's plan for prevention.  It is possible that this information could not have been received for personal reasons of Gillibrand, but if it was available it should have been included in the article to let the reader concretely see a plan in motion about the issue.
• Again, this may not have been possible to get, but some statements from the predators would have been more controversial.  Being able to read what they have to say to defend themselves, or just their take on the issue in general, would have been enthralling.