The Invisible War

In the beginning of this film, many women are introduced and explain why they chose the military. The women said that they felt like the blended in with the men which was a great feeling because they didn’t feel any different. They went in with high hopes and thought that everything would go smoothly, but unfortunately this was not the case, and this is the sad reality of what women deal with everyday. One of the woman’s husband who she met in the coast guard ended up quitting because of how awful she was treated while in the military. Her supervisor would call her to get him from the bar and he would threaten her. When she went to training, he would sleep in her bed. He went into her room at night while she was sleeping and tried to get her to touch him, and then he hit her as she tried to get off of him. The coast guard did nothing about this, and then weeks later she had to get a key from his room and he raped her. Another woman said she was shipped of in February and by April she was drugged and raped. Another one of the women was at the doctors in the military waiting to get checked out for a cold and the doctor sexually assaulted her. The Invisible War states “over 20% of female veterans have been sexually assaults while serving.” Many of the women stated that they woke up to men on top of them penetrating them. By 1991, 200,000 women were sexually assaulted in the US military. That number is only rising. 80% of sexual assault survivors do not report.

One of the women named Hannah explained her story that she was locked in a hotel room in the military and she was raped. She called her dad who was in the army and told him and he said that she is still a virgin since he took something from her that she didn’t give. Many of these women ended up with severe medical issues after they were raped. Although this documentary is heart breaking and disappointing considering it is about the military, it is reality and it shows what many people in the military go through that isn’t war. Janet McCabe, the author of Feminist Film Studies, states “Direct formal address not only became a means of raising awareness but also gave representation to feminist activism” (McCabe 115). This quote relates to this documentary because after watching it, I was in shock of how uneducated I was on this. This documentary shows what so many women go through in the military and the mistreatment, but it is never talked about because people in the military are inspirations to many and are highly respected. Shedding light on this situation is crucial because it needs to end and not enough people know about what is going on.

The women in the military could never take care of rape cases because the men said they were “too sympathetic.” One woman was charged with adultery when she was raped because she wasn’t married, the rapist was. These women are getting no help from the military or anyone else. One of the female officers was repeatedly raped and she would call her dad at night telling him to please get her out of there but she couldn’t say why because they people raping her can hear her phone calls. A navy study states that “15 percent of incoming recruits attempted or committed rape before entering the military.” After this, how do women move on and just forget about what happened? What happens when no one helps? What if you have no one to go to? Women who have been raped in the military have a PTSD rate higher than men who have been in combat. Military sexual assault does not happen to just women though. One man also said that he was raped by other men in the military and it destroyed his life. 200 men tried to pull off one woman’s shirt and pants, and when she reported it they said that’s what she gets for walking in the hall knowing there were drunk men out there. In Feminist Film Studies by Janet McCabe, she states “we are being subjected to a discourse of femininity.” Even though men will say being in the military is a man’s job, they will still call out women in the military and treat them like objects. Reality check for men, women can do anything you can do and more. Officers were raping trainees and the trainees had no one to go to. In the most prestigious units women were raped. These women came into the military with excitement and left destroyed and punished. When people report rapes to their higher ups, they usually don’t report it because it looks bad on their part that they weren’t looking out for everyone’s safety.