But that is a discussion for another time. However, it does kind of transition into the wonderful and shocking documentary I watched last night: The Invisible War.
Like all documentaries should hope to achieve, my eyes were completely opened by this film and the stories it told. On the surface, it's about the alarming rates of sexual assault of men** and women within the U.S. military. That itself is a terrifying thought. The recounts of rapes themselves are horrifying. Perhaps one can predict that abuse of power is a contributing factor to these attacks, but I was totally surprised to discover that soldiers go out drinking with their superiors and are ordered to drink until they are utterly incoherent. I didn't expect sexual assault to be something so widely accepted among the men of the military. Somehow, I just didn't expect this kind of conduct... probably because of all those propaganda-ridden ideals about soldiers being the most honorable citizens of the United States.
** First of all, shout out for addressing the sexual assaults of both men and women, when the stories of men could have been ignored. I loved the way this documentary interlaced issues of masculinity in with the values of the military, and the dehumanizing and emasculating effects of rape.
But what really boggled my mind was the institution in place that systematically dismissed (dismisses? The film implied that change had been made, but that these initial reforms were not yet "enough." What exactly does "enough" mean? That's perhaps my only complaint about this documentary-- it stressed that changed was needed, but didn't clearly specify what that change was.) rape cases and then accused the victims of lying and adultery. I didn't even realize that adultery could be a formal charge? I suspect its existence is, again, wrapped up in those ideas about honor and good moral character. But that seems more like an illusion than ever before. And it's very true that those who sweep these cases under the rug are not qualified medical professionals, because if they were, they would understand the extreme psychological impact of interrogating and dismissing a survivor of sexual assault. Like this film claimed, the military's reactions to the cases were/are equal to, if not worse, than the trauma of rape itself.
Though this film only premiered in 2012, I'm very anxious to know whether significance progress has been made, or whether an appeal was successful in court. I don't really know where to get access to this information, but considering the website is still up, I'm assuming leaps and bounds are still required to mend this very broken system. A system so broken that female veterans in this film say they could never recommend other young women to join the U.S. military.
It's very important that people in the United States continue to be exposed to this film.
I can honestly say that I had no idea about any of these issues within the military until watching. But if that isn't enough for you to check it out immediately, also know that it is incredibly compelling and well-made. The format and transitions from sexual assault of women, to men, and to individual stories was seamless. I also loved the various interviews and typography to keep the statistics both visually interesting and comprehensible. I highly recommend this documentary, and I'm hoping to get much more into Netflix documentaries this summer. Hopefully the rest of my finds will be as thought-provoking and emotionally impacting as this one.
♥ Happy Watching ♥
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