My daily Military.com news email featured this article from the military’s Stars and Stripes newspaper. Representative Broun from Georgia is introducing legislation to ban certain pornographic magazines from being sold on military bases around the world. The assumption is obviously that these are porn magazines for heterosexual men.
There’s a lot going on in this story. It would be the perfect way to start a class discussion on gender and the military, sexuality and the military, masculinity and war, and the issues women in the service face. How the link is made between soldier’s morale and porn?
Here are some highlights from the article:
The prospect of missing out on men’s magazines was not welcomed by soldiers at Grafenwöhr.
“We all read ‘em,” said Pfc. Paul Rubio, 31, of Bakersfield, Calif. “There are times we just read ‘em for the technological parts like the new gadgets that come out. They have good stories sometimes too.”
[...]
Broun, a Marine veteran, told Newsweek recently that the magazines sold in military exchanges are partly responsible for a rise in sexual assaults in the military and other problems.
“Allowing the sale of pornography on military bases has harmed military men and women by: escalating the number of violent, sexual crimes; feeding a base addiction; eroding the family as the primary building block of society; and denigrating the moral standing of our troops both here and abroad,” Broun says on his Web site.
[...]
At Yokota Air Base, Japan, military spouse Roberta Woolley said she understands the need for balance between rules and individual rights, but said the military has tougher standards than the rest of American society.
“It’s a good idea,” she said of the proposed ban. “I think there’s better literature out there…. In the military, we sell cigarettes and alcohol legally. But it’s also questionable whether they promote a healthy lifestyle.
“I’ve seen all these magazines, and they don’t make men or women intelligent or beautiful. And even though they’re hidden, there is still exposure to children as well. It’s the parents’ responsibility to give ideas about body awareness to their children. I don’t think Mr. Hefner presents a positive image of men or women in his magazine.”
A female soldier at Grafenwöhr — Sgt. Pou McCall, 23, of Riverside, Calif. — said men’s magazines don’t bother her a lot, but she’d support a ban.
“What if it was their (soldiers’) sisters (in the magazines)? It doesn’t take a magazine for sexual harassment to happen but it increases it,” she said.
I did a quick search for military blogger reactions to this proposed ban, and found a bunch of images like this:
Note: Probably not safe for work…
And some of the arguments against the ban that are summed up well by this comment “…the troops need skin mags….men that won’t f*ck, won’t fight.”
