Why shouldn't "anal and anal good, pick up soap" be a joke? On September 10, the New York Times reported on a number of male sexual assault cases by the U.S. military. Jack Williams said that in 1966, the commander had sexually assaulted him by holding him to a table, only to be kicked out of the Air Force. He is 71 years old, gray-haired, and still weeps when he looks back on the past. "I had a future where I wanted to serve my country and I was very talented. But they were all deprived."
Text: Womany Jiaqi
On September 10, the New York Times published a series of investigative reports exposing male sexual assault cases by the U.S. military. Over the past few decades, more than 100,000 men have experienced sexual assault.
Shame and stigma make most of them afraid to talk about their experiences to the outside world. The New York Times interviewed six of the men to tell their stories.
In the past, the military has responded to sexual violence against women in the military. In 2018, there were 20,500 sexual assaults across all military units, including 13,000 women and 7,500 men, according to the biennial, anonymous U.S. Department of Defense report.
Citing research by the U.S. Department of Defense, women do face a higher risk of sexual harassment than men — women as a whole have nearly seven times more victims than men — but in the military, men as a whole are much more numerous than women, and the number of known male victims has been increasing in recent years. Nate Galbreath, deputy director of the U.S. Department of Defense's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, pointed out:
「這對領導層來說，是讓人震驚的結果。 」加布雷司說。 「每個人都還以為，這是一個『女性的議題』。 」（“That was surprising to senior leadership,” Mr. Galbreath said. “Everyone was so sure the problem was a women’s issue.”）
Jack Williams, 71: In 1966, he pressed me to a table and sexually assaulted me, and I was kicked out of the Air Force
The New York Times reported that Jack Williams was one of the survivors of sexual assault. He is 71 years old this year, gray-haired in the photo, and his lips still tremble when he recalls the past more than 50 years ago.
In 1966, at the age of 18, he was serving in the Air Force when he was sexually assaulted by one of the team's drill sergeants. It was two o'clock in the morning, and he was choked unconscious in the office, and then pressed against the table and sexually assaulted. At the same time, dozens of comrades were sleeping in the next room. It was 1966, and the military did not have any institutions to deal with sexual assault, nor did it have any protections for the people involved, and even the military itself did not allow same-sex sexual activity.
"If you report it, no one will believe you." Williams recalls that the squad leader told him so at the time. Back in the day, "if you say you're being treated, people will just think you're gay or a child molester, and you're being treated like this, you're bringing it upon you."
At a time when sex education was not yet widespread, Williams did what he thought he should do: take a shower and go to bed. But things didn't stop, and the sexual assault happened a total of two, or more, and each time he swallowed his anger.
Williams endured until he left boot camp. When he left, he decided to inform the Air Force, hoping that the perpetrators would be punished.
But no agency ever contacted him.
Instead, he began to receive complaints of poor performance during his time in the camp, and Williams had to go to the doctor constantly because of the damage to his kidneys and lacerations to his rectum, and he couldn't do enough training. In the end, he was forced to quit the Air Force because of his health condition.
"I had a future, I wanted to serve my country, and I was very talented. But these are deprived." He said. （I had a future, I wanted to serve my country, and I was good at what I did,” Mr. Williams said. “That was all taken away from me.”）
Paul Lloyd: After being sexually assaulted, I felt like a failure
Paul Lloyd is another survivor living in Salt Lake City. That day, he was pushing a supermarket cart looking for a light bulb. But suddenly he smelled a familiar smell of candles, and he suddenly collapsed in the supermarket, shivering. Later, he remembered that it was because of the smell, which smelled very similar to the shower gel used by the military.
At the age of 17, he joined the U.S. Army National Guard, and in 2007, he was sexually assaulted in the shower by a colleague while at a military training camp. The trauma in that little shower changed his life.
As a devout Christian since childhood, he had no idea how to deal with such a thing.
"I don't think I can say it." He said. "I looked like a complete failure – to my family, to my comrades, and to myself."
Since then, his whole person has changed, and a sense of betrayal and humiliation has followed him. He couldn't go to church anymore, didn't want to go home, started drinking heavily, and had questions about his sexuality. The family couldn't understand his change.
When interviewed, he showed a jagged tooth with many cavities. Lloyd said he was afraid to go to the dentist for a long time. "It became extremely difficult to get strangers into my private domain." He said.
Five years later, when he told him what had happened to him, it dawned on his family what kind of war had taken place on him.
"Is it good to pick up soap, anus and anus"? The fear of sexual assault behind Taiwanese men serving as soldiers
The importance of the New York Times series of reports is that it directly addresses the plight of male victims of sexual assault – they are too hurt to speak, and even if they do, they are not dealt with properly, and they can only endure it secretly.
If you look back at the Taiwan context, there is a very similar situation. In Taiwan, serving in the military is seen as a "rite of passage" for boys to transform into men – as boys, they are baptized in the army, tempered from body to mind, so that they become "real" masculine men.
Many of the sexual jokes related to being a soldier are also motivated by the fear of not being able to become a "real man". For example: "Be careful of your anus and anus when you are a soldier", "Don't pick up soap when you fall in the bath", "Be careful of armor when you are a soldier", because being sexually assaulted will completely disappear your masculinity and become a weak "loser" from now on.
These sexual assault jokes, on the one hand, reinforce the masculine and homophobic atmosphere of heterosexual boys, and on the other hand, they also suppress the real sexual assault experience in the military, making people feel that you must be being sexually assaulted, you must be careless, or someone told you to be too weak. It makes it difficult for real male victims of sexual assault to speak out, believing that if they say their experiences, they are only supporting those words and becoming part of the male joke.
In fact, as a man, whether you are weak or not, whether you are cautious enough, or what your sexual orientation is are not reasons why you should be sexually assaulted. The men in the report, even after decades, have not been properly repaired.
Perhaps, from today onwards, what we can do is to start from our daily lives and stop looking at men's sexual assault experiences in a teasing tone. I also hope that more people can talk about their experiences.