Comments on: GENDER & POWER – A TUTORIAL, Part 5 – Rape Culture

By: James Aire

James Aire — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:36:31 +0000

As for the convenient claim that sexual cruelty re-emerges as a ‘backlash’ with the disintegration of definite male roles, I would simply point out that such cruelty has been a mainstay of history in stable and unstable times – nothing that is happening now is new or even extreme in comparison to previous states of violence. But, that opens another question: what is the human being? To what does this violence and apparent need for violence refer? What is the relationship between the aphrodisiac quality of power and death? But again: What is the human being? And, finally, are the polite notions of scholarship and progressivist activism capable of truly comprehending the significance of violence in the wake of a non-moralistic exploration of sexuality and death, power and violence, of cruelty and ecstasy? Does anyone pretend to know the truth and to know unambiguously what is right and wrong?

By: Rich

Rich — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 10:40:37 +0000

I knew Marchall Brown for many years and was shocked to hear of his crimes. We completed Special Forces training together in 1976. We lived together, sky dived together, ran together, and went to church together. Although I did not know the other 2 operators on this posting, I may have flown you when I was asigned the the 160th. Marshall was a good friend and a kind person when I knew him, but as we all learn, its sometimes difficult to know when people have “split personalities”. Coming accross this website brings back many memories of good times with Marshall, but at the same time, its very tragic how things turned out. One of my many memories of Marshall dates back to 1983. I was a blackhawk pilot in the 82nd ABN DIV and just prior to the invasion of Grenada, I recall Marshall leaving me some maps of the island at SFOD’s front gate (when they were on Butner road) because none of us had any maps to fly off of. His unit had already left for Grenada, but we all thought we were going to Beruit (after the marine barracks bombing). As always, Marshall thought to take care of his comrades. When I showed up, the maps were there all rolled up waiting for me with the guard. All of the 82nd pilots flew off those maps during operation Urgent Fury.

Marshall was a stellar soldier, but at the same time exemplifies the old addage that “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”. It is a sad true to life story, of which I was a part. To you men out there who are fathers, LEARN from this lessson. Spend time with your sons, and teach them to respect women.

Marshall, if you are reading this, I ask for God’s grace in your forgiveness and eternal life. You know who I am.

Blue. Sky.

By: White Knight

White Knight — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 00:29:39 +0000

I am fascinated by the insight into M. Brown’s first, (maybe second life). I have been working with him in the USP LVN, for the past two years and two months. he has been in a re-entry program instituted for convicts preparing to go back into society. I have come to know him and see the residual struggle and pain of post crime in a man who lost his moral moorings serving his country in an honorable and selfless way. We have spent countless hours revisiting the cross roads of his life. I have seen him weep in my office as he has begun to empathize with the victims of his crimes. He was and for the most part is a lost soul yet today. I find him very intelligent and he has two parts to his persona. He is still very military in his discipline and order of his life. His room is immaculate and his person is trim and fit. He is still pushing himself to succeed, and I feel seeking his fathers affirmation from childhood shaming incidences. He came in as a protestant and then switched to Greek Orthodox then to Catholic. This displays some chaos even in his religious moorings. I found him to seem sincere in his search to know himself. He last week defaulted out of the program because of and attempt to bribe an officer on duty. I pray for his soul. White Knight.

By: m.c.

m.c. — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 20:01:02 +0000

A short personal anecdote. A friend of mine enlisted in the U.S. Navy in the late 80′s. He once told me his basic training bunkmate took the physical training test for SEAL training: swimming; diving; running; timed pullups, etc. He qualified for UDT(underwater demolitions) which is the next level in training below the SEAL teams. Below that are the frogmen/utility divers, unless things have changed a lot since then. This guy had turned down a full football scholarship to play defensive tackle at Auburn, because his dad had served in the Marines. Auburn was a national powerhouse them, Bo Jackson played there from ’82-’85.

Anyway,if you passed the PT, after finishing basic and your assigned technical training schools, you were eligible to apply for the program you qualified for. Two or three guys from the company(~80 recruits) passed for SEALS, including the asst. company leader, a really easygoing, soft spoken, intelligent guy who everyone got along with. He was the person to go to if you needed something from the two CC’s(company commanders, the navy’s DI’s) or the division office. Perhaps the division officer himself even made a short visit of congratulations. The company leader, from rural Oregon, was good at marching & other drill orders but as far as paperwork he wasn’t the person to talk to. According to whispered rumor going around among those who had relatives or friends in the military, this guy wouldn’t cut it as a SEAL “because he wasn’t a killer.”

By: Stan

Stan — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 12:29:49 +0000

I know a few people who would flip out if they realized there are two alumni on this blog. (-:

I was gone, too. I left Delta in December 1986. Marshall almost always came across as friendly and approachable – even with that laser intensity. But I remember riding into work with him one morning down the All American Freeway, when an aggressive driver (all you really encounter on the AAF at 5 AM) sliced in front of him. He opened the glove box, and took out a Sig Sauer autoloader, then did the same thing to this other guy. He was prepared to kill someone over trafffic courtesy.

Good to see you on the blog, Clay. Warm regards to bro Jim, too.

By: Clay Sayles

Clay Sayles — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 07:40:10 +0000

Stan,

I must have been out of the net at the time Marshall got picked up, I never knew he was a rapist. When I was in OTC he came across as a nice person, one of the few operators who were approachable. Iâ€™m sad to hear of his downfall and the innocent lives he destroyed. However, I applaud your ability to weave real life stories into the greater web of societal dysfunction. Your moral courage is inspiring; at this particular phase of my life, your writing and Jimâ€™s mentorship are the most powerful influences on my psyche.

Regards,

Clay

By: peggy

peggy — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 23:03:58 +0000

rsklnkv’s letter should also be required reading.

By: DeAnander

DeAnander — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 21:11:00 +0000

see Stop Prison Rape for many resources on sexual predation in US prisons including the absolutely brilliant, mindbending article by Stephen Donaldson: A Million Jockers, Punks and Queens: Sex Among American Male Prisoners and its Implications for Concepts of Sexual Orientation. Donaldson's article should be required reading in a required core course on gender and culture in every high school in the land. imho. It addresses the issue of the social construction of gender, "manliness" and violence directly, from first-person experience (SD was assaulted and had somewhat consensual sexual experiences also, while imprisoned).

By: Stan

Stan — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 18:35:18 +0000

rsklnkv, this is an incredibly valuable story, and I thank you for it. I have a link on the blog re prison rape, which best accounts suggest is often tacitly supported by prison administrations as an unofficial addendum to official control mechanisms.

Prison in the US is the site of an unseen and unreported crime against humanity of monumental proportions. There are one hundred of them in my state alone, and many are known to be – but not widely known to be or widely thought about – little pockets of Dantean horror.

There are times when I think that my own suppression of the rage I feel toward the ruling class will paralyze me. Accounts like the one you just present are the best arguments I know for revolution… and, I hate to show the old solider in me… the best arguments for showing that dominant class no quarter when these vicious sociopathic parasites are defeated. Perhaps I don’t really mean that, but reading this, I feel it.

Children should not have to grow into this kind of world.

By: rsklnkv

rsklnkv — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 16:55:59 +0000

I know a man who was raped in prison. I spent nearly a year on the same unit, in relatively close proximity. Let’s call him ‘T’. T was homosexual. Rigorously so. His attempts to display himself as feminine manifested itselfin many ways, like using M&Ms for eyeshadow and tucking his penis between his legs. He’d make quite a spectacle in the mornings, almost flaunting his sexuality in front of the other men while he â€œprettied-upâ€ (his words). He had several long-term relationships on the inside with other inmates, who, in many cases, seemed to really believe themselves NOT to be gay. As most are probably aware, there’s a big difference between a ‘pitcher’ and a ‘catcher’ in penitentiaries. One thing that differentiated T from many of the other recognized homosexuals was the fact that he was able (for a period of time, anyway) to maintain some semblance of dominance in his life behind bars. Being (in those times) a sort of macho, straight-walking dude myself, who had a hard enough time keeping predators at bay, I was fascinated by the control in which T was able to retain over his existence considering the rung in which most out-of-the-closet homosexuals clung to on the prison hierarchy. T was well known to many African Americans in this particular prison, as he’d spent several years incarcerated and was somewhat renowned for his ability to kick the crap out of anyone who crossed him. In fact, it’s speaks very loudly about other issues when I think back to how many people he appeared to know from the streets. What made T stand out then, was his capability to stay out of the typical submissive role so common among professed gays in prison.
Sadly, T was forceably raped one morning in the showers and transfered to a different institution not long after. The reasons behind the rape were unclear, and details that flowed through the convict grapevine were few. Only that he was indeed raped by other Blacks. Not just one either. This is highly unusual, in my limited experience. If T was a snitch or a thief or the like, the gossip would have spread like wildfire. So, I cannot comment on the reasons for the rape itself, only that this was an near-anomaly. I could speculate using reasons other convicts spouted off during lockdown that evening; He teased and didn’t put out. A simple fight turned into something out-of-control. It involved some old dispute or jealous suitor. Everyone had a theory.
Now, here’s where I really get confused and all the ideas I had about the situation go out the proverbial window. I saw T about two years ago, seven years after I’d last seen him on my unit in prison, downtown at a public bus stop. T had taken on a new stance. No makeup, no penis-tucking, no hip-tossing. No outward signs of ‘the old T’. He wore jeans and a baseball hat. In fact, if I hadn’t been paying attention, I would have never recognized him. His voice however, betrayed whatever changes had taken place on the outside. It was very distinct even though it had lost that feminine edge I rememebred. I was too paralyzed by my own emotions to actually interact with him then, but watching him chat with the his companion me really start to think about the entire transition in depth. It appeared that he was with a woman (I can’t assume here). He was now the ‘Man’. They kissed, T had his arm around her. He had a new strut…
Now, I understand that people change, appearances change. Sexuality may ‘change’. What I have to wonder, however, is whether or not the rape had something to do with his new take on life. Did the experience in a sense make T regress to a more (for lack of a better word) primitive existence? Does the idea of living like a manly-man give him a better defense system, or make him feel safer? Even then, one of T’s primary methods of self-preservation in prison had been the fact that he was tough as nails. I can only speculate, on a very simple level as my experience with dealing with rape is extremely limited. I’ve known women who were raped and for a period of time intentionally ‘let themselves go’ or dressed more masculine, possibly hoping to not be as feminine and therefore, by our social and cultural standards, less attractive. Prison rape, however, always seems to come full circle to a more wolf-pack type of thing, if you get my meaning. One wolf trying to impose dominance by inflicting pain and humiliation on the other. Believe it or not, simple sex as an act is not too hard to come by in the joint. Many men make ‘exceptions’ regarding their sexual preference when all they have are other similarly interested fellows surrounding them. Oddly enough, few consider themselves gay. For example, one of the most prominant leaders of the AB in the state pen, who went by the nickname Snake, can be quoted as saying, when asked whether or not he was homosexual : “I ain’t no fag but I’ll fuck a punk in the ass!” These ideas always struck me as particularly strange as there was really no humor attached to his reply, but there was anger at even being asked such a question.
I also wanted to briefly comment on rape in womens prisons, and hopefully get other folks take on these issues. Considering how many women go into prison with such horrible histories of abuses already attached, why the heck do we allow men to act in positions of authority in a womens prison setting? There’s no denying that rape is a massive problem for the voiceless women locked up. I would use words like â€œsystematicâ€ and â€œinherentâ€ if I had to put it in a nutshell. Some don’t see it as quite so prevalent, but considering the potential repercussions and further stigmas I really have to wonder at the numbers of women who don’t report. Just like on the outside. I simply cannot imagine going to prison as a woman, after killing a raping, abusing spouse and then being under the control of another dominating male figure. Who the hell thinks this is going to benefit these women? Won’t it serve to reinforce these preexisting hierarchies? Maybe that’s the point in a not-so-conspiratorial way.
Sorry if this strayed a bit too far off the mark but there’s so much about the subject of rape that finds itself reincarnated on some level in prisons.
Thanks for taking the time Stan. You’ve opened my eyes to many things I don’t think I even realized were important. I am especially grateful for your latest few articles on gender and I will discuss these things with every man I know!