Spam Filter: Gay Rights & the Normalization of Male-Male Rape in the US Military

Citation:

Belkin, Aaron. 2008. "Spam Filter: Gay Rights & the Normalization of Male-Male Rape in the US Military." Radical History Review, no. 100, 180-85.

Author: Aaron Belkin

Keywords: military, rape, masculinity

Annotation:

• Belkin discusses the meaning of militarization, and how it is essential both for American citizens and international allies to view the army as a force for good that also represents an idealized form of masculinity. In order to maintain this image, the U.S. military covers up and naturalizes such occurrences as male-male rape in the armed forces. One of the ways in which this naturalization takes place is through connecting stigmatized outsiders such as homosexuals with these instances of rape, and portraying these outsiders as the perpetrators when in reality they are usually the victims. Belkin offers a critique of LGBT activists’ strategy of staying silent in reaction to the problem of male-male rape in the U.S. military.

Topics: Combatants, Male Combatants, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, LGBTQ, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Militarization, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, SV against Men, Sexuality Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2008