TIL that some languages apparently have words inherently differentiating one's status as a citizen or resident of the entity versus a member of a particular ethnic or cultural group? I don't quite grasp the whole thing, although I heard the point being made. What's interesting to me is a) that there is such a thing, which seems very revealing of something about a culture that would need such concepts built into the language, and b) that there seem to be people who think it's inaccurate to interpret the word choice as meaningful. Firstly, since languages have all sorts of concepts built into them, many very specific to their primary culture of use, it seems reasonable that such a thing could exist. Not that I would have thought of it before, since I'm not from a culture where that sort of subtlety functions. Secondly, if that is, indeed, the subtlety of the word choices, where one essentially and inherently includes people, and the other excludes, then I'd kind o...
My Norwegian isn't the best, so I searched for Swedish sources. Nothing on Norway's military, sorry. But what I did find was that Sweden's military service (all volunteer since a few years back; 5% women) has an appalling rate of sexual harassment, 24% of women in a study done in 2009. On the contrary, rape charges were at almost zero, ever, which sounds very suspicious. (The only thing I could find was from close to home, where a woman retracted her gang rape charges, after an "internal investigation" before filing charges took to long for police to get any evidence.) I'm side eyeing the military so hard now.
ReplyDeleteNot that it's any easier to find data on, but I'm reasonably sure an all-male army will also find time to have a far too high sexual assault rate. Both to the outside (that one needs no substantiation, I think) as well as on the inside.
ReplyDeleteOh, sorry, should have said. The US assaults absolutely include men being assaulted, and no, to the best of what I've heard, it has nothing to do with sexual orientation.
ReplyDeleteMy thought behind asking the question was that I wondered if, even when there was professional respect and acceptance in the military (and society wide), was there still something about the military environment that made sexual assault a particular issue? Then of course, why, and then, of course, how do you change that.