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or, this rant brought to you by Cadet Sarah Lowry, of USAFA.
I'm all going with the liberal flow of, like, everyone else that I'm friends with, and then I'll get an email like this:
Oh my God, this is so disgusting, Oprah has 6 girls on who all claimed rape at USAFA, it's like things finally quieted down, and she had to go dig it up again. And she can't even show a true, unbiased picture. The Air Force says they can't come on the show and talk about the case because it's an ongoing investigation, and Oprah's like "Oh, they used this really lame excuse, they are sick!" in this awful, accusatory tone. General Rosa issued a statement and they took it out of context and proportion, started blaming him (he wasn't even there when the rapes occurred). They glossed over issues like drinking and frat, and I'm sorry, but some of these girls needed more situational awareness. Then they had this author from vanity fair (like what the hell does she know about any of this) talking about how the AF had a secret war against women (her actual words), and all the alleged victims moaning about how nothing had changed (once again, how would they know, they left), Oprah didn't bother asking any current cadets or staff members about the current situation, and through the entire damn show she kept on saying "military" and "academy" like they were dirty words and calling us sick. I'm sorry, but there's no other word for it, it was the biggest bullshit I have ever seen, and it disgusts me that they would put such a slanted show on, and display my Academy and its Cadets in such a heinous light. I honest to god can't tell you the last time I was this mad. So if anyone makes any comments about the show or that Vanity Fair article, please tell them what absolute crap it is, that we're not all sickos like Oprah says. I just can't believe they'd put on a show like that, when the majority of Americans watching it have no connection to it whatsoever, and are so ignorant as to believe every single biased word that comes out of that heinous woman's mouth.
I'm sorry, I just needed to say that, once again, I can't tell you how irked I am, I'm so tired of people blowing this out of proportion and giving us a bad rep.
From my sister at the Air Force Academy. And instantly I'm channeling all of the pro-military indignation of a Republican-raised Navy brat.
I, being in Ireland, haven't seen the show myself, but that doesn't stop the desire to rant about it (yet another common conservative trait--ranting about things one hasn't seen).
I'm tempted to snarl at the women involved for stirring up trouble, but that would trivialise what happened to them, or even imply that they deserved it somehow, which would be wrong and unfair. So instead I'll snarl at Oprah and the Vanity Fair woman for presenting a biased and one-sided view of the situation.
Did they mention all of the measure the academy has put in place since then to prevent that sort of thing from re-occurring? Apparently not. Did they mention that the Air Force itself is one of the more women-friendly branches of the service? Probably not, if they were going on about some fucking ridiculous "War Against Women." Did they mention the sexual assaults that occur on University campuses across the country every year? No, because that would be addressing the issue of rape on campuses as a whole, possibly in such a way as to provide safety information for female college students, instead of just singling out a military academy so that they could slam the military.
I'm surprised they didn't find some way to bring up Tailhook, for all that it was a Navy scandal and not an Air Force thing (hey, it was evil "military" pilots).
It really makes me angry when people use things like sexual harassment and rape to get attention or pursue a political agenda (like slamming the military for being anti-women). It diminishes the credability of rape and harassment victims, and often creates a backlash against women for "stirring up trouble."
The sad thing is, Oprah's one of the less trashy daytime tv shows. Note the use of "less trashy" as opposed to "not trashy."
I'm all going with the liberal flow of, like, everyone else that I'm friends with, and then I'll get an email like this:
Oh my God, this is so disgusting, Oprah has 6 girls on who all claimed rape at USAFA, it's like things finally quieted down, and she had to go dig it up again. And she can't even show a true, unbiased picture. The Air Force says they can't come on the show and talk about the case because it's an ongoing investigation, and Oprah's like "Oh, they used this really lame excuse, they are sick!" in this awful, accusatory tone. General Rosa issued a statement and they took it out of context and proportion, started blaming him (he wasn't even there when the rapes occurred). They glossed over issues like drinking and frat, and I'm sorry, but some of these girls needed more situational awareness. Then they had this author from vanity fair (like what the hell does she know about any of this) talking about how the AF had a secret war against women (her actual words), and all the alleged victims moaning about how nothing had changed (once again, how would they know, they left), Oprah didn't bother asking any current cadets or staff members about the current situation, and through the entire damn show she kept on saying "military" and "academy" like they were dirty words and calling us sick. I'm sorry, but there's no other word for it, it was the biggest bullshit I have ever seen, and it disgusts me that they would put such a slanted show on, and display my Academy and its Cadets in such a heinous light. I honest to god can't tell you the last time I was this mad. So if anyone makes any comments about the show or that Vanity Fair article, please tell them what absolute crap it is, that we're not all sickos like Oprah says. I just can't believe they'd put on a show like that, when the majority of Americans watching it have no connection to it whatsoever, and are so ignorant as to believe every single biased word that comes out of that heinous woman's mouth.
I'm sorry, I just needed to say that, once again, I can't tell you how irked I am, I'm so tired of people blowing this out of proportion and giving us a bad rep.
From my sister at the Air Force Academy. And instantly I'm channeling all of the pro-military indignation of a Republican-raised Navy brat.
I, being in Ireland, haven't seen the show myself, but that doesn't stop the desire to rant about it (yet another common conservative trait--ranting about things one hasn't seen).
I'm tempted to snarl at the women involved for stirring up trouble, but that would trivialise what happened to them, or even imply that they deserved it somehow, which would be wrong and unfair. So instead I'll snarl at Oprah and the Vanity Fair woman for presenting a biased and one-sided view of the situation.
Did they mention all of the measure the academy has put in place since then to prevent that sort of thing from re-occurring? Apparently not. Did they mention that the Air Force itself is one of the more women-friendly branches of the service? Probably not, if they were going on about some fucking ridiculous "War Against Women." Did they mention the sexual assaults that occur on University campuses across the country every year? No, because that would be addressing the issue of rape on campuses as a whole, possibly in such a way as to provide safety information for female college students, instead of just singling out a military academy so that they could slam the military.
I'm surprised they didn't find some way to bring up Tailhook, for all that it was a Navy scandal and not an Air Force thing (hey, it was evil "military" pilots).
It really makes me angry when people use things like sexual harassment and rape to get attention or pursue a political agenda (like slamming the military for being anti-women). It diminishes the credability of rape and harassment victims, and often creates a backlash against women for "stirring up trouble."
The sad thing is, Oprah's one of the less trashy daytime tv shows. Note the use of "less trashy" as opposed to "not trashy."
From:
no subject
This doesn't really address your post at all, does it? I didn't see the Oprah thing but from your sister's description it sounds pretty damn odious. Oprah is admirable in many respects, but this sounds like an issue that she handled in a very wrong way. Maybe when you actually see the the show it won't turn out to be quite so one-sided, but knowing Oprah, it probably will be. This is a weakness of hers--when it comes to talking about issues of female inequality, sexual harassment and rape, she eschews the rational for the rabidly indignant emotional. That's something that my favorite little Canadian misogynist Dave Sim said once (albiet in cruder terms), and in this case I have to admit he's right.