Comfort Women

(WGST 304 post #6)

We watched a documentary on the women who were taken as sex slaves by the Japanese government during WWII to service the soldiers. According to the Japanese, this would decrease the number of rapes in occupied villages and stop the spread of STDs among the soldiers. Enloe also discusses the use of prostitution in the military as a way to create a form of militarized masculinity and comradery among the male soldiers.
The idea that men are such insatiable, hypersexual animals that cannot control themselves; will rape if they are not provided with a regular outlet for this sexual desire is sickening, and if I were a man, I'd be insulted. The kind of masculinity the military creates in this kind of environment is violent and misogynistic. People in the military are supposed to represent their countries in a way that will make them respectable and heroic, not abusive and terrifying. After reading the article by Enloe and watching the comfort women documentary, I felt that the images of masculinity perpetuated by the military not only lead to oppression of women, but also the oppression of men. This kind of militarized masculinity can be extremely harmful to men, especially if they do  not feel they are truly a part of it, if they feel differently than they are told to feel. Imagine being told what you are supposed to do and how you are supposed to feel, but you don't quite measure up to that expectation...your self-worth and image will most likely suffer. Prostitution in the military doesn't just hurt women, it hurts men too.