The United State Marine Corps, is the second smallest branch of the U.S. Military (U.S. Coast Guard is the smallest) and has the smallest percent of women at only 6.8%. 64% of Marines are under the age of 25, more than half are single, and 40 percent are in their first term, in the rank of lance corporal or below.
An Article in The Marine Times dated December 4, 2014, states that data shows the U.S.M.C. has the highest rate of sexual assault against women. “Nearly 8 percent of women in the Marine Corps were sexually assaulted in the past year, according to new data released by the Defense Department and the Rand Corp. on Thursday.”
In Late January 2017, a Marine who was a member of the Facebook group Marines United, posted a link to a Google Drive filled with folders containing nude photographs of servicewomen. The images were shared without the women’s consent. The link was open to the public. The Facebook group had 30,000 members; all were male.
To date, the Corps has carried out 80 dispositions of cases linked to the crackdown on online-related misconduct during the past year. It includes seven courts-martial, 14 nonjudicial punishments, six administrative separations and 28 adverse administrative actions. In total, the investigation has identified 119 potential culprits ― 97 of whom are Marines ― in the wake of the scandal, according to Marine Corps officials.
They have also guidelines on social media conduct and required Marines to sign a page 11 entry that they had read and understand the new policy, giving commanders new tools to punish Marines who violated the commandant’s directive. The Corps also introduced a tip line to go after offenders.
A Dropbox folder containing 267 explicit images of female U.S. service members is circulating online in community message groups, according to a report published March 16, 2018 by VICE News. The folder is titled “Hoes Hoin’,” the news outlet reported.
“Some of the photos are selfies, others are clearly taken by another person. Some show women performing sexual acts,” VICE reported. “A few are of service members fully clothed, in apparent attempt to shame or discredit them.” The link has since been taken down and banned so the photographs could not be recirculated.
In more recent article dated April 5, 2017, Erika Butner, a victim of harassment of says that “During her time in the Corps, pictures of her fully clothed were stolen from her social media accounts and shared on websites with captions such as, “Smash or pass?” which meant “would you have sex with this woman or not?” Later, her pictures and contact information were shared on the Marines United page along with lurid descriptions of “all the unspeakable things they’d do to me,” she said.”
Butner says “the culture of misogyny toward women that begets this type of behavior traces back to boot camp, where women learn to put up with sexual harassment from male Marines.” “As a Marine recruit at Parris Island, she learned from her drill instructors that her supposed brothers in arms would treat her as one of three stereotypes: “A bitch; you’re a whore or you’re a lesbian.” “We’re taught to go with the flow and accept the culture as is, or else we face repercussions,” she said.
I interviewed a female Marine who was assaulted by a superior male Marine in her unit. She said she had been in the marines just three years. She wasn’t one to go out “drinking with the boys”, she was careful. Then one night, the unspeakable happened. This superior Marine gained access to her neighboring barracks room and was able to break into her room in the middle of the night. He raped her. She had the courage to report it to her command, but nothing happened to the Marine. She had to continue to work with him everyday. She begged to be transferred to a different unit so she didn’t have to see him everyday. It took months, but she was eventually transferred.
It seems the U.S.M.C. officials are trying to make changes in the culture, but it has been very slow to the change and the line is still often crossed.
The Line 