Boulder. As a teacher and a scholar she explores the ways in which gender and racial inequalities are created and sustained in organizations at the interactional and institutional levels.
Bonnes applied the “Page 99 Test” to her new book, Hardship Duty: Women's Experiences with Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assault, and Discrimination in the U.S. Military, and reported the following:
From page 99:Visit Stephanie Bonnes's website.Not only did Penelope experience sexual violence, but she was disappointed that the military failed to address and respond to her assault in a satisfactory way. The move also affected her case, as she told me that she did not want to travel across the country for trial proceedings when:Page 99 places readers in the fourth chapter: “Administrative Tools of Harm: The Bureaucratic Harassment of U.S. Servicewomen” which highlights the centrality of bureaucracy in servicewomen’s harassment experiences. This chapter explains how military policies addressing harassment and assault are not sufficient to combat these issues. I argue that the military has some of the most comprehensive polices and education programs designed to address sexual violence, but these policies can be rendered ineffective and can become tools of harm when they are situated in a hyper-masculinity context where women are denigrated. I define ‘bureaucratic harassment’ as the purposeful manipulation of legitimate administrative policies and procedures, perpetrated by individuals who hold institutional power over others, to undermine colleagues’ professional experiences and careers. I then discuss the tactics used to accomplish bureaucratic harassment and demonstrate how it is used to achieve harassment or to prevent reporting of sexual violence.All they’re trying to do is slander and try and make you out to be the bad person ... So, we sent a letter over to the legal counsel over at [military base] saying that I was not willing to participate in that, and requesting a non- judicial punishment for him, and I’m pretty sure that he ended up getting a letter of reprimand for providing alcohol to a minor and that was it... I, like, slept in late for work one day and had to do fourteen days of extra duty, and he got less than that. Yeah, I slept through my alarm, and I had more of a punishment than he did. It’s definitely an interesting system, I guess.Offering a transfer to victims of sexual assault is a military policy often touted as victim- friendly. Yet the way it was used was not to support Penelope’s wishes, but rather to move her far from the base where she was assaulted and far from the base where she desired to go. The way this “victim-friendly” policy was implemented resulted in Penelope declining participation in the legal process against her attacker as she would be required to fly back and forth to her former base. Therefore, the military’s bureaucracy can be mobilized against victims even in cases that are eligible to proceed to court-martial. Further, even policies designed to help victims can be used against them in harmful ways.
Page 98 describes Penelope’s assault as well as her being offered an expedited transfer where she was promised her location choice would be prioritized. Rather than being moved to the Southeast as requested, she was moved to the Northwest. On page 99, I highlight the effects of this policy misuse including isolating Penelope from support networks as well as far from the base where the assault occurred, which made returning for legal proceedings difficult. What the reader would miss about my book by only reading page 99 is why the military’s bureaucracy works in this way and can be mobilized to discourage reporting or legal action in sexual assault cases.
In earlier chapters of the book, I highlight how the military is a gendered organization that denigrates femininity and prioritizes aggressive warrior masculinity. Throughout the book I use in-depth interviews with servicewomen to show how this femmephobic culture seeps into all aspects of military life such as: military trainings, military values, the military’s family narrative, how military spaces are organized, how power dynamics are structured in the organization, and how bureaucratic policies and discretion are implemented. I argue that the military’s femmephobic value system and culture explain why despite almost 20 years of prevention efforts, estimated sexual assaults are increasing, reporting is decreasing, and the problem persists across all branches of the military.
--Marshal Zeringue
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