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The Invisible War By Ap Writing Lab

Decent Essays

Talya Brown Ms. Terry October 10, 2014 AP Writing Lab The Invisible War Allegations of sexual harassment are thrown about freely in today’s society and it seems that individuals do not fully understand the gravity of the word or what it actually conveys. Daijah Wilkins, a senior this year explained that until her sophomore year she didn’t fully understand either. She was standing in the hallway when she overheard a teacher, Mrs. O’Conner, tell a couple that she felt sexually harassed by their actions. The couple, as well as Daijah couldn’t understand how that could be possible when the two were simply kissing. After the students explained to Mrs. O’Conner that sexual harassment was only possible if someone physically touched another …show more content…

Getting past the initial embarrassment of being sexually assaulted (i.e. rape) can be extremely challenging and is one of the major reasons women choose not to come forward. Coming to terms with what happened and reaching out for help feels next to impossible and shows the strength that a survivor is possesses. However, when an individual is aware of the obstacles that arise when reporting an incident they become extremely discouraged and sometimes choose not to do so. For instance, Lise Gauther a woman who served in the Canadian military for over twenty years says: I wasn’t instantly assaulted but was first harassed multiple times and so I reported the incident. The officer stated that women like me are a disgrace, ‘Joining the military to disgrace a Few Good Men’, is what he called it. I was told to woman up or ask for a transfer if I refused to look past the actions of a man just being a man. (Mercier 1) Gauther later states that once she was raped she didn’t report the incident because of the discouraging responses she received when she was only reporting being harassed. Likewise, the same problems occur in the United States military. Even though women have made tremendous advances throughout the years in the military the demeaning terminology still remains. In the early decades of women being allowed into the United States

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