The Victims of the US Military and the MS of MY KIN
In her collection of poems titled, The MS of M Y KIN, Janet Holmes repurposes a collection of work done by Emily Dickinson in the period of the Civil War. Many of the original Dickinson poems have a reoccurring theme of war and military injustice that carries itself over into Holmes own pieces. While a lot of the poems hold military themes, the poem “1862.1 (272-277),” holds an especially tight link to the reoccurring silencing of military sexual assault in the modern day. In this essay, I would like to argue that Holmes repurposed Dickinson’s poem to expose and bring attention to the commonly overlooked and silenced epidemic of military sexual assault. Military sexual assault is not …show more content…
This could be reflecting on the idea of someone being a witness to the sexual assault, and being told by the perpetrator to remain silent. Often times in situations like this, perpetrators are actually just higher-ranking officers, according to the article “Sexual Assault in the US Military: Trends and Responses” by Jill Rough and David Armor (206). Holmes could be making note of the fact that higher ranking officers are often the perpetrators, and the ones that are making the rules in the unit, leaving few options for victims to turn to in terms of finding help in their …show more content…
It’s not unlikely for sexual assaults to go unreported, especially when involving people that are associated to be of higher status than that of their victims. It’s even seen in civilian life, it wasn’t until recently people began to open up about sexual assault experiences via media outlets like Twitter and Facebook to normalize and spread awareness for sex crimes. Not reporting is especially prevalent in the military, for example, in a survey done in 2012, 14,000 men and 12,000 women unofficially reported their sexual assault, however only 300 men and 2,600 women officially reported the crime (Rough, Armor 209). Many of the victims in the military still hold the belief that there will be stigmas attached to them if they report their sexual assault. Holmes quote could be referencing all of the people who didn’t or won’t ever report their sexual assault due to the lasting fear that there will be repercussions from their
In her collection of poems titled, The MS of M Y KIN, Janet Holmes repurposes a collection of work done by Emily Dickinson in the period of the Civil War. Many of the original Dickinson poems have a reoccurring theme of war and military injustice that carries itself over into Holmes own pieces. While a lot of the poems hold military themes, the poem “1862.1 (272-277),” holds an especially tight link to the reoccurring silencing of military sexual assault in the modern day. In this essay, I would like to argue that Holmes repurposed Dickinson’s poem to expose and bring attention to the commonly overlooked and silenced epidemic of military sexual assault. Military sexual assault is not …show more content…
This could be reflecting on the idea of someone being a witness to the sexual assault, and being told by the perpetrator to remain silent. Often times in situations like this, perpetrators are actually just higher-ranking officers, according to the article “Sexual Assault in the US Military: Trends and Responses” by Jill Rough and David Armor (206). Holmes could be making note of the fact that higher ranking officers are often the perpetrators, and the ones that are making the rules in the unit, leaving few options for victims to turn to in terms of finding help in their …show more content…
It’s not unlikely for sexual assaults to go unreported, especially when involving people that are associated to be of higher status than that of their victims. It’s even seen in civilian life, it wasn’t until recently people began to open up about sexual assault experiences via media outlets like Twitter and Facebook to normalize and spread awareness for sex crimes. Not reporting is especially prevalent in the military, for example, in a survey done in 2012, 14,000 men and 12,000 women unofficially reported their sexual assault, however only 300 men and 2,600 women officially reported the crime (Rough, Armor 209). Many of the victims in the military still hold the belief that there will be stigmas attached to them if they report their sexual assault. Holmes quote could be referencing all of the people who didn’t or won’t ever report their sexual assault due to the lasting fear that there will be repercussions from their