In Less Than Two Minutes, This Marine Explains The Problem With Military Rape Jokes

In Less Than Two Minutes, This Marine Explains The Problem With Military Rape Jokes

"It's hard to believe that in 2014 that I have to tell my fellow marines and my fellow veterans that they shouldn't make rape jokes about the women they serve with."

That's how Marine Corps veteran Brian Jones starts his Now This Rant about the serious implications of rape jokes in the armed forces. Currently the editor-in-chief of a news organization for vets, Task and Purpose, Jones knows all too well how often rape jokes are thoughtlessly thrown around in the Marine Corps and the veteran community at large.

Jones describes the types of comments he has seen on social media, such as "Roses are red, violets are blue, be my f***ing valentine or I'll rape you," often posted directly under pictures of fellow (female) Marines.

Jones points out that the Marine Corps does not intervene in its members' Internet commenting activity in order to preserve their first amendment right to free speech. As Jones states, they do, however, prohibit marines from attending political protests in their uniforms and wearing flip-flops in Wal-Mart.

Jones articulates his frustration with what he sees as a double-standard surrounding the way the Marine Corps views and regulates free speech: "For the Marine Corps to then say, 'oh, we respect freedom of speech when it's bigoted hate speech that's specifically targeted at one person,' then there seems to be a really big issue in terms of priorities there."

To read more about Jones' thoughts on sexism in the military head over to Task and Purpose.

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