Derision, misogyny, sexual assault: VMI women face attacks on campus and online

[Jilly_in_VA]

They marched out of their castle-like barracks and onto the crisp green parade field to the sounds of drums, trumpets and bagpipes. Minutes later, the cadets at Virginia Military Institute stood at attention in their uniforms of white pants and gray coatees.

On a sunny Friday in May, the corps was poised to mark a first in the 182-year history of the nation’s oldest state-supported military college: anointing a female student as their top military commander.

Kasey Meredith, a rising senior from Pennsylvania, strode past photographers and positioned herself next to the college’s superintendent, retired Army Maj. General Cedric Wins, the institute’s first Black leader. Then, Wins handed her VMI’s white battle flag and the two clasped the colors, signifying the corps’ change of command.

“Cadet First Captain Kasey G. Meredith has now assumed leadership of the VMI Corps of Cadets,” the emcee announced.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/07/12/vmi-women-sex-assault-misogyny/
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Sounds promising? Read the rest of this horrifying article.

[DURHAM D]

1. paywall

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. Here's the main takeaway.

But those young women won’t find VMI — where men make up 87 percent of the school’s 1,698 cadets — an easy place to navigate, according to the independent investigation by the law firm Barnes & Thornburg that was released two weeks after Meredith’s achievement.

The investigation found that sexism on the Lexington campus — which received $19.3 million in state funding for fiscal 2021, along with $33 million toward a new aquatics center — may be just as serious a problem as racism.

At a college where sexual contact between cadets on campus is forbidden, “sexual assault is prevalent at VMI yet it is inadequately addressed by the Institute,” the report said. Fourteen percent of female cadets surveyed by the law firm reported they’d been sexually assaulted at VMI and 63 percent said another cadet had confided being sexually assaulted.

“Many female cadets reported a consistent fear of assault or harassment by their fellow male cadets,” the report warned. “Many female cadets also feel that assault complaints are not or will not be taken seriously by the VMI administration or that a cadet will suffer retaliatory consequences for reporting them.”

Much of the article is full of heartbreaking first-person accounts of harassment and assault.

[DURHAM D]

3. Thank you.

Unfortunately no surprised.

[DFW]

4. Pat Conroy's "Lords of Discipline" is alive and well

I would never send a child, especially a female child, to one of those institutions, EVER.

Fortunately, my children never expressed the slightest interest in going to one.

[Jilly_in_VA]

5. I personally think

that the place should be shut down. IMNSHO, there is no place for state-run military colleges, and this one and The Citadel are nothing but relics of the traitorous CSA. The armed services have their own colleges, and ROTC is available at land-grant universities and many private universities and colleges. (The ROTC cadets from Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City, TN, were referred to by my son's National Guard unit as "cadidiots", but never mind LOL) VMI is located just about squarely among three perfectly good state universities (Radford, UVA, and JMU) and I am sick and tired of my tax dollars going to support it.
/rant mode off

Sorry about the paywall, I may be able to chase this down on Yahoo or somewhere. WaPo usually lets you read a certain number of artlcles free per month, I think. I thought this was an important story though.