Military Sexual Harassment Pic of the Day: The West Point Student Body

Talking about the military’s latest sexual harassment black eye, I was wondering what you thought of the photo accompanying yesterday’s NYT story about female cadets at West Point being taped surreptitiously in the shower? I guess someone could argue it’s an effective one, the skirt view with the heads cut off framing the issue through a furtive approach, an almost bodily sense of invasion and defense (ankles crossed) amidst all those male crotches.

In the current atmosphere, however — the topper being the arrest of the Air Force’s top sexual assault prevention officer a couple weeks ago for sexual assault, I look at this image (admittedly, a tiny pebble in the news cycle’s daily meteor shower) as too alluring itself in terms of women as skirts and where the male gaze and imagination can go.

By the way, I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t also post that photo of Air Force Sexual Assault Prevention Officer, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, after he attacked that woman in that parking lot in Arlington County (and got more back then he bargained for).

(photo: Luke Sharrett/The New York Times. caption: About 15 percent of West Point’s 4,500 cadets are women. A sergeant assigned to the elite military academy has been accused of taping female cadets without their consent. photo 2: MACDILL AFB FL photo 3: Arlington County Police Department.)