PFC Bradley Manning, suspected in the Wikileaks case, in forced to stand nude at attention as Marines videotape him.
We’re Looking at a Few Good Men
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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In 1989, when I was illegally arrested for smuggling drugs into the USA (it was the styptic powder in my shaving kit that was believed to be cocaine, even less than a gram, but just a few weeks after Bush #1 did his crack cocaine speech on TV) – anyway, I was stripped naked and had to stand in front of 7 people as one of them smacked a billy club in his hand saying, “tell us where the rest of the cocaine is or we’ll find out our way” or something like that. It has been recently that I can talk or think about this without my blood pressure rising and generally having a ‘flashback’ about the entire ordeal. It was a humiliating and frightening experience.
What is it about men in power that makes them want to see another person in this way? I did not understand it then, I do not understand it now. I’ve never read anything about this type of behavior. Are these folks homosexuals, too afraid to be open about it? Are they suffering from some sort of mental/medical problem?
As a man, I don’t mind seeing a nude woman, but I have no desire to see a humiliated, nude woman. I have no desire to see any man in the nude.
Just my ponderings…..
Great to see that this progressive, socialist site is finally catching up with the evil, reactionary libertarian sites on which I’ve been reading about Pfc Manning’s plight and torture for months.
But hey, we progressives aren’t yet sure if Wikileaks is good, right?
Troll or moron? Mendacious or stupid?
Dizi:
Check out the Stanford Prison Experiment (Haney, Zimbardo, et al., 1971). The nudity isn’t about titillation, at all. While there exists an aspect of exercising one’s power over another via humiliation, it is mostly about terror. In addition to “unclothed,” “naked” also means “totally vulnerable.” The purpose of forced nudity in law enforcement/”corrections” is to underscore the notion that the suspect/prisoner is at the mercy of officers/guards.