By David Edwards/Raw Story
A Facebook page that glorified violence against women in the military was shut down after Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) publicly called it to the attention of the secretary of defense and the commandant of the Marine Corps.
In a letter to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, Commandant of the Marine Corps James Amos and Principal Deputy Inspector General Lynne Halbrooks on Wednesday, Speier accused the page — which called itself “F’N Wook” — of denigrating women by promoting a “culture of misogyny and sexual harassment.”
Included with the the letters were graphic photographs. One showed a woman with a black eye and and caption that read, “She burned the bacon only once.” One photo was captioned, “This is my rape face.” Another photo of a women with a gun and had the title, “I can ‘bang’ even when I’m not on my back.”
And a photo of three female Marines had the caption, “Lesbian… still goes down on gunny for promotion.”
“Many of the pictures imply women only advance professionally by performing sexual favors,” Speier explained. “And otherwise promote the idea that women are inferior and only useful as sexual objects and sandwich makers.”
The California Democrat noted that the Marine Corps Inspector General was aware of the page and had been monitoring it for over three years.
“The military cannot eradicate [sexual assault] without fundamentally changing its approach, including its tolerance of participation in these kinds of web sites,” the Speier wrote in her letter.
By Wednesday evening, the Facebook page was no longer available. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for taking it down.
A survey released by the Pentagon earlier this week found that members of the U.S. military face more than 70 sexual assaults per day. Speier has introduced legislation to remove rape and sexual assault cases from the chain of command by creating an independent office.
Update: A second “F’N WOOK” page wascreated on Facebook early Thursday morning with many of the same images. The new page also mocks Congress.
Update (2:30 p.m. ET): The second “F’N WOOK” page has been removed from Facebook.
Watch this video from KNTV, broadcast May 9, 2013.
View more videos at: http://nbcbayarea.com.
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