Military situations are different from the civilian world. It is important to protect a rape victim’s privacy, but months of Pentagon-imposed silence-until the victim publishes a book-is not an acceptable policy for the Department of Defense. Even when the British Broadcasting Companyattacked the credibility of the Special Operations rescue team, none of the troops who had participated in the unprecedented four-service mission were permitted to come forward and describe the skillfully executed raid. Citing privacy considerations, the Pentagon nevertheless kept silent while the appealing legend of Lynch’s capture continued to mislead the world. Two more months passed, however, before the Postpublished a second front-page article that retracted most elements of the previous “Jessica as John Wayne” story.Īmerican doctors at Landstuhl Army Hospital had to know, shortly after Lynch’s arrival in Germany, that she had been the victim of a savage rape. On April 20 Michael Getler, ombudsman for the Washington Post, criticized the piece because it was thinly sourced, inaccurate, and tinged with more than a whiff of feminist ideology.
Combined with the flag bedecked photo of the smiling Private Lynch-as striking as a book cover or movie poster-the story brought to life feminist illusions of gender equality in war. Borrowing the credibility of the Defense Department, the Washington Postcited an unnamed “official” in the Pentagon as their source for an infamous April 3 front-page story titled “She Was Fighting to the Death.”Īmericans were captivated by the legend of a teenage woman-warrior-shot, stabbed, and taken prisoner only after she had emptied her weapon killing Iraqis. Lynch has a point, but the media’s role in sensationalizing her story should not escape notice. Private Lynch reportedly feels used by the Department of Defense, which filmed her rescue and released a morale-boosting video that raised the eyebrows of critics overseas. We need brave women in the military, but no one’s daughter should have to suffer an ordeal comparable to that experienced by the 19 year-old Lynch-Not in the name of women’s careers, men’s resentment, military necessity, or anything else. Jessica Lynch was brutally raped by Iraqi thugs, shortly after she survived the horrific ambush of her 507th Maintenance Unit in Iraq. Her research is funded by FAPESP and the Louisiana Board of Regents.After months of secrecy and media diversion, now we know that former prisoner of war Pfc. Populations of capuchin monkeys in the wild differ markedly from one another in social and sexual behaviors and in grouping patterns, and thus provide an excellent system for comparative study of both cultural and genetic variation.Ĭurrently Lynch is studying mate choice, immigration and MHC genes in wild Cebus capucinus in collaboration with Katharine Jack (Tulane University), and genomic evolution in robust capuchins ( Sapajus) with Patrícia Izar (University of Sāo Paulo). Like humans, capuchins are a recent and successful radiation of weedy generalists, able to survive even in marginal habitats through extractive foraging and tool use. Her research focuses most strongly on understanding the diversity within capuchin monkeys ( Sapajus and Cebus), and incorporates phylogenomic and biogeographic analyses. Lynch is a biological anthropologist whose research centers on the evolution of behavioral and morphological diversity in Neotropical primates. She is a member of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group and co-editor for the journal Neotropical Primates, a publication of Conservation International. Jessica Lynch-Alfaro is an Associate Professor in the Institute for Society and Genetics and the Department of Anthropology. Tel: Biological anthropology, Environment, Amazonia Department: Anthropology, Institute for Society and Genetics