Two Marines were the first in Marine Corps history to be punished for online misconduct for their involvement in the nude photo scandal that was revealed last month. Thousands of images of nude female Marines were shared on the Facebook group called Marines United.
A noncommissioned officer and a junior enlisted Marine from 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, an infantry unit based in Camp Pendleton, California, were the first to be disciplined after they made negative comments about one of their enlisted leaders, a Marine official told the Washington Post. According to the official, their rank was reduced and they lost pay.
Since the revelation, the Marine Corps has been cracking down on sexual harassment. They created a task force to fix the Marine Corps cultural issues, which has had controversies surrounding sexual harassment in the past. In an effort to prevent online misconduct, Marine officials introduced a new social media policy that Marines have to sign.
On Wednesday, two female Marines spoke to lawmakers in the Democratic Women’s Working Group to talk about the photo sharing scandal.
Erika Butner told the group that she was taught at boot camp to accept sexual harassment from fellow male Marines.
“I’m not blaming the drill instructors,” she said at a Democratic Women’s Working Group hearing, the Marine Corps Times reported. “They were preparing us to have thick skin because it is so ingrained in this culture that they don’t know how to change it, so they go with the grain.”
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