{"id":32518,"date":"2020-09-04T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-04T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/09\/04\/demanding-positive-change\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:23:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:23:40","slug":"demanding-positive-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/commentary\/2020\/09\/04\/demanding-positive-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Demanding positive change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am a U.S. Air Force staff sergeant deployed to the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar. I was recently featured in an article that highlighted me and my sister, a U.S. Air Force captain, about our experience being deployed together. The article, the first of a three-part series, highlighted deployed service members who are also family. The response from the military community that followed the article once it posted online was the direct opposite of what I, or my sister, could ever have expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My sister and I were excited to see our sisterly bond connected to our military careers and posted the article on our personal social media timelines. We didn\u2019t realize until later that the article was also circulating common military \u201ctroll\u201d pages. These troll pages\u2019 main purpose is to post memes and dark, sarcastic humor about a base, an organization or the military in general. Al Udeid is no stranger to this concept \u2014 the Facebook page \u201cPeople of the Deid\u201d (POTD) began as a forum of base information for service members, current and past, but quickly turned into a forum that service members now use as a way to humorously get through their deployments. This sounds great in theory, but it can breed a certain culture of mocking, harassing humor that promotes gossip and rumor generation \u2014 and that\u2019s exactly the page my article ended up on.<\/p>\n\n\n<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link smg-interstitial-link--fallback wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/news\/373303\/usaf-sisters-deployed-together-al-udeid\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__fallback-link\">USAF Sisters Deployed Together at Al Udeid<\/a><\/aside>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of all the things that could have angered me about being posted on the POTD Facebook page, it was surprising what actually got to me. I wasn\u2019t surprised by the sexual harassment that my sister and I endured through the comment thread, not the disrespectful assumptions that claimed I slept with my boss to get the article (a comment, ironically, made by another woman), nor the lewd GIFs that alluded to my sister and I engaging in sexual acts. No, none of that surprised or angered me. I\u2019m used to those. I\u2019m conditioned to expect those anytime a woman on the cover of a story that doesn\u2019t include some overt, heroic act is plastered onto Facebook. That\u2019s the unfortunate culture that we have created \u2014 one where women must earn their keep by tolerating sexual harassment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What I didn\u2019t realize angered me until a few days after the post was made, was the victim-blaming that found its way into this positive, accurate article. There was victim-blaming from people in my career field, people close to me and professionals in the Air Force. The common question wasn\u2019t, \u201cWhy are these people commenting like this? Why are they sexualizing two family members in the service?\u201d The questions people asked were, \u201cWhose idea was it to post this article on social media? Whose idea was it to PUBLISH this for the world to see?\u201d And my all-time favorite, \u201cWhy are you putting these women at risk for harassment by posting on POTD?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Until we are as outraged by the lewd, sexualizing of our military members across all mediums, to include in-person and within the unit, we aren\u2019t going to progress as a strong, healthy force. If we aren\u2019t all respected as humans rather than objects, how are we supposed to trust the person to our left and to our right in austere environments? We\u2019re in a new age of warfare and military lifestyle \u2014 we cannot be the world\u2019s greatest force when the members of every branch are sexualized, discriminated against, raped and even murdered \u2014 all under the radar of our own leadership and peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite all of the disgusting comments that asked if my sister and I \u201cdid anything else together for fun,\u201d alluding to sexual acts together, there were more people against the harassment in the comments than those encouraging it. That was a welcome surprise to me, something I didn\u2019t expect to happen at all. I\u2019ve been in the Air Force for almost five years and I\u2019ve been on the social media team for my office almost the entire length of my enlistment \u2014 my faith in humanity was extremely low seeing all the messages and comments we receive as a professional, military organization. But to see men and women, from military backgrounds or not, coming to my and my sister\u2019s defense against these abusers using us as their own entertainment \u2014 which is really just a humorous cover for their disdain of their own military past \u2014 surprised me and reinvigorated my goal to complete my mission here with strength. My leadership here supported our positive message to the world, my leadership back at home at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, supported us, even the U.S. Air Force\u2019s top enlisted leader at the time, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Kaleth O. Wright, shared our post with a message of pride. I was shocked, but happy to see hope of a force leaning towards positive change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We have an accountability issue in the military \u2014 for such an integrity-based force, we do an inadequate job of holding ourselves accountable for our words and demeanor. The focus of this commentary and my personal response to the sexual harassment I\u2019ve endured online is to hopefully instill a culture of real zero tolerance. We must stop allowing such micro-aggressions to pass as humor in the workplace or online, hidden behind a Facebook profile. We must continue to police one another and not accept \u201cjokes\u201d as a valid reason for mistreatment and toxic work culture. Everyone must be accountable for their actions, but also hold their peers accountable for theirs. We are all responsible for the culture we collectively create.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The bystander is just as guilty as the abuser in situations of micro-aggressions and lack of professional boundaries. Be like the Facebook commenters and the others who spoke out against harassment on POTD. They demanded top military leadership to take note of what their troops, veterans and community were condoning and ensuing \u2014 a toxic culture that points fingers at the victim. Continue to be that change, keep having those uncomfortable confrontations with micro-aggressors and \u201cgood old boys\u201d in the military community. We are no longer accepting humor as a cover for your toxic culture. We are demanding that people communicate their issues correctly, take accountability for their actions and, most of all, we as a community are demanding positive change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Staff Sgt. Heather Fejerang is a broadcast journeyman at the 6th Air Refueling Wing located at MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Florida. She is responsible for managing social media operations on behalf of the 6th Air Refueling Wing, the base host unit, as well as providing video documentation and support for the wing and its tenant units including U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Editor\u2019s note: This is an Op-Ed and as such, the opinions expressed are those of the author. If you would like to respond, or have an editorial of your own you would like to submit, please contact Military Times managing editor Howard Altman,&nbsp;<\/i><a href=\"mailto:haltman@militarytimes.com\"><i>haltman@militarytimes.com<\/i><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After enduring online harassment after being featured in an article about siblings who serve, an Air Force staff sergeant says in this commentary that the military must not tolerate negative and harassing comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":28611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":97,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[97,29,117,17],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3956],"class_list":["post-32518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-home","category-middle-column","category-opinion"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"NTRLU324EFABHLIEFJ5EXHV2DY","arc_canonical_url":"\/opinion\/commentary\/2020\/09\/04\/demanding-positive-change\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Demanding positive change - Military Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After enduring online harassment after being featured in an article about siblings who serve, an Air Force staff sergeant says in this commentary that the military must not tolerate negative and harassing comments.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Demanding positive change\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After enduring online harassment after being featured in an article about siblings who serve, an Air Force staff sergeant says in this commentary that the military must not tolerate negative and harassing comments.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/commentary\/2020\/09\/04\/demanding-positive-change\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Military Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-04T08:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-07T20:23:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Staff Sgt. 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