Military leaders feared sex because relationships could compete with their monopoly on troops’ loyalty

Evidence

Unlike cash, food, and housing, however, sex brings risks for military leaders. Sexually transmitted diseases are one obvious concern. Another is the conflict over women that can arise between male soldiers, or between the soldiers and local men. Less obviously, sex brings with it the possibility that a partner and children could challenge the military’s monopoly on troops’ time, loyalty, and emotional attachments. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 546

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Echoes the theme of the military controlling soldiers’ time and attachments, similar to how total institutions like barracks and boot camps control inmates.

Related

• Military tolerance of prostitution is limited by its threat to troop loyalty (similarity 0.92)
• Intimate relationships can challenge the military’s monopoly on soldiers’ loyalty (similarity 0.87)
• Providing paid commercial sex keeps troops financially dependent and enlisted (similarity 0.84)
• Militaries use paid access to sex to deepen troops’ dependence on military salaries (similarity 0.83)
• Militaries have depended on unacknowledged women’s labor including sex work to function (similarity 0.82)
• Militaries regulate soldiers’ sex access by controlling women and their labor (similarity 0.81)
• Military environments structurally enable sexual assault regardless of recruits’ innate nature (similarity 0.80)
• Penetration and dominance define the idealized military masculinity groomed on bases (similarity 0.79)
• Military bases foster the specific conditions that enable rape across human societies (similarity 0.78)
• The military functions as a total institution governing nearly every aspect of life. (similarity 0.78)