I’m a Recent Mass Maritime Graduate & I’ve Been Harassed Out of the Industry by Predatory “A.MO.” Officers. That Union Has A Serious Sexual Predator Problem & These Companies Are Gross.

* This account was submitted to MLAA by the Victim, a graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy *

I'm a recent graduate of Mass Maritime, and being sort of naive I really didn't start to pick up on the sexism at Mass Maritime until my junior year, although the racism was always very present.

The school is filled with racist people who have no problem throwing around the N-word, flying a confederate flag on the back of their pickup truck, and throwing out a KKK joke every once in a while.

As someone who didn't grow up like that, it was truly shocking to be slapped in the face with that type of racism right away. I graduated in 2017 and started working in the industry as an engineer. I will be the first to say there are some great guys out there, but there are also the old salty guys, the ones who think it is ok to tell you you're “a ten,” or tell you they'd love to put a baby in you.

There were plenty of late night drunken Facebook messages, and although I've never been physically violated, I have friends who have been, and it pains me to hear their stories. It pains me that many of these women do not see being sexually assaulted as a big deal and they wonder it could've been their fault because of what they were wearing or because they had been drinking, etc.

There is NOTHING at all that gives these men the right to violate a woman like that. I've had old men thinking they were looking out for me and come up to me and tell me to put longer shorts on, or to wear less tight clothes.

On a ship I've had someone try to get me written up for walking down to get a snack in shorts and a tank top and I've never had an issue telling them to fuck off, because it’s my body and I can dress however I'd like.

I'm not here for you to look at, and if I'm a "distraction" (as I was told) that's not my fucking problem—it’s yours. Grow up. You're an adult.

But it's sad because a lot of women out there don't have the confidence to stand up for themselves and they end up getting taken advantage of in all sorts of disgusting ways and then they blame themselves and it just further perpetuates this victim blaming.

I hate this disgusting “she was asking for it,” “she didn't say no, so I assumed yes,” disgusting misogynistic attitude.

At first I would delete all the creepy late night messages from the old men from old ships I worked on, because I felt dirty having those types of things on my phone. I felt violated, even if it wasn't physically, and it's awful, because I wish I had proof of these people and could expose them.

I think American Maritime Officers (AMO) needs a huge wake up call, and I think some of their contracted companies are so desperate for officers that they bring back people they've had sexual misconduct complaints filed against in the past and it's sick, and it's gross how these company's can get away with these type of things.

There is truly no other industry out there like it. I'm planning on leaving the maritime industry soon due to the crude nature of it, but I love what you are doing with MLAA.

This issue is something I’m really passionate about and it's amazing ya’ll are shedding a light on these important issues that have been swept under the rug for so long.