According to Social Psychology, a stereotype can be defined as a thought that can be adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of doing things. These thoughts or beliefs may or may not accurately reflect reality.
For most people, especially the ones who have little or no clue about how our Armed Forces are structured and function, there seems to be a plethora of stereotypes about the soldiers. Right from the appearance to their behaviour and their lifestyle, some of these stereotypes are true yet others are ridiculously absurd and false.
Now if I ask you to imagine a soldier, majority of the people would give a description of a man who is tall, strong built donning the uniform with a rifle in his hands. Pretty clichéd, no?
Let’s now take a look at some stereotypes about our soldiers which are just not true.
- Military soldiers are rigid.
So it is believed that the soldiers know only a single way to carry out a task. However, what most people don’t know is that the soldiers are taught to do things successfully by being innovative and creative. Also, their discipline is often mistaken for rigidity. - They only know how to give and take orders.
Another stereotype is that the soldiers only know how to give and take orders and they never really use their brains. Well any job, no matter the nature of the job, requires certain amount of thinking as to how to do it in order to get favourable results. Today’s army is smarter than ever and no military personnel will either give order without thinking over it or except them if they don’t make sense. - They are always posted on the borders.
Well first of all understand this- the army isn’t small. We are the third largest army in the world with 1,325,000 military personnel. Just because someone is in the Army it doesn’t mean that they are always posted on the borders. Every soldier/unit has a tenure of about 2.5-3 years and so the Army makes sure that a soldier serves in a wide range of areas and stations. - They get a lot of free things.
The CSD facility that the military personnel have isn’t free. The items are available to the military personnel and their dependents at subsidized prices. The MES houses of the military personnel aren’t free either. So yes, it’s not free. - They joined the Army as a last resort.
A lot of people think that the soldiers joined the Army as a last resort when nothing else seems to work out for them. However, there can be plenty of reasons for people to join the Army including love for the country or due to familial history. - Their children are snobbish and inadaptable.
So a child who is born into an Army family, who moves from one place to another every 3 years, who meets a diverse population of people whenever he/she goes and who knows that the absence of his/her father at home is essential in order to ensure safety of the citizens of the country is snobbish and inadaptable? Funny. Let’s now turn our attention to the stereotypes which are absolutely true: - They are extremely organized.
Order and discipline is extremely important in the military. The soldiers do their tasks in a highly organized manner. They are also particular about cleanliness and everything has to have a place to be kept at. - They can sleep anywhere, anytime.
Well yes they can! They do not have any trouble falling asleep anywhere and at any time of the day. With the kind of the working conditions they have, being adaptable comes very naturally to them. - A soldier always remains a soldier.
Even if a military personnel retires, the habits and the behaviour that they have picked up and learned in their service can never leave them. It makes it very easy to spot military personnel in a crowd because of their aura and personality.
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