Marine Stereotypes Essay

Guns, violence, ignorance, and marines; how do these all link together? Over periods of time certain groups get stuck with reputations, which are either good and bad. Humans have a tendency to make assumptions or make sense of things, so individuals categorize people into groups. Many of these groups share common characteristics and abilities which can be misunderstood by individuals. This is where stereotypes and misconceptions are formed. Stereotypes are a widely believed mental picture of a group by taking truth and exaggerating it, while misconceptions are formed from stereotypes, having no truth to it. Both can lead to individuals of the group reacting in a negative or positive manner. Much of these stereotypes tend to come from media, movies, magazines, etc. Marines have been viewed as individuals who are

As an individual who has experienced many encounterments with the marines, it is safe to say many of the stereotypes do not apply to all marines. I recently had a family member who came back from Japan where he was stationed for sometime. I was given the opportunity to not only train with him, but go on base with him. When training with my cousin it was nothing but commitment and hard-work that he displayed while training. The training was based on conditioning and soccer. This training was not to become a better and stronger killer, but to improve on soccer so one day we can achieve the dream we both share, professional soccer players. I once witnessed a time my cousin was made fun for being short when we were playing a pickup soccer game against three individuals who were playing near us. The three individuals were shocked to realize that when he took off his shirt he had the “U.S.M.C.” tattooed on his upper right arm. The individuals asked if he was a marine. My cousin responded with just a simple,” yeah.” I was able to see the guilt in the individual 's face. They stopped the game just to apologize and hug my cousin for his service to this