I’ll Make a Man Out of You: Masculinity in the United States Marine Corps
When that line comes to mind: “I’ll make a man out of you”, we might be reminded of the upbeat Disney song (cultural appropriation and historical inaccuracy notwithstanding); but the idea behind it: “making a man”, is exactly what happens during the twelve weeks of recruit training for the USMC, or boot camp- however, a very specific type of man is made during this exhausting and at times degrading experience. The specific masculinity that emerges from boot camp after graduation is most definitely hyper-masculine.
A ‘guy’s guy’.
The modern day Gaston, let’s say… And yes, I know, I reference Disney quite a bit…
Just roll with it.
I want to begin this discussion of masculinity in the Corps by stating that I have the up-most respect for those individuals who protect our country; but the institution(s) they represent… The teaching strategies used in military settings could do with some improvement…
A great deal of my knowledge about boot camp comes from my own father’s experience in the USMC. He entered boot camp on Valentine’s day 1975. He was 19 years old. His time in the military was many years ago and changes have been made to the ways in which recruits are indoctrinated to the Marine Corps; however, the end result has remained the same: a hyper-masculine marine, or as my dad has stated “a young marine [who] thinks he’s god’s gift to humanity ”. The example of a recruit in boot camp being (sometimes forcibly) constructed into performing hyper-masculinity is a reality of institutions like the Marines. The performance of this hyper-masculinity is physically imposed on the bodies of marines at great expense to the individual. The expense to the individual includes but is not limited to extreme verbal assault, and in the old days, physical assault. “if you didn’t act quickly enough, you were hit, or smacked, or kicked. If you didn’t wake up fast enough, your bed was flipped over. or a 55 gal trash can was thrown at you…. If you cried [during boot camp]you’d be called a little sissy girl.” (Interview with retired MSGT (Master Sergeant) John Vancelette)
This film has been described as an accurate representation of boot camp. As it is such, I argue that the Drill Instructor is an example of the stereotypical and ultimately, the ideal Marine. He demonstrates racial slurs, physical violence, sexist and homophobic language and a belligerent attitude. These are encouraged through his example as behavior appropriate to “masculine marines” during this period. (I should state that today, to my knowledge, physical violence is no longer used for punishment or persuasion by drill instructors.)
The military as an institution acts as a Repressive State Apparatus, a term used by Louis Althusser, and is an enforcer for the Ideological State Apparatus it is connected to, in this case: Nation. The Marine Corps enforces the ideology set forth by the state: check. However, the Marine Corp also internalizes this repression and polices itself as it creates Marines. These men are constructed representations of attributes that have been ascribed to masculinity arbitrarily. ‘Marines don’t cry’ would be an example of this. Through te experience of boot camp, the Marine Corps has unwittingly given evidence in support of Teresa de Laurentis’s argument in “The Technology of Gender”. She states that gender is representation and constructed through that representation, sure, but more importantly, she argues about the constant re constructing of gender. Boot camp re-enforces de Laurentis’s argument that gender is always being constructed, just as much as it was in 1975- for example. The Marine Corps, as a policing entity for both nation and for continued American hyper-masculinity, completes its function every time a new class of recruits graduate and “are fit to be called ‘Marine’ ”. The process continues to this day, even if the details look slightly different to what my dad experienced during his own boot camp…
With complete respect to those individuals who undergo the “physical, psychological, and mental challenge” (Receiving Phase video) that is boot camp, I wonder at the healthiness of this style of instruction. Is it in the best interest of each and every individual Marine, every single man, who goes into boot camp to verbally and psychologically abuse them?
Boot camp creates Marines, well- trained protectors of this country and its people. But what about the people that under went that training? The re-constructing of hyper masculinity through an RSA like the Marine Corps binds men in an oppressed state just as harmful as patriarchy.
It’s because I respect Marines that I question the efficiency and healthiness of how they are made and how they are trained to perform their gender…
