Jump to content

Military brat

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 109.70.67.170 (talk) at 08:56, 31 December 2010 (→‎Life and culture: changing it to gender neutral). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the international use of the term in many English-speaking countries. For the specific American subculture, see Military brat (U.S. subculture).

The term military brat is an English-language colloquial or military slang term used to describe the children and teenagers of active-duty military personnel, it also describes the unique subcultures associated with these populations.[1] The term denotes childhood and/or adolescent immersion in, or subservience to, military culture to the point where the mainstream culture of ones home country may seem foreign or peripheral.[2][3][4][5]

War-related family stresses, including long-term war-related absence of a parent, are also common features of military brat life in many countries.[3]

Life and culture

A common pattern in these subcultures is a heavy childhood and adolescent immersion in military culture to the point of marginalizing (or having significant feelings of difference in relation to) ones national civilian culture.[5][3][4][6] This is characterized by a strong identification with military culture rather than civilian culture.[5][3][4][7] Another term for this is the "militarization of childhood".[5][3][4][8]

In a number of countries where military brat subcultures occur (but with some exceptions and to varying degrees), there may also be an itinerant or modern nomadic lifestyle is involved as the child follows their military-parent(s) from military base to military base, in many cases never having a hometown (or at least going through very long periods of being away from ones home town).[3][9][2][10] It also can involve living outside of ones home country at or near overseas military bases in foreign cultures, or in regions within ones home country far from ones home region, along with experiences of significant cultural difference in either case.[3][9][11] Military brat subcultures have also been described as a modern nomadic or peripatetic subculture.[9][4]

Use of term

The use of the English term "military brat" has occurred in Australia,[4][3] India (also called "Fauji brats"),[2] Canada,[4][3] Pakistan,[citation needed] the Philippines,[citation needed] New Zealand,[citation needed] the United Kingdom,[9][10] and the United States.[3] Also known as camp followers, there have been such military-dependent subcultures (under various other names) in many parts of the world for thousands of years.[12]

Feelings of difference, military brat identity versus civilian identity

Many military brats report difficulty in identifying where they belong[1][13] (due to a lifestyle of constantly moving, and also immersion in military culture, and in many cases, also foreign cultures, as opposed to the civilian culture of their native countries, while growing up)[13] and frequently feel like outsiders in relation to the civilian culture of their native countries.[14][3][12][9] The home countries of a number of Military Brat subcultures have highly mobile (modern Nomadic) lifestyles, or at least significant overseas (or distant-internal) assignments for career military families and their children and adolescents while growing up, including Canada,[3] Britain,[9][15] France, India,[2][14] the Philippines,[5] Australia, New Zealand and the United States.[3][16][11] These military-dependent subcultures are generations old.[12]

American military brats have also been identified as a distinct,[16] 200-year old American subculture.[17][18] The largest percentage of psychological and social psychological research has centered on the U.S. subculture of military brats.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b David C. Pollock, Ruth E. van Reken. Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds, Revised Edition. Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-1857885255
  2. ^ a b c d Chatterjee, Smita. "Defense Kids In India: Growing Up Differently", Loving Your Child online magazine, December 2010.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wertsch, Mary E. (2006). Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress. ISBN 0-9776033-0-X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Ender, Morton. Military Brats and Other Global Nomads. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002. ISBN 9780275972660
  5. ^ a b c d e Suarez, Theresa Cenidoza. "The language of militarism: Engendering Filipino masculinity in the U.S. empire", ch. 4. University of California, San Diego, 2008. 130 pages, 3320357
  6. ^ Enloe, Cynthia H. Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives, p. 186. University of California Press; 1st edition, 2000. ISBN 978-0520220713
  7. ^ Enloe, Cynthia H. Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives, p. 186. University of California Press; 1st edition, 2000. ISBN 978-0520220713
  8. ^ Enloe, Cynthia H. Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives, p. 186. University of California Press; 1st edition, 2000. ISBN 978-0520220713
  9. ^ a b c d e f Cranston, CA. "Challenging Contemporary Ecocritical Place Discourses: Military Brats, Shadow Places, and Homeplace Consumerism". Indian Journal of Ecocriticism, V. 2, 2009. pp. 73-89. ISSN 0974-2840
  10. ^ a b Clifton, Grace. "Making the Case for the BRAT (British Regiment Attached Traveler)", British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 30, No. 3, 2004.
  11. ^ a b Hawkins, John P. Army of Hope, Army of Alienation: Culture and Contradiction in the American Army Communities of Cold War Germany. Praeger, 2001. ISBN 978-0275967383
  12. ^ a b c Holmes, Richard; ed (2001). The Oxford Companion to Military History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198662092.
  13. ^ a b Eidse, Faith; Sichel, Nina. Unrooted Childhoods: Memoirs of Growing up Global, 1st edition. Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2003. ISBN 978-1857883381
  14. ^ a b Caforio, Giuseppe. Kümmel, Gerhard; Purkayastha, Bandana (eds.) Armed Forces and Conflict Resolution: Sociological Perspectives. Emerald Group Publishing, 2008. ISBN 9781848551220
  15. ^ Bell, J. L. "Children Attached to the British Military" at Boston 1775 (blog), September 17, 2007.
  16. ^ a b Williams, Rudi. "Military Brats Are a Special Breed". Washinton, D.C.: American Forces Press Service (US Department of Defense Publication), 2001.
  17. ^ Wertsch, Mary Edwards (April 23, 1991). Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress (1st hardcover edition ed.). Harmony. p. 350. ISBN 0-517-58400-X. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
  18. ^ Musil, Donna. Brats: Our Journey Home (documentary film). Atlanta Georgia: Brats Without Borders Inc., 2005.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Military_brat&oldid=405140471"