posted September 12, 2013 10:54 AM              

They portray Officers as being able to woo the Nurse, Civilian, or REMF woman. Yes a practical all-round Hottie with muscular abs, very handsome face, and incredible charm.

Officers are also portrayed acting like a gentleman all the time not just to superiors and women but also to fellow men of equal ranks and even the fresh grunt. From the way they eat their food to the way they dress and speak, Officers are shown as though they are from the upper classes.

Don't even get me started on how popular media loves to make them such sophisticated intellectuals. They not only know about everything in the military including things above their rank but they are often portrayed as reading classic literature like War and Peace and quoting Shakespeare!

Their often shown as if not coming from the upper classes than at least being paid considerably well-above the average soldier (I know this is true IRL but officers are portrayed living in nice homes that have such fantastic furniture and art works across the house, with nice cars,etc.).

Even in war, they are portrayed as men of extraordinary valor who not only are willing to risk their lives to save their fellow soldiers but even fight with such remarkable ferocity often killing lots of enemy soldiers or rallying their platoon in hopeless situations and inspiring their troops to fight and win against miraculous odds!

So not only are they perfect in every way ideal to any woman be they civilian or military, but they are also portrayed as being outstanding soldiers!

There are many examples I can post but An Officer and a Gentleman is one and many guest characters in JAG (esp. foreigners for one episode) are also like this. To quote a specific example, Ashley Wilkes from Gone With the Wind (the book, not the movie) is the perfect Officer Gentleman.

Why does popular media love to romanticize the officer and glamorize the higher ranks of the military like this?Not all officers are dreamy sophisticated gentlemen. In fact the average officer actually are crap as soldiers in peace time, nevermind war time (where so many officers are so incompetent they often make illogical nonsense decisions that get their men killed!).