Stereotypes of the States + extra question

[GrinningManiac]

I'm a Brit, and, as such, I am often exposed to massive, overarching stereotypes concerning our friends the Americans. What interests me is that, whilst British, hell, ENGLISH stereotypes might stretch across about one county (Scouse, Geordie, Brummer), American stereotypes over here are given to massive swathes of the country. Here's the list

East Coast is made of mobsters, Irishmen and wisecracking taxi drivers. Everyone's either a crook, a tough cop or a sly, untrusting and hardened sort of chap
The South is incredibly traditional, homely, still has a bit of a racism problem and a few won't admit that the Confeds. lost the Civil War.
The Deep South are all related to each other, live in shacks and play banjos REALLY fast
The South West are a bunch of gun-totting bigoted cowboys and oil tycoons
The West Coast are surfers, fluffy-minded celebrities, fringe cultures and the stupidly rich

Whilst these may or may not be bang on, I'm more intrested in what each state has to say about their neighbours. The New Yorkers and Conneticcuttiananians (sp?) might both fit the East Coast type, but what do they wisecrack about each other?

Also, a small question not worth it's own thread: In films, the detective, once the door is opened, announces himself as detective so-n'-so, flashes his badge for a second and is instantly trusted. Is this the case in real life? Because if they only saw that badge for a second and belived it, it'd be Reeeaeeal easy to impersonate and trick

 

[wooty]

The US is probably just too big to isolate things to counties, maybe our county - county stereotyping is just a smaller scale of the overall ones we give the Colonies : P

edit: as a point of not starting an atlantic text battle, I use the term colonies with the utmost degree of respect and general good humour, and with that said, im now off to drink tea and fix my umbrella

 

[GHMonkey]

well a person from conneticut is probably gonna make a crime joke or a pizza joke whereas the new yorker might make some sort of country hick knock.every state has its own thing

i live in michigan for instance, so i would say everyone in wisconsin makes cheese, everyone in ohio and indiana are some pretty extreme rednecks. oh, not to forget everyone that attends OSU are the biggest douche bags ever, but most have learned its not all of them..... just a lot of them

 

[grimsprice]

You forgot about the Pacific Northwest. We live in pine forests, and we are quite possibly the coolest, most eco-conscious area in the US.

 

[gmer412]

Wow. I'm sorry, but they have our country down perfectly. We don't really have any stereotypes about different parts of Britain (that I know of), we just basically lump it all together. This is erroneous, I know.

 

[Smokepuddle]

And then there's Canada.The 51st state here everyone has health insurance and no one has a gun.

 

[Poomanchu745]

Everyone that lives in New Jersey is a guido. aka fake italian who desperatly wants to be italian by putting buckets of gel in their hair, going to tanning salons every day, working out every day because they are God's gift to man, and clubbing incessantly while drugging chicks that wont go home with em.

Thats my stereotype!

 

[Rook of Spades]

You forgot about the Pacific Northwest. We live in pine forests, and we are quite possibly the coolest, most eco-conscious area in the US.

I agree with this.

 

[Poomanchu745]

And then there's Canada.The 51st state here everyone haas health insurance and no one has a gun.

I think you mean EVERYONE has a gun. Im pretty sure their guns per person is much higher than that of the USA.

 

[internetzealot1]

...Was this a polite way to throw a bunch of insults at Americans?

 

[maddawg IAJI]

Well I don't think Florida is like that. And that's as South as we get on the East Coast.

Yes the East Coast does have a large amount of Irishmen, but Mobs? That's only really held in the BIG cities over here. Boston,New York, Richmond. Those kinda places. Even then the idea of mobsters has died down and now we have a Gang problem.

As for the Sly people? That's a sterotype created by multiple movies of that nature.

 

[Berethond]

Keep in mind that almost all of California up to the Coastal range is South West stereotype.
Only the coasties are like your stereotype.

 

[AlexFromOmaha]

You actually match our own stereotypes pretty closely.

The East Coast is generally made up of pretentious and insular types. They are, in fact, Better Than You, unless they have the misfortune of being from New Jersey. The reasons why they're Better Than You depends on the individual place. Maryland is pretty closely associated with DC. New York has the big, multicultural city. Massachusetts has Harvard. The list goes on.

The borders between prissy Confederates and inbred hicks in the south are fairly windy and nuanced. The stereotypes you list are applicable, but the more modern stereotypes will say that the Confederacy knows that they lost the War of Northern Aggression (which is really and truly what they call it), and the rednecks don't actually still play banjos. The Confederates tend to be very staunchly racist and sexist. They'll probably acknowledge the racism but not the sexism, since their brand of sexism is coddling and low expectations more than putting down. The rednecks all have guns, beer, NASCAR, and a car up on blocks in the front yard.

The desert states don't really have a long-standing stereotype anymore. While that's an appropriate stereotype for years past, it hasn't held. Nevada is Vegas and prostitution. Upper and middle-class urban Arizona and New Mexico tend to be very well educated. Rural Arizona and New Mexico are some of the least developed lands in the country, and it belongs to the most impoverished Native American tribes.

The stereotypes you list for the West Coast apply to California, mostly. For Oregon and Washington, think of a whole culture of Apple fashionistas, and you've pretty much got the idea.

The Midwest tends to be characterized as slow and agricultural...and, well, as long as you're talking about the rural areas, that's not too far off. The urban Midwest is mostly Irish-American and German-American, and being from that side of the ocean, I'm sure you can figure out how that works!

The far north is all about beer, hockey, and fishing. Woo! The far northern states includes things like Minnesota, Michigan, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, and Ontario. Yep. All part of the US.

 

[Helimocopter]

yeah minnesota could basically be described as canada junior

also, i dont know near enough about really any European country to apply British stereotypes to specific counties

people dont just trust a badge where i live, there has to be a bit more than that

 

[Smokepuddle]

And then there's Canada.The 51st state here everyone haas health insurance and no one has a gun.

I think you mean EVERYONE has a gun. Im pretty sure their guns per person is much higher than that of the USA.

Actually only in place you can hunt. Hand guns aren't legal in canada.

 

[quiet_samurai]

Your west coast schpeel only really applies to Southern California. Northern California, Oregon, and Washington are more similar compared to one another. I bet you didn't know that eastern Washington and Northern Idaho have more rascist affiliated hate groups then anyhwhere else in the country, as far as the different variations of groups go.

The More You Know....


And the cop thing, it really applies to the individual. You do not have to let an officer into your home or talk to them if you don't want too, excluding a warrant.

 

[Lordpils]

Woo-Hoo, I'm not an american stereotype!

 

[sarahvait]

Well, I grew up in Indiana, which is supposed to be all rednecky. But Indianapolis is pretty much suburbia, and the actual city has gotten some nice upgrades. We've picked up a good amount of beggars in the city area now, which must mean that we now have a fairly decent citylife ripe for....begging, I guess. Not a New York class begging life, but still. The closest I ever got to a cornfield was driving past one. I can think of about 7 malls that are only a 20 minute or less drive from my house. The area I mostly grew up in is a big travel hub, so there's about 8 big hotels, a fourteen screen movie theatre, Wal-mart, Fry's Electronics, Meijer, Marsh, Kohl's, a bunch of fast food places (Wendy's, Taco Bell, Arby's, McDonald's, Burger King, etc.), and a bunch of other shops and places to eat. All this is five minutes or less from my house.

Now, you go over to where my grandmother lives, Paoli, and it's a complete 180. Small, small, town. There is hardly anything to do down there. They do have a Wal-mart....that's about all I can think of. Oh, and some place to ski.

Anyway, I stayed with my sister for three months in New York. As for the wisecracking taxi drivers, nope, not really. Pretty much all of them either just listen to the radio or talk to someone else over a walkie talkie or cell phone. One driver did talk to me, but he didn't wisecrack or even have a new york accent. Just a nice guy. You really have to appreciate the skills it must take to drive the way they do and not end up crashing 90% of the time. Never saw a mobster, or heard any irish people. Oh, that one bartender, I think he was irish.

And now I'm living in California. I live in Burbank, which is in the valley, thank god, because if I had to live in Hollywood, I would go crazy. Burbank and most of the rest of the valley are fairly close to what it was like back in Indy for me. And it's nice, everyone is pretty much just normal people. You don't really see any surfers unless you go down to one of the beach areas like Santa Monica or Venice. I have no doubt there are some really ritzy places around here, but I don't have an interest because I'm not rich.

As for celebrities, don't really see any. I've met a lot of voice actors, since that's what I'm trying to do out here. I did see Wynona Ryder at the Farmer's Market. And when I first came out here, I rented out Jane Lynch's guest house from her assistant because my voice coach is friends with her. Got to actually meet her one day, that was kinda cool. Jane Lynch was that slighty crazy blond chick from Role Models, BTW. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86MlUt0Ma1c

 

[sagonas123]

Mobsters and wisecracking taxidrivers? Nah.
But here in Boston there's plenty of Irishmen. xD

 

[stone0042]

Us New Yorkers kick ass, who cares about the rest of the country?