Daily Entertainment.

[muji]

What are some of the stereotypes associated with the area that you live or are from? Are they true or not? Where did they come from?

ETA: MPR submissions deadline is tomorrow! milliways.npr @ gmail, plz.

Comments

[buongiornodaisy.livejournal.com]

We do not worship crabs! Were are just fed crabs intravenously okay? Otherwise I have no idea if there are any Maryland stereotypes, though Alfred Hitchcock and his cast fucked up big time representing Marylanders as people who sound curiously from Alabama in Marnie.

[muji]

We are also not all rejects from the set of Hairspray.

No matter how much John Waters would like us to be.

(Although, if he really wanted me to? Sure.)

[timjr.livejournal.com]

Erm... I come from whitebread America, where the stereotype is hick farmers and the like.

Having lived there, I met many folks who fit that stereotype. And many that did not.

Hell, I remember when we heard the mythic tales of 'White Power Wednesdays' that would occur at one of the high schools.

Oh yeah, and I'm from a town that made national news because of a KKK rally. That was fun. Except not.

[muji]

We had the KKK protest (and eventually force the school to cancel) one of my field hockey team's away games. It was a special time.

[newredshoes]

Well, the people who don't know that Ohio has bits in Appalachia think my part's all flat farmland!

And for the people who do, it comes down to one word: Deliverance.

Which, you know, not actually the case.

[muji]

*stares at you blankly through the cornstalks*

[norobinsparkles.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm from Pittsburgh, PA and... most of the stereotypes are true. We have unusual accents/pronunciations (I have a shirt full of "Pittsburghese"), we're a drinking town with a football problem... yeah, it's a pretty blue collar city.

Currently I live in Maryland, right outside of DC. I'm not sure what stereotypes there are, except that everyone I knew back home asked me if I was suddenly a Baltimore Ravens fan because I moved here. Um. No.

Also when I tell people I live in Maryland, they automatically assume Baltimore.

[buongiornodaisy.livejournal.com]

Also when I tell people I live in Maryland, they automatically assume Baltimore.

OH MY GOODNESS YES IT DRIVES ME UP THE FUCKING WALL. I'm based way more in DC than I am in Baltimore, even if I happen to live closer to Baltimore than I do DC now. In that DirecTV will only give us Baltimore local stations than DC stations. But we're still about the same distance from DC and Baltimore. ¬_¬

Also, um, I do not blame anyone for not supporting Maryland teams. While I am still a Redskins girl at heart (ignore that they're a DC team for a second), I recognize that just about all of 'em, DC and Maryland, suck better than a Dyson.

[canadabear.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I guess there's the old "Canadians are nicer than you!" stereotype, which I suppose is true. We're also somewhat polite.

But we're also plotting to take over the world. So there.

[muji]

I want you to know that every time Alec cracks on Canada, I quote your icon.

(ALSO, If you are ever in Montreal and bored, you could stalk him! It would be made of amusement. For me anyway.)

[sdelmonte]

I actually have to think about this, since I really don't think much about the stereotypes of NYC. But obviously there are many.

First off, no speaks with an Brooklyn accent anymore. There are still some pockets of old-fashioned NYC accents like you see in movies, but I think that by and large it's hard to tell people are from NYC by the sound of their voices. (Choice of words, though, still matters, of course.)

We are probably a bit ruder than the average American, since there are just too many of us in a small space, and far too many of us in the subways at 8 am. But I don't think New Yorkers are that unfriendly, and certainly when a helping hand is needed, we extend one. That said, though, we really do keep to ourselves. I don't know my neighbors, and never have since I was a kid.

There are more stereotypes, I am sure, but none come to mind.

[buongiornodaisy.livejournal.com]

If New Yorkers are rude, I honestly haven't noticed. There's one stereotype Southerners have of the entire North, though (and that includes Maryland, even though we're below the Mason-Dixon line), in that we're all "rude." Because we're not as extroverted as they are. Which is massive BS, IMO. We just operate differently than the Southerners do.

[homicidalfink.livejournal.com]

Ahaha. Ha.

The entire Southwest is not (all) desert. And even if it is, there is a difference between high desert, which is what you have around Santa Fe and northern NM, and the special kind of desert you get around Death Valley.

Also, people tend to assume we're part of Mexico for some reason. Which is totally not true and is a great way to start a brawl.

[camwyn]

This Mac Hall strip sums most of them up rather nicely, actually.

[muji]

The one-two punch of the comic and your icon did wonders for my quiet morning.

[sophistry]

Hahaha.

HAAAAHAHAHAHAHAohGod.

That is all.

[muji]

HI SOPHIE YOU HAVE NO OPINIONS ON THIS TOPIC, YES? :-*

[calluna]

NOT EVERYONE FROM JERSEY TAWKS LIKE THEY'RE FROM LAWNG ISLAND :|

We do not say "Joisey," for god's sake! And if you run across someone who does, they're either from South Jersey or a native Long Islander. :|

... I'd also defend the whole "dead bodies aren't found all the time" but our crew team once found a floater in the Passaic River. :x

[sdelmonte]

The Sopranos did more to set the image of New Jersey back than all the arrests of corrupt polticians and bodies found in the rivers combined.

[stuck-mynock.livejournal.com]

The most obvious stereotype of people from Ireland that comes to mind is that we're all drunks/bar brawlers. Also, we're all short, wear green a lot, do quirky dances, et cetera ad nauseum. Obviously none of those are true.

In other news: Should I start watching Battlestar Galactica, y/n?

[muji]

y.

It's very heartwrenching at times, says the girl with the daddy + abandonment issues. But! V. pretty.

[wakeupnew]

Yes, we have running water.

Yes, we have electricity.

No, I did not grow up in a log cabin.

"What did I do" growing up in Maine? Um, went to the mall, saw movies, wandered the city, went to the beach...

I did not ride to school on moose.

I am not actually from a rural area.

I do not like camping.

I am not a lumberjack.

These are all answers to questions that people have seriously asked me, over the years. Some, obviously, were more serious than others.

[muji]

But...



D:




...why no moose?

[bethan-b-bad.livejournal.com]

First of all: no, we don't all live in caves, yes, we do have the internet/TVs/electricity/McDonald's (although I wish we didn't)/DVDs/etc, and no, WWII rationing finished fifty years ago. (Yes, I have really honestly been asked all these things. Except for the caves one, that was just the impression I got.) Further, we really really are not the same country as England, and referring to me as English is not the way to win my undying love.

No, we cannot all speak Welsh and/or say 'that really really long name omg'. Yes, we really really do have to learn the language until we're sixteen, but that does not mean any of it has stuck.

Yes, there are vowels in Welsh.

I remain permanently indebted to Torchwood for having yet to make a sheep-shagger joke. Likewise, for being entirely void of male voice choirs. I will, however, go homicidal on the next 'Welsh village idiot' character in a movie - I'm looking at you, Rhys Ifans in Notting Hill.

The thing about it raining all the time, however, is sadly very very true. *looks out of the window mournfully*

PS - Do you think we could start the stereotype of Welsh people being hot, snarky, fabulous-suited coffee gods? *eyes Ianto Jones hopefully*

[muji]

I have no problem with this.

(I collect foreign language dictionaries, and I have two in Welsh...I have no hope of learning it.)

[agonistes]

No, we do not survive off of peanuts alone.

Yes, we have cable television.

(Yes, we have electricity and running water.)

No, not all of us are obsessed with refighting the War Between the goddamn States -- which we do in fact actually call the Civil War.

Tara doesn't actually exist. And we don't all have verandas where we sit drinking mint juleps. Or sweet tea.

(Some of us hate sweet tea.)

We do not all drive pickups with the Confederate flag hanging somewhere off the bed. Similarly, we do in fact have paved roads. Most of us drive on them often. Many of us have never driven on a dirt road.

Not every road in Atlanta is named Peachtree. Just 146 of them.

It is true, however, that any time you give directions in Atlanta, they are likely to involve a) Peachtree Street, b) the Big Chicken (if you're up in Marietta), and/or c) Waffle House.

Where did these come from? Pop culture. And ignorant Yankees. :D

[dramawench.livejournal.com]

AMEN!!!

[dramawench.livejournal.com]

Well, I was born in New Jersey and I get so mad when people make jokes about it being nothing but industrial plants and ugliness. Jersey is really beautiful - my family lives up near the mountains and it is glorious there. The beach is also fabulous.

And now I live in the South. Wow. The number of stereotypes we have there. One of the stereotypes that everyone in the South is a bible-thumping redneck gets a lot of play and while overall that isn't true, somehow residents here keep finding ways to try and prove us wrong. The most embarrassing example is that woman in Gwinnet County (Georgia) who keeps suing the school system to remove Harry Potter from their library. She's lost her case3 times and keeps appealing to higher levels, because "Harry Potter promotes witchcraft". She's never read the books.

[muji]

...*sigh*

That happens everywhere -- there's always that one idiot who's out to prove sanity down.

Ahahahahaa. Where do I start?

[mogget_cat]

Contrary to popular belief, there are quite a few educated people in Arkansas. We're not all hicks, and movies like Deliverance and The Legend of Boggy Creek are... rather universally hated, around here. At least among people I know.

And we don't all tawk liiiike thiiis.

Yes, there is a lot of farmland. Yes, much of the state is still covered in trees. That's because timber is a big part of the Arkansan economy, and we're the number one rice- and soy bean-producing state in the US.

No, we're not all related. No, marrying one's cousin is not acceptable. No, we're not all die-hard, gun-toting Republicans.

Some of us are gun-toting Democrats. :D

Arkansas is also responsible for many things that people don't tend to know about.

The nation's first National River
The nation's smallest National Park
The only diamond-producing mine in the US
An award-winning winery
J.B. Hunt
Tyson Foods
Dillards department stores
TCBY
The duck-hunting capital of the world (Stuttgart)
The ivory-billed woodpecker


...and Walmart, but we don't talk about that.

Re: Ahahahahaa. Where do I start?

[shecalledmefred.livejournal.com]

...and Walmart, but we don't talk about that.

I'll forgive you for Wal-Mart.

Ish.

[moriendi.livejournal.com]

And for someone that's moved around.

Not all military brats:

- are super-achievers or perfectionists.
- made their beds with hospital corners.
- wanted the join the military upon growing up.
- were children deprived of the serving parent's attention.
- have cultural amnesia.

[muji]

Great addition -- military brats definitely have an enormous capacity to be stereotyped as well.

[kali921.livejournal.com]

Are there stereotypes of people from San Francisco? I'm curious as to what people think. Whenever I travel, I don't really get that, except for the conservatives that snicker about the "Left Coast" and wonder if everyone in SF is really gay and/or biprogress. Answer: we're not! But we all dress better because of our awesome gay demographic!

Let's see. People stereotype San Franciscans and Northern Californians as all being lefty progressives. Compared to the rest of the country, lefty progressives definitely outnumber almost everywhere else in the U.S. per capita. The only comparable place I can think of would be Seattle and possible parts of Oregon. Berkeley has one of the most stringent recycling programs in the country and you can't serve food in styrofoam containers either in Berkeley or SF, so all that stuff about being environmentalists definitely has a basis in truth.

Uh, what else. We're not all hippies, but a lot of us had hippie parents. We like crab, but NOT THAT MUCH. Yes, we have lots and lots of veggies and vegans, so that part is true. SF and the larger Bay Area is known for being an outstanding culinary location, so that's true. You can't walk more than a block in the Gourmet Ghetto without finding a five-star all organic restaurant or bread baking collective. SF does have excellent sourdough bread - that stereotype is true. Along with great bookstores and Italian coffee.

One stereotype about us being friendly Californians like the rest of the state really isn't true. We're a bit more reserved than all the heathens from Los Angeles that have migrated up here in the last decade. That stand offishness is particularly aimed at those very same Angelenos that have moved up here because yes, there's a dislike up here of Southern California. Unfortunately, Southern Californians are largely unaware of this, which makes for hilarity. Freakin' Southern California, skewing our statewide voting demographic with all those right wing Republicans behind the Orange Curtain!* That's a stereotypical perception of NoCal that is definitely based in reality.

Oh, and San Francisco and Alameda Counties always vote Democratic in elections where Republican Presidential candidates win. That stereotype? Also true!


* That being Orange County.

Edit: Oh. Forgot your question about the origins of stereotypes. I think the perception of San Francisco as a wildly hedonistic city with progressive values comes from the Barbary Coast days of the 19th century, where SF was WILD. Also, the stereotype of SF being a very diverse city - totally true.

[buongiornodaisy.livejournal.com]

You can't walk more than a block in the Gourmet Ghetto without finding a five-star all organic restaurant or bread baking collective.

um um um that makes me want to go to SF like right now *waaaaaaaaaaaants*

[gethenian.livejournal.com]

Um. I'm not sure there are steriotypes about people from DC among the rest of the US Collective.

MY OWN steriotype about people who SAY they're from DC is that almost none of them actually are -- most of them are from MD or VA and say they're from DC because they work here. While this is fair, to an extent, because a lot of them probably DO spend a majority of their waking hours inside the beltway*, it's not the same as actually living in the city.

Frankly, I have yet to quite comprehend the subtleties of why. I know there is a difference in the way people regard others from the DC Metro/suburbs area vs. DC itself. It's kind of unusual to hear of people being from the city, which is kind of neat to me, actually. I get to lay claim to any combination of Maryland and Virginia quirks I want, and at the same time I've never lived in a state, voted for representatives, or had state-steriotypes applied to me. I was borjn and raised in an area where the population at the last census was -- if I recall correctly -- 65-67% black, about 11% Hispanic (and that's the people who ANSWERED THE CENSUS), and the rest a vast mingling of things.

Which means, of course, you get weird little mini-pockets of culture everywhere, which is cool. I once got called an "Olive N-word" because I'm Italian. I found it hilarious. I've also had people REFUSE to believe I'm actually from here because apparently I talk funny, and by talk funny I mean I enunciate and use slightly archaic language. I've had people SWEAR ON THE BIBLE I MUST BE FROM SOUTH AFRICA. whut. I've had someone else wonder if I was an ordained memb er of the clergy (o.0) or a cult leader. I ran into some 4-H kids the other day and had to later look up what 4-H WAS but as soon as I told them I was an artist from DC they were hanging on my every word like I was some kind of alien.

It was pretty cool.




*footnote: For anyone reading this who doesn't know, the Beltway is a circular road that circles DC and kind of more or less outlines the DC Metro area, which goes as far as Vienna and Wheaton.

[buongiornodaisy.livejournal.com]

Ah, the famous Beltway, the thing that lends its name to so many derogatory terms to pundits/politicians who work within it. I was once caught in traffic on it (it's actual name is I-495) and thought "--so THIS is the famous Beltway, eh? *crankily sits through WORST TRAFFIC EVER*"

Stupid fucking Beltway. I usually don't take it in to work, even though it is the fastest way to get to Silver Spring. Y'know, when it's not clogged up with traffic.

RE: people who say they're from DC but aren't, I think that's true for a lot of cities. I know a lot of people from New York have complained about people saying from New York when they really aren't.

[wickedtrue.livejournal.com]

*drawls*

Stereotypes? I have no idea what you're talking about, sug.

Though, I wouldn't be surprised if someone proposed a study on the theory 'the bigger the hair, the closer to Jesus'.

[muji]

...Whut. XD

[rowanberries.livejournal.com]

Surrey is supposed to be full of posh middle-class people.

Um. Yeah, kinda. >_> Except for the people who aren't, but since when to stereotypes care about that?

[bethan-b-bad.livejournal.com]

AMY! *pounces* AmyAmyAmyAmy eeee.

I have STUFF TO ASK.

But first: How're you?

[misslucyjane]

I am not, nor have I ever been, a sister-wife.

However, one my neighbors used to be in a polygamous marriage (she got out), there is a polygamous compound near where I live, and my great-grandparents were polygamists. So you can take that any way you like.

Also, yes, we do eat a lot of Jell-O here. I have a theory about Jell-O: see, fruit is expensive, but if you cut up fruit and put it in Jell-O, then you can make the fruit spread around through your entire ten-kid family. Why the preference for green Jell-O, though, that I can't explain. (I personally prefer raspberry or watermelon.)

And I have said "Oh my heck" and meant it.

[pastrydeity]

My mother's family is from Kentucky, and they are devout churchgoers and some of the sweetest and most generous people you could hope to meet; family reunions really do turn into jam sessions with guitar and banjo and singing, and part of the family really are moonshiners (and most of them own guns). Stereotype, but all true.

As for me, I spent half my childhood in New Jersey and half in Pennsylvania, and am neither mob-affiliated nor Amish. But I, uh... *thinks* can eat at White Castle for breakfast without feeling the slightest bit sick. And have a secret fondness for polka and the little Mennonite hats.

Eh, people have thought my accent is indeterminately foreign anyway.

[wanderlustlover]

No, I was not born with a horse and a cowboy hat. Yes, I do say ya'll and can get water from a cactus. No, the greater percentage of people here don't love the 113 degree weather. Yes, people here do for a large percentage think they are Texan before they are American. No, all of us aren't Repbulican or like the president, simply because this is his home.

Yes, states that can be crossed in less than fourteen hours cause a strange euphoria in us. Yes, I like winters around -20 and everyone hear would curl up and die if that happened. We have more military people than cowboys. We have a bigger Hispanic population than military people. Yes *cringe* We they do drink sugar with their tea.

Yes, I can drink tequila most of the night and not either get drunk or a hang over. Yes, I can ride a horse and do want a fancy, expensive matching set of hat and boots *cough*andacorallofhorses*cough*. We're far more talkative than The Duke, and not everyone here even know who he is. We have amazing German engineered roads and some of the worst drivers in the world *eyes Houston*.



And most of us, at least the non-city-clingers, would ride off into the sunset toward a huge acerage of our own if land wasn't so bloody expensive.

[agoodshinkickin.livejournal.com]

- Well ah, I hate to dissahpoint, but we don't ahl talk like Mayah Quimby.

- "Boston Driver" is a misnomer. No self-respecting Bostonian actually drives in Boston. We know better. The people causing the traffic are commuters, or 508ers as they used to be called.

- It's not that we're mean or rude by default, it's just that we have such crappy weather that we don't like to be outside any longer than we have to be.

- No you cannot marry a tree here or a Box Turtle...

- Yes we do hate freedom.

- No not all of us were deathly afraid during the Mooninite attack. Some of us were laughing our asses off. NEVAR FORGET: 1/31/07!

- Apparently there are more Lesbians per square mile in Western Mass than there are anywhere else on Earth.

[wakeupnew]

- Apparently there are more Lesbians per square mile in Western Mass than there are anywhere else on Earth.

*cracks up* I would believe this.