It Hurts, It Rankles, It Smarts, It Annoys, But... To
see ourselves
as others see us is still one of the most soul-cleansing and brain-sobering exercises we can indulge in and profit by. National stereotypes, like clichés, often have something to them. This view of Portugal, written by a Canadian called
Ray Vogensen is full of gross
mistakes,
infelicities, oddities and even
lacks of perception and yet... and yet I
immediately, definitely
recognized my own country in his careful, almost
clinical dissection. Which is high praise in my book. Most of it, unfortunately, is
spot on. I hate to say it but it's the most truthful assessment of the real Portugal I've ever seen outside a book. Are there any foreigners' views of
your own country that you find yourself grudgingly agreeing with? Here's
911 Things To Hate About America to start off the American contingent.
posted by MiguelCardoso
on May 18, 2003 -
63 comments
But I Thought The Danes Were Good Guys... so what are they doing offering this Godwin's-Law-begging, nasty, violent Flash game? I mean, if it had been a ****** [
nationality protected by political correctness] game, I don't think I'd have been half as shocked. National stereotypes - don't you hate them? But just how strong are they, when they're splattered, as it were, even over online gaming? [
Via good old b3ta.com, who were just as aghast as me at the provenance. Hey, even the URL is scary!]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Mar 10, 2003 -
13 comments
Are Jazz And Gay Culture Antithetical? When an American friend of mine told me recently that gay men hate jazz, although that's not my experience in my part of the world, it got me thinking. But the article I found, by Francis Davis, only added to the mystery. Is the audience for Jazz overwhelmingly and creepily white, bourgeois, straight, macho and middle-aged (
which, embarrassingly, just about describes this Jazz fan...)? If it is, why the hell is it? Why are there so few outed
gay Afro-American musicians, for instance? Is there still a "
Don't Ask, Don't Tell" mentality? Or, more interestingly, does it have something to do with Jazz itself? Or even being gay? And what about the other
musical stereotypes (Garland, Streisand et al.) used in caricatures of gay men? Is there anything in them? [
NYT reg. required for main link; atrocious text garbling in the second.]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Feb 22, 2003 -
31 comments
HIT!!! SQUISH!!! MASH!!! or BASH!!! your Buddy whenever the feelings of Road Rage come over you. Please take a moment to let us know what you would like to see in the next buddy: Cow girl, Business Women, Old Geezer, Racial/Ethnic Taxi Cab Driver, Grandma, Black Businesswomen and man, Asian women, Valley Girl, Cop, Bus driver.
posted by machaus
on Jan 16, 2003 -
25 comments
So that woman on video beating her child...
WAIT! Don't delete this yet.
Something I found interesting was that at least one
news article mentioned that she was an
Irish Traveller. Apparently there are ten thousand Irish Travellers in the USA but little is known about them
academically , as a result, they have developed a rather negative stereotype, primarily as
con artists and
scammers. Probably one of the only nomadic groups left in modern times, these
gypsies are a
discriminated race in native Ireland.
posted by dirtylittlemonkey
on Sep 23, 2002 -
91 comments
I want a lotus blossom bride. I've had enough of these pushy American girls; I'm going to send for Chinese take-out. These folks promise me that I can have "whatever you had imagined in your patriarchal, colonialist longings." Allreet - M. Butterfly, here I come!
posted by Perigee
on Aug 4, 2002 -
46 comments
The Ugly American is becoming harder to distinguish among its European counterparts. What does an American look like, anyway? If you were in a foreign county, could you recognize an American, and if so, how?
posted by Oriole Adams
on Jul 19, 2001 -
150 comments
This article about the
stereotyped Black man offered up by nearly every reality TV show broadcast in the US ends just as it's getting to the essence: why is this the "reality" the networks -- and damningly the audiences -- are choosing?
posted by sudama
on Feb 20, 2001 -
80 comments
