The world is full of them, and from time to time it’s good to remind ourselves that one of our primary roles as travel writers is to challenge them where and when we find them.
I was reminded of that when I read Lebanese blogger, Jad Aoun, who has dedicated a microsite to the phrase “Looks like Beirut”, which drives him wild!
“No it doesn’t!” he rails (Beirut was re-built decades ago), and posts ‘Looks Like Beirut Award’ certificates to offenders who have used the “tired cliché to describe destruction, demise and doom” in print, tweets and posts. He’s sent 90 of them in the mail since he started in 2009.
So he was delighted this week to see another blogger who felt the same way.
@adventurousKate is an accomplished ‘slayer’ of stereotypes. This week she had a pop at the poor reputation of British food.
A few weeks ago she was charging down the ridiculous notion that England is London. It turns out that a lot of people in North America think England is one big city-state called ‘London’, and it irritates a lot of people who live outside London every time they make that simple geographic error (see the lengthy comments section).
C’est Christine did something similar last year, calling out a few of the things the rest of the world thinks are typically ‘French’…. but which aren’t really. On the other hand, she grudgingly agrees with Adventurous Kate that in order to become stereotypes in the first place, there must be an element of truth.
@ottsworld had a good go at Russian stereotypes in the summer, and old ‘Grumpy’ himself, @mrdavidwhitley , is the ‘Black Knight’ when it comes to tilting at stereotypes with a roundup of European stereotypes and a wry look at ‘the ‘loveliest people on Earth‘ in which, in turn he also commends @501places for having a go at stereotypical views of the people of Prague.
So where to start?
Well, if you need to find stereotypes to take down, let me point you to this source of inspiration. The Alphadesigner Stereotype mapping project.
Alphadesigner’s project is a work of genius – national stereotypes mapped from the perspective of other nations – and it’s very funny… which of course both pricks the pomposity of those who would take these things too seriously, while at the same time helping to embed them in our cultural psyche.
Like national jokes…
I was being driven around the Alentejo – the rural region of central Portugal – a few years ago by a local. Somehow we got onto the subject of national jokes. Who do the Germans make jokes about? The English. Who do the English make jokes about? The Irish. Etc. (Do the Germans make jokes? That one nailed by Barbara Geier!)
We decided the French probably make jokes about the Spanish.
“So who do the Spanish make jokes about?” I asked.
“The Portuguese”, he said.
“Well, who do the Portuguese make jokes about?”
“Us”, he said, “The Alentejans”.
“Ok… so who do you make jokes about?”
“Nobody. We’re the end of the line!”
It was said with a tone of self mockery and I took it for good humour, but as with the underlying rule of stereotypes – there has to be an element of truth for it to stand up in the first place.
And sometimes it’s not easy to tell whether it’s serious or funny, as demonstrated here a couple of days ago.
So, which stereotypes will you be tackling in the new year? And will you recognise them when you see them?
Image: Jeff Kubina
This is a fantastic piece, just for highlighting the problem. I’m Anglo Canadian and choose to live in Colombia. Therefore I am a coke snorting fiend. And obviously all Colombians are kidnappers/ guerrillas/ narcos (delete as appropriate). One also needs to work on the stereotype of the traveler to Colombia in the eyes of the locals. We are the great unwashed, uneducated etc etc. And then for those arriving to Colombia, obviously, you are going to be kidnapped straight off the plane on the jetway!
Interesting post. I think we love to travel because we don’t believe the stereotypes and we want to challenge them and see things for ourselves. This means we can replace the accepted stereotype for ones based on our own experience at least. So if the classic stereotype for Belgium is that it’s boring, for me it’s just full of people who drive like utter tailgating maniacs – but know how to make a great waffle!
Love the map too – reminds me of the classic ‘World According to Ronald Reagan’, which I hadn’t thought of in ages! Worth googling for those too young to have seen it!
Permit me, as a stereotype (English “retiree” ex-pat, in the Canary Islands) to comment: here in the land of perpetual mañana we stereotypes have tiers. Naturally, as British, we are on the top tier, no matter that Lord Nelson lost the Battle of Santa Cruz (who? what? when?) ensuring that Tenerife stayed forever Spanish, we all know that this island would be nothing without British tourists. Next tier are the Germans, well, they are more like us, aren’t they, (unlike other more hot-blooded nationalities we could mention *sniff*) and even though they are very opinionated and leave their towels on sunbeds, they do keep themselves to themselves. My god, they even go walking in the countryside and leave the beaches for us to cook ourselves on, how much nicer can you get? After the Germans come the Skandis. Usually they are very nice. You can tell that because they speak English – we probably need to include Belgians and Dutch in that tier, well, it’s almost the same part of the world, isn’t it? They pretty much keep themselves to themselves too, and they have their own bars and bakeries too, so they are like us because of that. Next tier? Well, the French, I suppose, although they are all so arrogant and snobby that they keep themselves to themselves more than anyone, they tend to huddle in their own ghettos, but they quite good at home decor and stuff like that if they do mix and work. After that come a whole lump of nations you have to mix together because they are sooo noveau riche (oh you didn’t know I speak French? I try not to let it show) – you know Americans, Australians, Canadians and so on, we don’t get many, and as they are all ex-colonists then we make allowances for them, and we include them as honorary Brits ….. but you have to be careful where you go with them, they can be so embarrassing. There are plenty of Chinese here now too, but since they never go out of their shops or restaurants you never really give them a thought. Last of course, there are the locals, who take three hour lunches, have never been off the island, have a fiesta every other week and pretend they don’t understand English when everyone know that they do, of course. What’s that you say? Not everyone here who speaks Spanish is actually Canarian? They might be mainland Spanish, or South American? They might even be speaking Portugese and not Spanish? Well, well, well, but it doesn’t really matter does it, they’re all the same!
Oh, and since everyone knows that sarcasm isn’t understood in Spain please let me reassure everyone this is it.
Thanks for the mention, Alastair, and I love to slay stereotypes.
Take Phnom Penh. I thought it was going to be dirty, unsafe, poverty-stricken mess (with lots of KFCs) — and found it to be a very low-key, chill city with great nightlife (and lots of KFCs). Cambodia is a tough place to visit emotionally, but it’s not as bad as it’s reputation.
Recently I was having a meal with a South American friend who told me a joke about Catalans being mean with their money when the people at the next table interrupted angrily. They were of course Catalans. Admittedly the joke was funny, but the resulting embarrassed back tracking was funnier.
I’m dour, probably drink too much, am ‘careful’ with my money and become irrationally patriotic watching Braveheart. We should challenge stereotyping wherever we find it. But national traits…now that’s a different kettle of fish.
Well, if this is a map of the world as seen by North Americans, it looks as though we have tough job on our hands trying to dismantle the stereotypes of Turkey. We’ll just have to keep plugging away through 2012. ;)
Julia
Yeah, but there’s always Europe by Turks to enjoy ;)
Cheers for the mention! That post continues to be one of my most popular–and I love the comments people have left regarding other things that aren’t really “French,” like French braids. Either way, it’s an interesting topic to address: I once went to a exhibition in the cartoon museum in Brussels that dealt with how national European stereotypes are portrayed in comics, and it was interesting to see the grains of truth in some and wonder where the heck others came from and how they continued to spread.
I love the idea of breaking down stereotypes – I think Im going to try to do a few posts on this!
Maybe I can tackle a part of the US that probably has the biggest stereotype of all – the South! :)