Across the Pond........

I've heard this expression used any number of times, but when I was younger, I never knew what this meant, until later when I found out that it described the UK, or England.

I found out that there are some very and I mean VERY rude stereotypes about the people from this country, and usually, I just assume people are nice until I get to know them better, so I guess it makes them happy. Now mind you, I do not follow these stereotypes, I mean, what kind of girl who watches Top Gear and Mr. Bean would think this? Now I really do wonder how the hell some of these are even considered stereotypes! Now this is coming from the kind of girl that would look at Daniel Radcliffe and almost have a heart attack seeing him shirtless!! Here are some very and I mean VERY RUDE stereotypes!!

• Bad teeth, yellow teeth, big teeth


• Bad hygiene


• Snooty, stuck up


• Boisterous


• Obsessed with soccer


• Obsessed with the Queen


• Heavy smokers/drinkers


• Tight-fitting clothing


• Very mouthy


• British men are gay

Some more common stereotypes include:

• Suave, romantic lovers


• British women will be stuck up


• All British men will be called Sir(i.e. Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Mick Jagger, Sir Michael Caine), or British women will be called Dame(Dame Helen Mirren, Dame Maggie Smith)


• That British men will be incredibly good looking with a cute accent or tall, thin and ugly


• That all people in England walk around wearing a bowler hat, carrying an umbrella, saying things like "Cheerio!"

And there are also stereotypes in the media, like movies, news, etc. Here are some of them:

• Brits have been shown as being rude, prudish


• American films always love to show the villain as being someone with an English accent or someone English in general. A good example is the Imperial officers in Star Wars, all of whom had English accents. But they never show any one who is good with an English accent, like Obi-Wan Kenobi or C3PO in Star Wars who both had English accents


• They will also be shown as having upper class accents(i.e. Hugh Grant) and being gay


• A stereotypical role in American movies for Brits include the Butler or Gentleman


• Disney movies are notorious for the 'Bad Brit' stereotype, but back then, no one was really noticing these kinds of things. Some examples include:


• Judge Frollo-Hunchback of Notre Dame- voiced by Tony Jay, a white British actor, even though the character is supposed to be French


• Jafar-Aladdin


• Maleficent-Sleeping Beauty


• Professor Ratigan-The Great Mouse Detective


• Lady Tremaine-Cinderella


• Scar-Lion King-voiced by white British actor Jeremy Irons


• Mrs. Trunchbull-Matilda


• Count Olaf-A Series of Unfortuntate Events-Jim Carrey

No one may stop and think about all the people we like that may be from England, such as:

• The Rolling Stones


• The Beatles



• Helen Mirren

• Gary Oldman



• Def Leppard

• Judas Priest



• The Top Gear crew(Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May)



• Colin Firth



• Kate Winslet(one of my fave actresses!)



• Jeremy Irons



• Steve Valentine



• Naveen Andrews



• Marianne Faithfull



Hard to imagine why Mick Jagger wouldn't go out with her? She's beautiful!
• Cilla Black



• Hugh Laurie



• Lynn Redgrave



• Vanessa Redgrave

• Natasha Richardson



• Maggie Smith

• Helena Bonham-Carter

 And there are even well known TV shows out of England that people like to watch on TV, like Top Gear, Mr. Bean, My Family, Keeping Up Appearances, Absolutely Fabulous. It's actually amazing that shows like this really get on with people in the US.

Mr. Bean

My Family(these 2 remind me of my mom and stepdad!)

Ben reminds me of my stepdad Greg ,and Susan reminds me of my mom Brenda!! and they act just like them I swear!!

Keeping Up Appearances

Absolutely Fabulous

The Young Ones

Racism/Discrimination

I know I may have done previous blogs about how much I hate this, but I recently had to do a PowerPoint presentation for my computer class and I chose to do it on the topic of racism/discrimination. Now mind you, I do not think this way, I personally feel it's horrible to think this way about people. Here's what I found out:

Stereotypes

Italian stereotypes
Some of the most common ones include:

• Tolerant of violence
• Labor bosses
• Ignorant
• Organized crime association
• Political corruption
• Overly emotional/dramatic
• Superstitious
• Hot Blooded
• Aggressive
• Obsessed with food
• Prone to vengeance
• Males will be big and muscular, very good looking.
• Men will be sexually well endowed, but lack skills in the bedroom
• Loud tastes in clothing
• Expensive jewelry made cheaply
• Has the name Michael, Joe, Sal, or Tony
• All talk and no bite
• Braggers
• Loud talkers and not knowing when to be quiet
• Supposedly cruel and overly demanding bosses
• flirtatious, exotic young women with a taste in Italian-made items like Prada, Gucci, Armani
• Gum cracking, big haired, air head girlfriend of a Mafia soldier

Some of the stereotypical Italian-held jobs include: peddlers, chefs, construction workers, any working class jobs

Latino stereotypes
Some of the most common ones include:

• Being heavily tattooed
• Enjoy low rider cars
• Having too greasy hair
• The "Latin Lover"-suave, charming, romantic
• Large families
• Can't speak English
• Drug dealers(thanks to the 1983 movie Scarface)
• Mouthy
• Laborers
• Enjoy clothing in loud, obnoxious colors
• Maid/housekeeper
• gardener/landscaper
• All are Mexican
• Mutiple kids
• They all steal
• They all own large cars, trucks or SUVs
• Short
• Uneducated
• All listen to the same music and eat hot food

Black stereotypes

• Blacks are shown to be overly religious, superstitious, joyous, naive, ignorant
• They'll be shown as lazy, criminals, ignorant, overly religious, violent
• They'll be shown eating fried chicken, drinking Kool-Aid or eating watermelon
• They'll be shown living in slums/ghettos
• They'll be shown as people with big lips, heavyset, alot of kids and no knowledge of where the father is, being school dropouts, good at sports, confident, 'gangstas', love white women, good at dancing

Asian stereotypes

• Asians have ben shown as hard working, studious, very grateful, inoffensive, intelligent, politically inactive, productive people who raise their social standing through diligence and good merit
• 25.2% of American-born Asians over the age of 25 hold a Bachelor's Degree compared to 15.5% of general Americans of the same age hold a Bachelor's Degree
• Asian men have been shown as chauvinists, meaning they treat women unfairly
• There is also a stererotype about image. The epicanthic fold of Asian people's eyes is sometimes referred to in a positive light 'almond shaped' or in a negative light' slant eye', there is also a stereotypical haircut- bowl cut for boys, overgrown bangs for girls. And it's also assumed that all Asians are born with the knowledge of how to perform martial arts, are short and have difficulty with the English language

Jewish stereotypes

• nit picky stingy misers
• Associated with circumcision, bagels, Mazel Tov, Oy Vey
• In pictures, shown as people with big hook noses, olive skin, curly hair, dark eyes, big lips, wearing kippahs, aka yamecahs

British stereotypes

• Big teeth, yellow teeth
• Bad hygiene
• Snooty, stuck up
• obsessed with soccer
• obsessed with The Queen
• Tight-fitting clothing
• Boisterous
• Heavy smokers/drinkers
• British men are gay

More common stereotypes include:

• British men are gay(i.e. Mick Jagger dancing around like an idiot level) or be suave romantic lovers
• British women will be stuck up
• British men will have the word Sir before their name(i.e. Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Mick Jagger, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sir Michael Caine)
• That people in England will all be walking around wearing bowler hats, carrying umbrellas, and say things like "Cheerio"
• That British men will be tall, thin and ugly

American Indian stereotypes

• Not all Indians will be doing arts and crafts or live on a reservation
• Not all Indians will be experts on their culture/heritage

Media Stereotypes

Italian stereotypes

• The HBO show The Sopranos came under fire when it first premiered because it showed too many stereotypes, like mob association
• The 2009 show Jersey Shore came under fire as well because it showed too many Italian stereotypes, like the exotic young women and hot blooded young guys
• Sometimes mobsters or movies about the mob will glorify the topic, like people like John 'The Dapper Don' Gotti will made out like a hero
• There is also a stereotype about appearance, that all Italians have dark features

Famous Italians

• Steven Tyler(hottie!)
• Joe Perry(hottie!)
• Federico Castellucio(hottie!)
• Ferrucio Lamborghini
• Marisa Tomei
• Michael Imperioli(hottie!)

Steven Tyler

Marisa Tomei

Federico Castellucio

Michael Imperioli

Latino stereotypes

• Did you know: that less than 1% of all news stories involve Latinos?
• Did you know: that the Latino population accounts for 13% of the US population?
• In 2001, crime, poverty, illegal immigration, welfare accounted for 66% of all news stories involving Latinos
• Famous Latino people:
• Salma Hayek
• John Leguizamo(hottie!)
• Penelope Cruz
• Steven Bauer(hottie!)
• Eva Mendes
• Andy Garcia(cutie!)

Salma Hayek                         John Leguizamo
              

Steven Bauer                             Andy Garcia
               
Black stereotypes

• In movies, blacks and whites are seen differently:
• Using vulgar language: whites-17%, blacks- 89%
• Having to be physically restrained: whites-6%, blacks-55%
• Being physically abusive: whites-11%, blacks-56%
• Blacks will be shown as bad, they're not. You certainly don't hear about black people abusing their wives or whatever, always been whites doing that!
• Famous people:
• Halle Berry(Fave actress!)
• Rosa Parks
• Martin Luther King Jr(He inspires me!)
• Medgar Evers(He was shot for no reason!)
• Malcolm X
• Harriet Tubman
• Sojourner Truth

Halle Berry                           Martin Luther King Jr
                 

Medgar Evers                           Rosa Parks
                
Asian stereotypes

• A good example of an Asian media stereotype is the super geek stereotype. A good example is Gedde Watanabe's character of Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles.
• A good example of the asexual martial artist stereotype is in the 2001 movie Romeo Must Die. Jet Li's character of Han Sing was supposed to kiss Aaliyah's Trish O'Day at the end, but instead gave him a big hug. It was edited for fear some Asians wouldn't feel comfortable seeing an Asian man portrayed in a sexual light
• Another thing people like to assume is that all Asians look alike, with their dark hair, dark eyes, oval faces and tan skin tone.
• An example of the martial artist expert is the 2002 movie Bulletproof Monk with Chow Yun-fat. In that movie, he played a martial artist monk who travels to modern day New York
• In pop culture, there was a character named Charlie Chan, who was a Chinese-Hawaiian detective based on real-life detective Chang Apana. In the movies, his wife and kids were all actually Asian, but the actors who played him were not Asian, but white British actors, like Warner Oland, Roland Winter and Sidney Toler
• Famous Asians:
• Ken Watanabe(Cute!)
• Jet Li(hottie!)
• Lucy Liu(fave actress!)
• Michelle Yeoh(very beautiful and fave actress!)
• Ziyi Zhang(very pretty!)
• Will Yun Lee(hot!)
• Kristy Yamaguchi(awesome athlete!)
• Noriyuki 'Pat' Morita(very funny man, and cool!)
• Tim Kang
• Jason Wu
• James Iha

Ken Watanabe                            Kristy Yamaguchi
                      

Jet Li                                        Ziyi Zhang
                 
Jewish stereotypes

• nit picky stingy misers
• Associated with circumcision, bagels, Mazel Tov, Oy Vey
• In pictures, shown as people with big hook noses, olive skin, curly hair, dark eyes, big lips, wearing kippahs, aka yamecahs
• Famous Jewish people:
• Gene Simmons
• Judd Hirsch
• David Krumholtz
• LeeLee Sobieski

Gene Simmons                           David Krumholtz
             

Judd Hirsch                          


British stereotypes

• In media, British people will always be shown as being, proper, prim, prudish
• In American films, the baddies always have English accents
• They will be shown as being upper class with strong English accents(i.e. Hugh Grant, who might I add is HOT!)
• That British men will be the Butler or Gentleman in movies
• Disney movies are notorious for the 'Bad Brit' stereotype. A few examples are:
• Judge Frollo-The Hunchback of Notre Dame- voiced by Tony Jay. The character is supposed to be French, but was voiced by a British actor
• Jafar-Aladdin
• Maleficent-Sleeping Beauty
• Mrs. Trunchbull-Matilda
• Scar-The Lion King. Voiced by a white British actor named Jeremy Irons
• Count Olaf-A Series of Unfortunate Events
• Lady Tremaine-Cinderella
• Professor Ratigan-The Great Mouse Detective
• Famous people from England:
• The Rolling Stones(Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood are my faves!!!!They're still HOT!!!)
• Rowan Atkinson
• Colin Firth(hot in an English gentleman sort of way, he looks charming, I like that!)
• Kate Winslet
• Helena Bonham-Carter
• Jeremy Irons
• Hugh Laurie
• Zoe Wanamaker

The Rolling Stones                            Rowan Atkinson
               
Colin Firth                                   Jeremy Irons
                 
American Indian stereotypes
Now mind you, these are just stereotypes, I don't feel this way about anyone!

• Wise elder
• Indian princess
• loyal sidekick
• obese, impoverished
• They are devoted environmenatlists devoted to preserving Mother Earth
• Being shown as people full of passive, child like innocence, rapists, primitive, lower intellect
• Bloodthirsty savages
• Famous Indians
• Wes Studi
• Graham Greene
• Eddie Spears
• Irene Bedard

Wes Studi                                          Graham Green