Common Stereotypes of your State, City, Region, Etc

[mightyace]

Pennsylvania: (like most there are many contradictions)
Everyone lives near Philadelphia or Pittsburgh.  I can't recall the number of times when I said I originally came from Bloomsburg and people would ask whether it was near Philadelphia or Pittsburgh.
The whole state is all urban. (far from the truth, of course)
The whole state is all abandoned steel mills or coal mines.
  -- In actuality Pennsylvania has a vibrant farming industry and (used to be anyway) second only to Wisconsin in dairy products and first in milk production.
Philadelphia has an inferiority complex about New York City.
Pittsburgh has an inferiority complex about Philadelphia.
All the restaurants in Philly serve Cheesesteaks.
Rural Pennsylvania is just like West Virginia or Kentucky. Yes, I have heard rural PA called Pennsyltucky.
Pennsylvania has the worst roads in the county because PennDOT is corrupt.  Unfortunately, the former is true to some degree, and the latter not so much any more, but the bad roads are more due to high traffic and bad winters.

Ohio:
Everyone hates Michigan.
Everyone is a Ohio State Buckeye fan.
The whole state is abandoned factories.
The Cuyahoga River still catches on fire.
The only thing that ever happened at Kent State University was the shooting on May 4, 1970.

Tennessee:
Everyone is a redneck. (see Kentucky, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, etc.)
-- Roadkill is considered Haute cuisine, though it IS legal to pick up roadkill to eat it!
Everyone in Nashville is in the music business or wants to be.
Memphis is all about Elvis
Knoxville = University of Tennessee

[Landshark]

Some states are proud of their stereotypes.  Missouri, Show Me State, for one.  Oklahoma Sooners, proud of their thieving/dishonest heritage. 

[PAHighways]

Everyone lives near Philadelphia or Pittsburgh.  I can't recall the number of times when I said I originally came from Bloomsburg and people would ask whether it was near Philadelphia or Pittsburgh.

When I would speak to someone from outside the US and told them I was from Pennsylvania, I'd usually get the question, "How far from Philadelphia?"

The whole state is all abandoned steel mills or coal mines.
  -- In actuality Pennsylvania has a vibrant farming industry and (used to be anyway) second only to Wisconsin in dairy products and first in milk production.

Last time I looked at statistics Agriculture is again the #1 industry, tourism second, and manufacturing fallen to third.

[pianocello]

So what do you international people say about us Americans?

[allniter89]

So what do you international people say about us Americans?

Good question!
and
How are international drivers, stereotyped by Americans? ie Oriental=slow drivers, tourist, no idea where they are, where they're going, or where they've been   Mexicans=total disregard of all traffic, common sense and general rules of humanity.
Here in the states, I lived in Delaware for many years. We Kent Countians referred to the general lifestyle of rural Sussex County as "lower slower Delaware" (or lsD  

[corco]

We're fat, lazy, immoral gluttons who pretend to be religious and do whatever the fuck we want no matter the cost?

[Zmapper]

-We love war.
-We love cars.
-We love nationalized health care... except when those under 55 get it.
-We love gays. Whoops, thats not correct. At least for some people.

[agentsteel53]

Mexicans=total disregard of all traffic, common sense and general rules of humanity.

I have noticed this in the US too... which is so weird because in Mexico, I've noticed that the quality of the drivers is very, very high.  aggressive as Hell and competent - basically reminds me of NYC.

[english si]

So what do you international people say about us Americans?

I find it difficult, knowing stuff about America, and it varies from country to country. Us Brits are more pro-American than the French or Germans, which stems from the common political roots that we've apostated from and the common language. The French, despite you guys helping

- The left hates all your guts - I read a letter to a paper that attacked elected police sheriffs (which we won't get as the political establishment doesn't like the idea much) on no other grounds than that it was American, as that was the worst possible thing.
- There's certainly an Americans are all fat view (and some of that is cultural - we don't really do doggy bags here, and have smaller portions at restaurants because of that, so those that visit America take back the big portions note about Americans). American breakfasts (waffles, pancakes, maple syrup with bacon) don't help either, nor does the amount of HFCS in soft drinks giving a massive count on how much sugar is in there.
- Americans are ignorant of the world - they claim to have saved Europe from the Nazis (even rewriting stuff like U-571 so that Yanks did it), yet were late, just like they were in the First World War, and most haven't been to a foreign country (of course the geographical distances to get to another country are a lot bigger than in Europe)
- Americans are loud, brash, and somewhat rude tourists

Take what the liberal elites thought of conservatives 3 or 4 years ago, at the height of culture war tensions and you'll get how the liberal elites of Europe tend to think of almost all America, including most Democrat voters. Those who've spend some time making TV series there (eg Stephen Fry, Jamie Oliver) are a lot less bigoted against America, having gotten to know the people.

[realjd]

- There's certainly an Americans are all fat view (and some of that is cultural - we don't really do doggy bags here, and have smaller portions at restaurants because of that, so those that visit America take back the big portions note about Americans). American breakfasts (waffles, pancakes, maple syrup with bacon) don't help either, nor does the amount of HFCS in soft drinks giving a massive count on how much sugar is in there.

I've never understood this one. As someone who lives near Orlando, one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world for the British, it's painfully obvious that we don't have a monopoly on fat people. I see a large number of people with British accents who can give any bacon-loving American a [strike]run[/strike] slow walk for their money. Oh, and they all seem to wear track suits.

- Americans are ignorant of the world - they claim to have saved Europe from the Nazis (even rewriting stuff like U-571 so that Yanks did it), yet were late, just like they were in the First World War, and most haven't been to a foreign country (of course the geographical distances to get to another country are a lot bigger than in Europe)

We also tend to forget that the only reason we were able to beat you Brits to begin with was the French. If it weren't for them, we'd be South Canada.

- Americans are loud, brash, and somewhat rude [strike]tourists[/strike]

FTFY. But yes, there are definitely loud, brash, rude American tourists. And it gives the rest of us a bad name.

[english si]

I've never understood this one. As someone who lives near Orlando, one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world for the British, it's painfully obvious that we don't have a monopoly on fat people. I see a large number of people with British accents who can give any bacon-loving American a [strike]run[/strike] slow walk for their money. Oh, and they all seem to wear track suits.

I'm with you that this and the tourist one are unfair.

Keeping up stereotypes, these obese track-suited people are all from Glasgow - to use the broad brush strokes of stereotypes: Scotland lives on a diet of deep-fried food, with the added bonus of being high in salt as well. Add to that they only drink drinks made of girders (Irn-Bru) or whisky - except in Glasgow where they drink the more calorific cheap super lagers (though kids go for wine-strength alcoholic health tonics, drinking big bottles of it at a time, as they can't cope with the lack of sugar in beer). The oats in their diet had been helping keep hearts healthier, but they've lost their taste for them and Scotland has become the heart disease capital of the world. In the mid-90s the English, mostly London-based, media thought it would spin an urban myth about Scots eating deep fried Mars bars only to find out it wasn't a myth.

Some of that is actually true - Scotland being the heart disease capital of the world and the story about deep-fried Mars bars (yummy, but sickly sweet). Irn-Bru is real and outsells CocaCola (Scotland is the only place in the world where CocaCola are outsold by another soft drink), but I don't think they make it with girders any more.

[J N Winkler]

Oh, and they all seem to wear track suits.

"Shell suits" in British English, I think.  Plus these people in general tend to be called "chavs" in Britain (though there are regional usages, like "neds" in Scotland).

In fact Britain has been catching up to the US in the obesity sweepstakes, a fact which has caused much anxiety and handwringing in the British press (though my impression is perhaps somewhat skewed by reading leftwing papers like the Guardian).

- Americans are loud, brash, and somewhat rude [strike]tourists[/strike]

FTFY. But yes, there are definitely loud, brash, rude American tourists. And it gives the rest of us a bad name.

This is called the "Ugly American" stereotype.  When I lived in Britain, it was part of the reason I tried not to have my Americanness be the very first thing people knew about me.  This was easier for me to do than it is for most Americans because, as a profoundly deaf person, I never felt I could rely on my voice as a primary means of communication and so I didn't have a south-central Kansas accent give me away.  I was a little taken aback though by the number of people who thought I was English.

In regard to Scotland, the traditional rule of thumb has been that Glasgow is working-class, while Edinburgh is middle-class, and there is in fact a huge disparity in health outcomes not only between Glasgow and the rest of the UK, but also between Glasgow and Edinburgh.  Several years ago a study (NHS-sponsored, I think) showed that on average, adults in Glasgow were about three to six inches shorter and had life expectancies about ten years shorter than adults in Edinburgh.

As an aside, superficially Glasgow strikes the casual (American) tourist as an oasis of Americanness in Britain.  It has a grid layout (including four-lane undivided surface arterials, which are very common in Midwestern cities but vanishingly rare in most large British cities), the Glaswegian accent is rhotic and for that reason alone is almost easy for Americans to lip-read, and the M8 feels very much like a urban freeway in a large American city with exits on the "wrong" side of the road and all the rest of it.  But I don't think there are very many, if any, large American cities which are socially polarized based on religion the way Glasgow is ("Rangers versus Celtics" is the shorthand way of describing this split in the British media--Rangers being the Protestant soccer team, Celtics the Catholic one).

[Brandon]

I've never understood this one. As someone who lives near Orlando, one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world for the British, it's painfully obvious that we don't have a monopoly on fat people. I see a large number of people with British accents who can give any bacon-loving American a [strike]run[/strike] slow walk for their money. Oh, and they all seem to wear track suits.

I'm with you that this and the tourist one are unfair.

Keeping up stereotypes, these obese track-suited people are all from Glasgow - to use the broad brush strokes of stereotypes: Scotland lives on a diet of deep-fried food, with the added bonus of being high in salt as well. Add to that they only drink drinks made of girders (Irn-Bru) or whisky - except in Glasgow where they drink the more calorific cheap super lagers (though kids go for wine-strength alcoholic health tonics, drinking big bottles of it at a time, as they can't cope with the lack of sugar in beer). The oats in their diet had been helping keep hearts healthier, but they've lost their taste for them and Scotland has become the heart disease capital of the world. In the mid-90s the English, mostly London-based, media thought it would spin an urban myth about Scots eating deep fried Mars bars only to find out it wasn't a myth.

Some of that is actually true - Scotland being the heart disease capital of the world and the story about deep-fried Mars bars (yummy, but sickly sweet). Irn-Bru is real and outsells CocaCola (Scotland is the only place in the world where CocaCola are outsold by another soft drink), but I don't think they make it with girders any more.

Almost sounds like the stereotypes of the American South.  Even the deep-fried Mars bars.  However, Coca-Cola is the drink of choice there (as well as sweet tea).

[agentsteel53]

yeah, the US is mercifully free of sectarian violence.  as much conflict as there is between "red state" and "blue state" values, we don't go around blowing each other up. 

those that do blow people up are quite rightly condemned by the public, the media, the politicians - really, by everyone across the board.  we sure as Hell don't have major sports teams that implicitly condone Timothy McVeigh.

[J N Winkler]

yeah, the US is mercifully free of sectarian violence.  as much conflict as there is between "red state" and "blue state" values, we don't go around blowing each other up.

They don't do that in Glasgow--that is more Northern Irish.  Glasgow is more penny-in-box-cutter country.

those that do blow people up are quite rightly condemned by the public, the media, the politicians - really, by everyone across the board.  we sure as Hell don't have major sports teams that implicitly condone Timothy McVeigh.

Nope (but, to be fair, neither Rangers nor Celtics would ever be caught dead explicitly endorsing sectarianism).  We are First Amendment absolutists, so we tend to condemn the act, but acquiesce in the existence of media personalities who wind up the crazy that commits it.  Enoch Powell at his worst does not compare with Father Coughlin.

[PAHighways]

American breakfasts (waffles, pancakes, maple syrup with bacon) don't help either, nor does the amount of HFCS in soft drinks giving a massive count on how much sugar is in there.

Some soft drinks are now being made with sugar.  Jones Soda Company makes their drinks with sugar, Pepsi Throwback has become a year-round offering, and apparently 7-Up Retro will be offered soon.  While others sold in restaurants still contain HFCS, Sierra Mist is now only manufactured with sugar.

[Brandon]

American breakfasts (waffles, pancakes, maple syrup with bacon) don't help either, nor does the amount of HFCS in soft drinks giving a massive count on how much sugar is in there.

Some soft drinks are now being made with sugar.  Jones Soda Company makes their drinks with sugar, Pepsi Throwback has become a year-round offering, and apparently 7-Up Retro will be offered soon.  While others sold in restaurants still contain HFCS, Sierra Mist is now only manufactured with sugar.

Then there's always the Mexican Coca-Cola, Fanta, and Pepsi that I can find around here bottled in glass and made with real sugar.  Beats the local stuff, IMHO.

[agentsteel53]

We are First Amendment absolutists, so we tend to condemn the act, but acquiesce in the existence of media personalities who wind up the crazy that commits it. 

yep, that's another American thing - to assume that we're consciously capable of overriding psychological reprogramming.  so we assume that Father Coughlin types should be allowed to go off at the mouth and if you want to listen to them, it's your own damn fault.

though, to be fair, who these days is as extremist and commands as wide an audience as Father Coughlin did?  Your average mainstream talking heads (Rush Limbaugh and the like) are just windbags.  I can't even name the leader of the American Nazi Party or whatever, that's how out of the public consciousness such extremism is these days. 

[realjd]

But I don't think there are very many, if any, large American cities which are socially polarized based on religion the way Glasgow is ("Rangers versus Celtics" is the shorthand way of describing this split in the British media--Rangers being the Protestant soccer team, Celtics the Catholic one).

That's one thing that America disappointingly lacks - sports violence. It would be a lot easier to recognize a gang banger or other delinquent youth here if they prominently wore identifiable sponsor logos on their gang-colors. And I will give Glasgow credit for  taking it to the next level by mixing religion and racism into what would otherwise be good old fashioned hooliganism.

Of course I follow Arsenal, the one team that has fans mature enough to put aside political differences and agree that Tottenham sucks. How else would the late Osama bin Laden, your royal family, Jay-Z, Matt Damon, and Chad Ochocinco all support the same team?

[BigMattFromTexas]

Texas: The only type of skyscrapers we have are oil refineries.. Ever heard of Dallas, Houston, and now Austin??
I however like the look of oil refineries, mainly at night with their Mercury lights.
BigMatt

[Brandon]

Texas: The only type of skyscrapers we have are oil refineries.. Ever heard of Dallas, Houston, and now Austin??
I however like the look of oil refineries, mainly at night with their Mercury lights.
BigMatt

Anyone who's ever seen an episode of "Dallas" knows Texas has real skyscrapers.  Now, we all just assume they are in the oil and ranch business, sleep around, are stinking rich, and know who shot J.R. 

[english si]

Of course I follow Arsenal, the one team that has fans mature enough to put aside political differences and agree that Tottenham sucks. How else would the late Osama bin Laden, your royal family, Jay-Z, Matt Damon, Chad Ochocinco, and your royal family all support the same team?

Arsenal - Spurs used to be Irish v Yids, but that's gone, other than any Jew in the UK interested in football will support Spurs. Spurs looked good this season, and will only be one place behind Arsenal in the league (following Arsenal's implosion), they dazzled in the Champions League (which you have to be good to get in, so they didn't do bad last season) - against Italian teams at least. Of course, they are on their way down, fighting for 5th next year, whereas if Arsenal can get an experienced defender or two to lead the team and shore up the defence, they won't collapse like this year and be pushing on all four fronts, winning at least a couple of trophies.

We don't have much violence outside of Old Firm derbys: Celtic - Rangers which are pushing other tensions, as explained above - unlike Northern Ireland, no attempts at reconciliation have been made in the city as they aren't blowing people up. It's gang violence with the excuse of football.

In England there's about 5 rivalries (though relegation and such like meaning the teams are often in different leagues) that have about 20 arrests on a bad year, and a few more that have a handful of arrests. Ones involving Millwall and Leeds are all about who are the most hooliganish set of supporters. Southampton - Portsmouth is all about trade unions - both ports went on strike in the 20s, and Southampton made an agreement first and stole all the business waiting to use a port - this one goes deeper than football and applies to healthy competition between the cities. Watford - Luton I have no idea what started it, but Luton supporters like getting violent at it.

[realjd]

Of course I follow Arsenal, the one team that has fans mature enough to put aside political differences and agree that Tottenham sucks. How else would the late Osama bin Laden, your royal family, Jay-Z, Matt Damon, Chad Ochocinco, and your royal family all support the same team?

Arsenal - Spurs used to be Irish v Yids, but that's gone, other than any Jew in the UK interested in football will support Spurs. Spurs looked good this season, and will only be one place behind Arsenal in the league (following Arsenal's implosion), they dazzled in the Champions League (which you have to be good to get in, so they didn't do bad last season) - against Italian teams at least. Of course, they are on their way down, fighting for 5th next year, whereas if Arsenal can get an experienced defender or two to lead the team and shore up the defence, they won't collapse like this year and be pushing on all four fronts, winning at least a couple of trophies.

We don't have much violence outside of Old Firm derbys: Celtic - Rangers which are pushing other tensions, as explained above - unlike Northern Ireland, no attempts at reconciliation have been made in the city as they aren't blowing people up. It's gang violence with the excuse of football.

In England there's about 5 rivalries (though relegation and such like meaning the teams are often in different leagues) that have about 20 arrests on a bad year, and a few more that have a handful of arrests. Ones involving Millwall and Leeds are all about who are the most hooliganish set of supporters. Southampton - Portsmouth is all about trade unions - both ports went on strike in the 20s, and Southampton made an agreement first and stole all the business waiting to use a port - this one goes deeper than football and applies to healthy competition between the cities. Watford - Luton I have no idea what started it, but Luton supporters like getting violent at it.

The last good game Arsenal played was the first leg of their Champions League match against Barca. Even their win against Manchester a few weeks ago looked sloppy. I'd argue that their problem isn't defense though. It's the fact that their forwards can't shoot on target. Van Persie in particular seems to always try for flashy SportsCenter worthy goals (aiming for a corner or something) when a simple hard shot in the middle would do the job.

But I suppose all this soccer (sorry, football) talk is a bit OT. As for stereotypes, you limeys drink warm, flat beer and have bad teeth. Oh yeah, I went there.

[english si]

As for stereotypes, you limeys drink warm, flat beer

Far better than the rubbish Americans tend to drink. Fizzy beer is horrible and I find ice cold drinks all taste the same (and I don't like the taste, of cold so don't have ice in drinks at all), so why would I want beer that isn't fridge or warmer (cellars where pub beer tends to be kept are about 12C - which isn't really warm) and full of bubbles, rather than flavour?

and have bad teeth. Oh yeah, I went there.

We're just not as concerned about having glow in the dark perfect smiles - Americans are vain!

You forgot that our food sucks - I was reading today in the paper that Americans, like the French, are a bit snobby about food and, while they are happy with food from elsewhere in the world, they have a particular dislike of British food. While it was, in austerity times like WW2, really rather poor (with the double meaning intended) - it's a lot better now. Apparently this snobbishness is starting to be slowly eroded by Brits going over and giving out food samples and only telling them it was British afterwards.

As for Arsenal - while trying to score the flashy goal, rather than the easy one, is a problem and has been for a while - the bigger problems are that they give away leads (Newcastle being the example par excellence, though they were unlucky that Nolan wasn't send off and it was 10v10 when it was 4-1), and have no real leadership on the pitch (which aggravates the flashy goal problem). I agree time they played well was Barca - their next game was the Cup Final, which are always nervy affairs so you don't expect a team to play well, and it was a defensive mistake, losing the match, that started the rut that they haven't got out of - leadership and a firmer defence would have stopped that!

[ftballfan]

Michigan:
Nothing outside of Detroit.
Everyone from the southeastern part of the state says they're from Detroit or the east side.
The workers are greedy.
We're all old and sick.

Manistee, MI:
You or your parents work at either the tribal casino, the prison, the hospital, or the school system.

Brethren, MI:
Redneck Central

Any inner city:
Crime-riddled
Poor performing schools