As a European, I totally love it when certain self-hating Americans otherize Europe to present it as some beautiful Mecca where the sugar is sweeter, teenagers are all uniformly polite, and everybody looks like a supermodel. Here is a prime example of such a completely hilarious portrayal of the polite, intelligent and self-sufficient “Euroteens”:
I first noticed it at the boarding gate area at JFK airport in New York, waiting for the flight to Berlin. For some reason there were a lot of teenagers on the flight. They were Euro teenagers. They were distinct from American teens. The Euro-teens acted like civilized people with what can only be called a sense of decorum. They were not costumed like clowns, criminals, sports stars, or zombies. Every day is not Halloween for them. Being a person seemed enough for them, as though the human condition were an honorable state-of-being. There were no obese Euro-teens. They were not stuffing their faces with pizza, French fries, and cinnabons. They were not obsessed with texting or other cell phone demonstrations of their social status. They waited patiently through the boarding delay and appeared to enjoy each other’s company without impulsive demonstrations, tantrums, tears, fights, or fits.
I’m guessing that the author of this passage wanted to say something nice (albeit completely invented) about “Euro-teens.” To me, however, they sounded like obedient, patient little zombies who are completely devoid of any personality. Honestly, I’d take a normal, happy, pizza-chewing, glued-to-the-phone teenager over this sad parody of a Stepford teen any time of the day.
The good news, though, is that this description of European teenagers has nothing whatsoever to do with reality. Every European teenager I have met as an educator, traveler and a European was just as much into pizza, texting, tantrums, social status and dressing outrageously as any regular American teenager. We all have heard of how these supposedly polite, non-impulsive and extremely mature young Brits raze the Spanish resorts to the ground whenever they descend on the coasts of Spain. We also have all heard about the ways in which German youths celebrate their country’s football wins. And many of us have observed the embarrassing tantrums the Spanish young people throw in hotels whenever they can’t get exactly what their fancy has suggested to them two seconds ago. I will also never forget a group of Dutch teenagers with whom I was unfortunate enough to share a hotel once.
The author of the post I linked to shares with the readers the following experience:
When I got to Europe seven hours later I found myself in a world of purposeful adults who take care of themselves and the place they live in.
I love Europe passionately but I keep finding myself living in a “world of purposeful adults who take care of themselves and the place they live in” right here in North America all the time. I wonder what the author of this weird piece is doing with his life to be constantly surrounded by mothers who call their small children “a motherfucker.”
The problem with generalizations is that they are offensive irrespective of whether you generalize negatively or positively. Europeans are not all supermodel-looking, invariably polite, smiling and responsible creatures. And it’s annoying to see one’s place of origin used by a disaffected American to project his unhealthy fantasies of what Europeans should be like. Europeans are human beings who have no interest in fulfilling self-hating dreams of every American tourist.
Clarissa's Blog 
People love to generalize their foreign experiences. My german teacher likes to tell us how “you americans” live in such big houses, blah, blah, blah. Meanwhile, she’s teaching a class of people living in studio apartments, shared dwellings, etc. And when it comes time for her to describe her own home, she has to stop and count to remember that she has 5 bedrooms. So the reality is that SHE is living in a huge home in America. The rest of the class is not. (Although I could believe that, on average, American living spaces are larger than European ones).
The write you reference here seems to have also generalized their domestic living experience, and has decided from their experiences that mom’s here like to call their kids “motherfucker.” (My roommate affectionately calls our puppy that and it drives me crazy too, so I sympathize with the annoyance of hearing that, but I don’t think it’s the norm.)
I also understand the longing for a more “civilized” sort of people that the author thinks they have met in Europe – “The doomed gentleman who serenely accepts a last cigarette from the officer in charge of the firing squad nonetheless must absorb the fury of the bullets, which will surely disrupt the activity in his vital organs, no matter how exemplary his bravery is.” This sort of image reminds me of books I read where behaving with honor and valor were the norm, whereas I know very few people now who openly commit to living an honorable life. I’m not sure if humans were ever MORE honorable than they are now, although it’s nice to think that they could be.
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I am actually tired of hearing it from Europeans. We have various colleagues here who don’t speak English and so have a limited experience of US, and they cling heavily to their ideas of American barbarism. The next time I hear someone start a sentence with “Lo que los anglosajones tienen que comprender es…” and the next time I get called a Puritan for not answering booty calls and other similar interpellations from these fools, I will probably surprise them with a left clip.
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Ugh, what an annoying article. The comments were just as bad. I wish all the self-hating Americans would just leave already.
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Thanks for the thoughtful post. I often hear this sentiment come up in discussions about teenage alcohol use. How many times have I heard that European drinking behavior is less problematic than Americans’ – and that this is the result of more enlightened laws, supported by superior culture? Unfortunately, there are a number of problems with this over-simplification, including the fact that Europe is a large and diverse region. I am inclined to suspect that both Europe and the Americas have a similar number of distinct social problems.
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Northern European alcohol use is really barbaric and you should see how these people act in Spain.
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Weird reminiscence of a colonial mind.
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I am not European or American (i.e. I can be safely considered a “neutral”) but when I was a student in India, I played this game with a friend whenever we traveled and saw a white person in a touristy place – the game was to guess whether (s)he was European/American (of course without hearing them speak – ie language, accent, etc were not clues.) We mostly guessed right. The Americans were mostly brash/boisterous, overtly smilingly friendly, and acted informally as if they were in their own backyard. The Europeans were more reserved and hence appeared more respectful and hence more in line with what is considered acceptable in India. The Brits and people from other Commonwealth countries (SA, Australia, NZ) are of course a different story. I can tell them apart from Europeans/Americans. Stereotypes are surprisingly effective if you want to know some superficial information about a person.
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“Stereotypes are surprisingly effective if you want to know some superficial information about a person.”
They also work for non-white people, but that would be racist. 🙂
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but not if the stereotyping was being done by other non-white people. 😛
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btw, I mentioned “white person” in my post because the context was a comparison of European and US American people (which both happen to be white majority places). We also have a lot of stereotypes about people from different parts of India, and I can also mostly tell them apart.
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but I agree with most of the comments here : both self hatred and fashionable US bashing (“Americans lack culture/sense of history”, etc.) are tiresome after a while
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Like most Australians I have never never ever got board with bashing the average American. 🙂
Brilliant, generalising (note no z in that spelling) and US bashing in the one sentence 🙂
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bored rather than board!!!
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It’s weird hearing it all the time as an American. People feel completely free to say these things right to your face. The implication is that you agree, and the expectation I suppose is that you will distance yourself from the ignorant masses, or perhaps explain the lunacy that is being observed. Or perhaps relay the complaint to all the other Americans? I don’t know.
The other weird thing is complaining about US hegemony as if US citizens are themselves responsible. “We don’t care about the OJ trial” then why is it all over the news in your country?Apparently someone thinks you do care about it. i find that surprising when I travel and watch tv, and I am certainly not responsible for it. Please don’t complain to me about it- I’ve heard it a million times. And who told disappointed immigrants that the streets here are paved with gold in the first place? Not me.
It’s like all these idealistic expectations that people have about the US are dashed by the inevitable encounters with flawed humans and a flawed country that can never live up to such unrealistic ideals.
The other annoying thing is when immigrants claim that they would be rich had *they* grown up here, or famous or whatever. Americans are doofuses who waste the opportunity of growing up here. I never know how to respond to this one either, as I am obviously one of the unsuccessful doofuses.
There’s definitely some sort of weird Freudian psychology going on here! 🙂
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“You couldn’t really be American because you can read… because you have brown eyes… because you have taste… because you can speak foreign languages… because x, y, z…” … you wouldn’t know because you’re American, but Reagan wasn’t a good President… you wouldn’t know since you are an American so you must be low IQ, chauvinistic and racist, but the US has invaded foreign countries a few times… I have been listening to these sallies all my life and what I learned from having to handle such behavior was that Europeans are rude and boorish people.
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The thing I’ve noticed about European students at my school is that they’re pretty much just like American students. Some are reserved or shy, and others are loud and boisterous and party just a little too much.
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I’ve been away from a computer for a few hours and now that I’m back, I find it quite disturbing to see how this is slowly degenerating into an immigrant-bashing thread. Do people not realize that I’m an immigrant and that this is probably not the best place to vent their anti-immigrant sentiments?
The piece I discuss in the post was written by a person who is American and who says he is ashamed of being American. There is no indication in the article that his negative stereotypes about Americans have been communicated to him by any immigrant. The article is not about immigrants at all.
Seriously, people, I’m disappointed.
Also, anybody who wants to say anything against immigrants in my presence will need to tell me first that they are 100% Native American on both sides.
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I’m sorry if what I said came off wrong. I only meant to point out that people are people, and there are so many commonalities, regardless of cultural differences, that any stereotype made about anyone can’t really be applied.
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Oh, I wasn’t referring to you, Pen. Your comment was as good and inoffensive as possible.
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I’m talking about Europeans in Europe, which is where I get many of these lectures, when not from visiting scholars and visiting students.
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Ah, James Kunstler. I do love his caustic ‘Eyesore of the month’ column.
http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore_201001.html
http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore_200911.html
http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore_200806.html
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Sorry for being off-topic, but I just love that column of his.
This one’s my favorite: http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore_199906.html
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Ah, but can you also identify as American and European the nonwhite ones?
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No I don’t know much about people of color in Europe (I am guessing they are mostly third or more recent generation immigrants) but I can usually also tell black people from western Africa apart from US Afro-Americans.
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