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Regional Stereotypes II

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Clarissa

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What I find very curious is that American people do not identify with their states. Even those who have lived in the same state their entire life do not identify with it. Whenever I try to start a conversation about a specific state with one of its inhabitants, I encounter nothing but puzzled boredom.

Instead, people identify with their regions. Regional stereotypes are a topic that always attracts an unflagging and I’d even say hungry sort of interest. And this interest is independent of people’s social class or profession. If you are at a party and there is an uncomfortable silence, just say, “So I traveled to the West Coast recently and, ugh, it’s so different!”

After that, you don’t have to worry about people having a good time for at least 40 minutes. The stereotypes will fly.

It’s seems like “United Regions of America” would make for a more realistic name.

17 responses to “Regional Stereotypes II”

  1. J. Otto Pohl Avatar
    J. Otto Pohl

    I don’t think this is universal. I think there is plenty of identification with states and even smaller units such as cities. But, one reason for regionalism is that there is not a lot of difference between Iowa and Minnesota or northern Virginia and Maryland or Arizona and New Mexico. Regionalism isn’t unique to the US, however. People frequently refer to West Africa here, although in reality they usually mean only Nigeria and Ghana and not the French speaking countries or even Liberia. When I lived in Kyrgyzstan people routinely talked about it as part of Central Asia, an entity consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. A lot of people from places like Germany and the low countries routinely deny any national identity in favor of being Europeans. So I think regionalism is pretty common. The difference is that the US is so big that regionalism takes place within one country. Whereas in most of the world it takes place across the borders of sovereign states.

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    1. John Hayden Avatar
      John Hayden

      Wait, I beg to differ about Maryland and Virginia. I have lived in the D.C. suburbs on the Maryland side of the Potomac River all my life. And I can tell you, when I cross the river into the Virginia suburbs, I feel like I’m in another state, maybe even another dimension.

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  2. anon Avatar
    anon

    Interesting. Both my husband and I identify with the states we were born in. Maybe that because our states are particularly awesome 😉

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  3. Evelina Anville Avatar
    Evelina Anville

    I think it depends on the state; there are definite characteristics that are (generally wrongly) associated with Texans, New Yorkers, and Califonians (and that’s further subdivided between Northern California and Southern California.) Oregon and Washington are coupled together but both have very specific cultural associations. I would say Hawaii also has some state specific stereotypes. But you are generally right: people won’t necessarily distinguish between states like Alabama or Georgia or between Indiana and Ohio and instead have regional stereotypes of the “Southerner” or the “Midwesterner.”

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  4. David Bellamy Avatar
    David Bellamy

    I identify as a Tennessean by origin and definitely a Delawarean by longtime residence. But it is true that I also strongly identify as an Appalachian, and get annoyed when people mispronounce it. (The third syllable sounds like ‘latch’, not like ‘lace’.)

    And yes, there is at least one Appalachian stereotype that I strongly identify with. We give the impression of being not very bright but often surprise people from elsewhere with our intelligence and erudition.

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  5. Avatar
    Anonymous

    I think regional stereotypes are real and state ones usually aren’t. Anything that could be said of myself and someone who belongs to a different social class from my state could usually also be said of someone from a state over, but maybe not many states over. However, I think people don’t realize these common characteristics are oftentimes nation-wide and not region-wide.

    For example, I think everyone thinks east-coasters are less polite than midwesterners until they go to a country where people are *actually* not at all polite.

    I’ve found that the west coast has people who are legitimately more laid-back than east coasters. People just have less neuroses here.

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  6. John Hayden Avatar
    John Hayden

    Most Americans, when we say “West Coast,” we’re talking about California, and primarily Southern California. Washington State is closer to Canada than California.

    I identify as a Marylander, but within Maryland, intrastate regional identification is stronger than Maryland identification. Western Maryland is one region, and right now they’re actually trying to secede
    from Maryland. The Eastern Shore is a long way from Western Maryland. They talk different on the Shore, think different, and they too would like to secede. In politics, you have the Baltimore region sort of aligned against the D.C. suburbs. But on the other hand, deep-blue Baltimore and Montgomery County and Prince George’s County are allied against the rural red counties. Baltimore is an entire region unto itself. Back in the day, politicians used to call it The City, and it dominated the whole rest of the state politically. And talk about your accents! Ew ain’t ‘ear nothin’ til you kom to Bal’mr, Hon.

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  7. Z Avatar
    Z

    Maybe there are states without a lot of personality and those people identify with a region, but I have always lived in states with a lot of personality, that people identified with.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      You are saying this like it’s something good. Parochialism never leads anybody to anything positive.

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      1. Z Avatar
        Z

        I actually find you quite parochial, jumping to conclusions based on no evidence or experience.

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      2. Z Avatar
        Z

        And provincial as hell sometimes. It is quite exasperating in someone as intelligent that they can be so narrow minded.

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      3. Z Avatar
        Z

        …And furthermore, as judgmental and self-righteous.

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  8. Z Avatar
    Z

    But getting serious, look, US is several countries really, and some states really are quite distinct, with distinct histories, traditions, even religions if you look at Utah for an extreme example. It’s entirely possible to be from somewhere, whether it is a city or anything else, and not be “parochial.” One of the things I really hate, for instance, is being from California and having foreigners and people from the east project into me THEIR tv derived stereotype of west L.A., and complain at me if I do not conform to their stereotype and also insult me because of what they have decided I must be. They and not I are the parochial ones, I am sorry; they are the airheads, they are the superficial ones, they are the fools.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      “They and not I are the parochial ones, I am sorry; they are the airheads, they are the superficial ones, they are the fools.”

      – Of course. People feel that this approach simplifies their understanding of the world. It’s a very impoverished vision of reality.

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  9. Z Avatar
    Z

    The other thing I am completely bored with is living in Louisiana and having people tell me they know how it is, as they describe Georgia. It is “the south,” so it must all be the same, right, and it’s a lot easier to stereotype a whole region and say you know it, than have to actually learn anything about it. And then you get to call people who know more, “parochial.”

    I also have no idea why it is inherently better to identify with a region than with anything else. The battle between northern and southern Californian identities, which some engage in with gusto, is incredibly dull. The defense of “Southern culture” is politically retrograde and downright scary.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      At a social gathering, people first spend an hour talking about the weather and then mull over regional stereotypes for another hour. Then everybody goes home, feeling like information was exchanged even though nobody really said anything of value.

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  10. Z Avatar
    Z

    Isn’t that some sort of new faculty gathering or something like that, though, where people are new in a place and don’t know what to talk about, so try to discuss the place? I’ve been to a lot of events like this, been lectured at by new faculty about material they read in a tourist guide and now present as wisdom, etc., but it’s just people in shell shock from moving, trying to figure things out.

    I have heard a lot of shallow discussions about places in new faculty gatherings, and a also lot of gross stereotyping in foreign language departments: this country is this way, the “Americans” are that, I am a Spaniard so if you disagree with me you hurt my honor, etc., etc. This last, stereotyping of nation-states, basically, tends to surprise me since FL faculty are supposed to have been trained to look at otherness … yet, apparently not.

    It is apparently one of the things I have lost patience with & one of the types of discussions I’m going to not have in 2014… 😉

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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