I’ve always been fascinated by the microgeography of cities and the points of the compass. Where I’m from, Eastsiders (East of the River) are often considered second class citizens of the city or PWT. I guess the equivalent are Southsiders if you were from a river city that had rivers flowing East/West- Or perhaps very specifically, the right bank of the river, oriented towards the downstream current. I have a feeling that Eastsiders and Southsiders of river cities are strongly correlated to lower social/linguistic/economic status.
I wish I could do a anthro/geo/statistical survey of some major cities and see how my theory holds up… could be totally wrong.
Perhaps if I could prove my theory or at least extrapolate on it, I could find proof of geomagnetic influence on Homo Sapiens, as we reduce the data, perhaps we will find we are more like a homing pigeon with lineal porpoise. Water with Magnetism.
It would seem quite logical to me that the Inlanders, The Hinterlanders, The Mountaineers, The Linguistic islets would come down the river in their canoes, rafts, and curraghs and ground and ford the right bank on their way ro ocean, sea, or lake… The Outpost of Hicks and Natives, are the Eastriven and Southriven.
People from Manchester are stereotyped as stupid, lazy and criminal; people from Newcastle or Liverpool are merely stupid and lazy (although Liverpool has positive stereotypes like cheerfulness too).
And people from where I grew up, Birmingham, are very frequently depicted as dense – a strong birmingham accent is perceived as sounding somewhat retarded
And in the south west there are various stereotypes of being crystal-worshippers, dirt-poor and/or yokels.
I’m currently in London and I’m not aware of any negative stereotypes of this city – I guess it’s more obviously diverse. Although of course it is the main home of certain groups that are unpopular e.g. bankers and gangs
In Seoul, people from the south of the river are considered the snobby, corrupt, upper middle class. Anyone outside of Seoul is usually labelled a hick. There are more specific regional stereotypes but I’m not familiar with the subtle differences - I’d have to ask my parents.
I always thought the negative London stereotype was “Rich yuppies moving into the country, making everything trendy, and pricing the locals out of their own villages”. That and being faintly amused at the idea that there’s anywhere else in the UK of note.
You’re right, and I have heard those stereotypes, but I just think it’s complicated by all the other conflicting stereotypes. The most respectable londoner may be perceived more as a wheeler-dealer or crook than a yuppie, if they have the “wrong” accent
In Dublin, the stereotype of people north of the Liffey (northsiders) is that they’re workshy underclass criminals, whereas southsiders are stuck-up, overprivileged rich people, or at least have pretentions that way.
Thus the joke:
How can you tell when a northside girl is having an orgasm?She drops her chips.How can you tell when a southside girl is having an orgasm?She drops her accent.
Corsican people are lazy, jealous, proud, and lazy. They’ll shiv you if you say their sister is pretty, but after the siesta.
People from Marseilles and southern people in general are bullshitters, but not in a bad way. You know how the fisherman will tell you the fish he didn’t catch was HUGE ? Same thing, all the time.
Auvergnats are extremely stubborn and miserly. Which might have a kernel of truth - my dear grandmother would drive 50 miles to buy apricots 10c cheaper on the kilo. Yes, she did forget to factor in the cost of gas. Her husband teased her mercilessly about it. She still thought she was right.
People from Normandy are non commital. In French, “yes and no” and “maybe so, but maybe not” are known as “a Norman’s answer”.
Parisians are haughty, full of themselves, unpleasant and bad mannered, think Paris is the center of the world, are always in a hurry etc… etc… Think New Yorkers.
People from the North are chronically dull and depressed, on account of the cold, rain and coal mines. They all speak Ch’timi, which is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike French.
And of course, Belgians are idiots. American Polish jokes are immediately translatable as Belgian jokes in French. And can be translated as Swiss jokes in Belgium. The Swiss don’t joke.
How about the stereotype of all Las Vegans being drunken, drugged-out gamblers with a den of prostitutes waiting at home? Certainly wasn’t like that for me growing up.
[ul]
[li]Brummies (people from the city of Birmingham): extremely annoying accents.[/li][li]“Chavs”: This could be a thread unto itself (there isn’t any consensus on what the word means in the first place). Your best bet is to consult the wikipedia article or google for further info.[/li][li]Manc/Scousers (people from Manchester/Liverpool): Two cities of opposing football hooligans.[/li][li]Wales: Inappropriate conduct towards sheep.[/li][li]Slough: Extremly boring, highly industrialised, lots of concrete, etc, sort of the way New Jersey is teated in the US (there were poems written in WWII asking Germans to bomb it).[/li][/ul]
Your post stimulated me to learn a bit more about Slough.
According to Wikipedia, “The Russian KGB secret service made detailed 1:10,000 maps of most urban areas of the UK, but did not bother to make a map of Slough”.
As an aside, Slough sounds awfully similar to Scarborough in Toronto. We actually call it ‘Scarberia’.
Swedes tell jokes about Norwegians, and vice versa. The Swedish stereotype of Norwegians seems to be the same as the Norwegian stereotype of Swedes, interestingly enough.
Oh, they’re the West Virginians of Australia?
There is a dirty joke about Moabites and Ammonites. The story of Lot and his daughters, in Genesis, says that these tribes owe their origins to father-daughter incest.
I had a house in StL next to some folks that could be aptly described as “hoosiers.” They didn’t have a car parked on the lawn, but made up for it in drunken yelling late at night.
Yeah, that was painful. Also being a fan of the StL Rams, it has been a bad year.
When I lived in the White Mountains of NH, both “flatlander” and “tourist” were epithets. Idiots would slow to 30 mph around the curves and then speed up in the straight parts, making it impossible to pass them.
Moving around North America, there are people to stereotype pretty much everywhere.
“Flatlander” is also used to describe people from Saskatchewan. In all fairness, it is really damned flat there. (“Stubble-jumper” is also used. There is a lot of stubble there, too.)
I guess the stereotype for Albertans is much the same as the ones for Texans - rednecks and hicks with money. A lot of people consider Alberta to be Texas North.
I’m orginally from South Dakota and of German from Russia, Swedish, English background. We told a lot of good-natured Norwegian jokes usually featuring Ole & Lena. Even better if it was in the presence of a Norwegian relative or friend.
We also told some NoDak (North Dakotan) jokes. My favorite:
“Why do all the German guys in North Dakota wear little Hitler mustaches?”
. . . “To look like their mothers.”
Oh yah, which is why all a’ yous come up here for your vacations, eh?
People from Oklahoma, too. Especially when I’m visiting friends and family in California, you get a lot of “Oakie” jokes or comments.
Other than the aforementioned Fucking Illinois Bastard, there’s also the variant Fucking Illinois Bitch. (A guy I went to college with was on The Weakest Link–out his first round, I think–and IIRC got away with referring to another contestant as a FIB in his exit interview.) Then, just to mix things up, we also have FISH, Fucking Illinois Shit-Head.
Around here (Milwaukee, WI), flatlander is a derogatory term generally applied to someone from southern, particularly rural southern, Illinois. My dad moved to Champaign-Urbana a couple of years back with his job, and he still gets all huffy when I tease him about being a flatlander now.
When my grandparents first visited Ireland, oh, about 15 or 20 years ago, they told people that they were from near Chicago (much less complicated than telling them “Milwaukee” and hearing them go “Huh?”–hell, one year my brother’s ceili team competed at the Irish dance world championships, they even misspelled our state as “Westconsin”). Almost every reaction involved some reference to gangsters and/or Al Capone in specific.
And then of course you know why the *Irish *wear kilts, don’t you?
