# US states and their image / stereotypes **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 20, 2015, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681 "2015-07-20T10:38:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/21 "2015-07-21T01:18:11Z")
Maryland Beer, steamed crabs, Chesapeake Bay, crab cakes, Naval Academy, crab balls, Johns Hopkins, imperial crab, Bawlmer Hon, fried hard crabs, Preakness, soft shell crabs, National Aquarium, crab dip, Harbor Place, crab soup, Ft McHenry, cream of crab soup, Star Spangled Banner, crab nachos, Ocean City, crab omelets, _Homicide_, crab lasagne, John Waters, crab quiche ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/22 "2015-07-21T01:36:36Z")
To paraphrase a Great Man: Northern California says the state’s reputation as the home of granola (fruits, nuts and flakes) is the fault (Andreas) of Southern California. SoCal blames it on LA. LA blames it on Hollywood. Hollywood revels in it. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/23 "2015-07-21T01:44:10Z")
**Kansas City:** Since the late '60s us New Yorkers have thought about Arthur Bryant’s Barbecue when someone says “Kansas City” to us. Also some hamburger stand with a name beginning with “W.” This is due to Calvin Trillin’s food articles in _The New Yorker_ and the books in which they were collected. Trillin was the first American food writer to extol the cheap grub of the commoners. Kansas City also has the main U.S. memorial dedicated to the First World War. I know this because I’m a First World War buff. Someday, I hope to visit Kansas City. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/24 "2015-07-21T01:56:52Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > If you drive around **Ohio** outside the big cities, you will think it’s nothing but cornfields. This is not true! We grow soybeans, too. I grew up in Cleveland. I used to work with a woman who grew up in Detroit. Another guy at that place was from Flint. She was fond of saying “OH, we’re ALL really Midwesterners at heart!” I would say “No, bitch, we are RUST BELTERS. We have more in common with natives of Pittsburgh and Toledo and the less-fancy parts of Chicago than we do with any fucking alfalfa farmers who voted for John Boner.” Urban midwesterners are ethnic, labor union-supporting Democrats who are Catholic and Jewish and eat a lot of thick peasant soups and (ethnic) sausages and drink a lot of whiskey. Rural midwesterners…aren’t. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/25 "2015-07-21T01:56:57Z")
Rhode Island - “Isn’t that in New York?” ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/26 "2015-07-21T02:00:29Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#): > > Connecticut and Massachusetts are certainly counted in your description of New England. You can’t judge them by Fairfield county and Boston, respectively. Connecticut is what New Yorkers need to drive through when we want to go to New England. Similarly, Indiana is a thing that must be driven through to reach Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/27 "2015-07-21T02:16:14Z")
New Mexico: According to many, [not actually a state.](http://www.nmmagazine.com/one-of-our-50-is-missing/) ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/28 "2015-07-21T02:31:25Z")
Idaho: sheep, potatoes, vast sagebrush desert in the south part of the state, very mountainous and rugged through the central and north part of the state, the Snake River cutting though almost the entire state from Yellowstone to Hell’s Canyon. Conservative, Mormon, rural. And don’t forget nuclear reactors! Idaho is home to the world’s first breeder reactor (where do you **think** baby reactors come from?). And don’t forget 43 miles of Canadian border. Only Oklahoma has a sillier panhandle. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/29 "2015-07-21T02:52:15Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > I grew up in Cleveland. I used to work with a woman who grew up in Detroit. Another guy at that place was from Flint. She was fond of saying “OH, we’re ALL really Midwesterners at heart!” > > I would say “No, bitch, we are RUST BELTERS. We have more in common with natives of Pittsburgh and Toledo and the less-fancy parts of Chicago than we do with any fucking alfalfa farmers who voted for John Boner.” > > Urban midwesterners are ethnic, labor union-supporting Democrats who are Catholic and Jewish and eat a lot of thick peasant soups and (ethnic) sausages and drink a lot of whiskey. Rural midwesterners…aren’t. Yeah I agree with this. I’m from between Cleveland and Akron and everyone here is super ethnic and not farm-y at all. Just south of Akron, everyone has a West Virginia accent. And there’s farmers and Amish people and stuff. Well, not in Columbus but outside of the metro areas, yes, corn. [This map of Ohio is fairly accurate.](http://media1.fdncms.com/clevescene/imager/this-map-of-ohio-is-half-funny-and-half-ac/u/original/4372757/screen_shot_2014-09-05_at_9.47.12_am.png) ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/30 "2015-07-21T02:57:08Z")
> [@](#): > > Only Oklahoma has a sillier panhandle. West Virginia begs to differ. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/31 "2015-07-21T03:13:08Z")
[quote=“ZipperJJ, post:29, topic:725681”] And there’s farmers and Amish people and stuff. The Amish people DO make excellent cheese, and ship it up to Cleveland. Whenever I visit relations (rare these days) I go by the West Side Market and get some Holmes County cheddar and swiss. And buttermilk. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/32 "2015-07-21T03:35:38Z")
Illinois is essentially two states: Chicago & its metro area (3rd largest city in the nation) and the rest of Illinois which is largely agricultural except for some college towns and a couple smaller quasi-urban spots. It comes through a bit in state governance with the Chicago section worried primarily about itself and people 300 miles away cranky about feeling pushed aside by Chicago’s oversized role. But a history of the state or asking about its culture pretty much requires you to specify “which Illinois” you mean. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/33 "2015-07-21T04:42:49Z")
California is three states. Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and Red California. Los Angeles and the Bay Area vote liberal and dominate, population-wise, so they dominate the state’s politics. Strangely, the Bay Area, in particular San Francisco, dominates the state’s Democratic Party, even though Los Angeles has a larger population. The Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Attorney General, and the state Controller are all from San Francisco. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction is from the Bay Area and the state Insurance Commissioner is from Sacramento. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/34 "2015-07-21T06:24:37Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > California is three states. Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and Red California. Los Angeles and the Bay Area vote liberal and dominate, population-wise, so they dominate the state’s politics. Strangely, the Bay Area, in particular San Francisco, dominates the state’s Democratic Party, even though Los Angeles has a larger population. The Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Attorney General, and the state Controller are all from San Francisco. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction is from the Bay Area and the state Insurance Commissioner is from Sacramento. Plus our two Senators are from the Bay Area. Are you including San Diego in Red California? Not objecting, just wondering. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/35 "2015-07-21T14:43:27Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > Doc, since the OP and the topic was image/sterotypes, that is what I tried to deliver; any concurrence with the actual state of things is coincidental (except for the part about the Midwest being flat; it really, really is flat). > > Just lean back in your chari and go with the flow, man…:D:cool: Were they actual stereotypes, I would. What you did was pick the worst/most incorrect views of large sections of the country and called them “stereotypes”. It’s not like the rest of the world doesn’t already have a poor image of the US, let’s give them more ammo. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/36 "2015-07-21T15:08:27Z")
> [@Ukelele Ike](#): > > The Amish people DO make excellent cheese, and ship it up to Cleveland. Whenever I visit relations (rare these days) I go by the West Side Market and get some Holmes County cheddar and swiss. And buttermilk. When I go to my grandma’s I literally walk down the hill to the factory and buy some from the factory store 😃 Which is a nice thing about Ohio - if you’re lucky like me you can live within comfortable driving distance of a big city and a working farm! ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/37 "2015-07-21T16:19:36Z")
Wow. You’ve found the _one_ nice thing about living in Ohio. Oregon and Washington have reputations of raining all the time, and full of self-righteous tree-huggers who are standoffish to new arrivals. It’s true, it’s always wet and go away. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/38 "2015-07-21T16:55:24Z")
Florida: where [America’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Trayvon_Martin) [news](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Caylee_Anthony) [comes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli%C3%A1n_Gonz%C3%A1lez_affair) [from](http://mic.com/articles/107372/49-tremendous-things-florida-men-accomplished-this-year). Also, we all live at Disneyworld. > [@Honey](#): > > To me it’s all about the food that’s associated with each state. > … > Florida - Oranges We don’t grow a lot of food oranges here. 90% become juice, which in turn is 80% of all US orange juice production. If you want a Florida _food_, it’s key lime pie and that’s basically it. Or gator jerky, but I think that’s available throughout the gulf states. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/39 "2015-07-21T17:00:18Z")
Missouri is two states, I-70 (actually not even all of I-70, just St. Louis, Columbia and Kansas City) and Missour-ah. St. Louis is old Midwest/Rust Belt. Kansas City is somewhat newer Rust Belt (both cities have abandoned stockyards as well as abandoned auto factories). Missour-ah is rural, conservative and deeply mistrustful of I-70. Columbia is the state university, where the children of I-70 and Missour-ah meet, then split into separate groups. The state food is barbecue served with beer. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681/40 "2015-07-21T17:21:20Z")
> [@Honey](#): > > To me it’s all about the food that’s associated with each state. > > Georgia - Peaches Just as an aside, South Carolina grows twice as many peaches as Georgia. And that doesn’t count the [big one](http://www.joelbieber.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gaffney-peach.jpg). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-states-and-their-image-stereotypes/725681.md?page=3)