Excellent piece 👏 We all love a stereotype, they are the literary version of a comfort blanket. I'm glad I live in The North though, couldn't be doing with all those "reductive" and "opaque" tossers. We like to think we have real, down to earth, no nonsense discourse up here - although as you will know, the town where I live is acquiring a reputation for being Kensington In The Dales due to said tossers moving up here and polluting the good Yorkshire air with their poshness 😆
What a good article! Thank you. I miss England even though the stereotypes used to sting. I had family who did the "the at ur" thing, and couldn't imagine or care to imagine what my life might be like in the Colonies, so they just didn't ask any questions. "What would you like to watch on TV tonight, Roderick?" was what I last heard when visiting an Aunt and Uncle. I gave up trying to get family to be even remotely interested in getting out of the box, being curious.
I actually used to love playing off of stereotypes. See, as an over-educated white male people always made certain assumptions about my background, especially given that I could wax fairly eloquent in the public speaking department and had some capacity for critical thinking. Of course people assumed I was from an urban, upper-middle class family with all the attendant charms and social graces. I'd go to conferences and they'd invite me to dine with them. Oh, the looks I'd get when I showed up dressed down in my jean jacket, cowboy hat and boots! I had one guy once say, "What, are we going to a rodeo?" trying to get a laugh. I gave him a withering look and said, "Are you making fun of the way I dress?" and he stammered out an apology, properly embarrassed and chastened. At dinner I would regale them with tales of the non-elite life of which most had no clue, like firearms and gutting hogs and bar fights. It was always great fun to see their assumptions shattered.
To their credit, most (including the guy who insulted my clothes) became friends or at least treasured acquaintances, though a few I believe felt somehow mislead and wanted nothing more to do with me. 😂
Stereotypes are known in the rest of the world as instincts. As it would turn out those little inklings which tell me that a young lady with a predisposition for swearing and being very upset with unfair men who impose such terrible rules as those about shirts and shoes and service, makes not a fantastic wife and men who spend more time on the internet than is good for them make bad company. Very good article!
“So low it’s a carpet”. Fing gold.
Excellent piece 👏 We all love a stereotype, they are the literary version of a comfort blanket. I'm glad I live in The North though, couldn't be doing with all those "reductive" and "opaque" tossers. We like to think we have real, down to earth, no nonsense discourse up here - although as you will know, the town where I live is acquiring a reputation for being Kensington In The Dales due to said tossers moving up here and polluting the good Yorkshire air with their poshness 😆
What a good article! Thank you. I miss England even though the stereotypes used to sting. I had family who did the "the at ur" thing, and couldn't imagine or care to imagine what my life might be like in the Colonies, so they just didn't ask any questions. "What would you like to watch on TV tonight, Roderick?" was what I last heard when visiting an Aunt and Uncle. I gave up trying to get family to be even remotely interested in getting out of the box, being curious.
I actually used to love playing off of stereotypes. See, as an over-educated white male people always made certain assumptions about my background, especially given that I could wax fairly eloquent in the public speaking department and had some capacity for critical thinking. Of course people assumed I was from an urban, upper-middle class family with all the attendant charms and social graces. I'd go to conferences and they'd invite me to dine with them. Oh, the looks I'd get when I showed up dressed down in my jean jacket, cowboy hat and boots! I had one guy once say, "What, are we going to a rodeo?" trying to get a laugh. I gave him a withering look and said, "Are you making fun of the way I dress?" and he stammered out an apology, properly embarrassed and chastened. At dinner I would regale them with tales of the non-elite life of which most had no clue, like firearms and gutting hogs and bar fights. It was always great fun to see their assumptions shattered.
To their credit, most (including the guy who insulted my clothes) became friends or at least treasured acquaintances, though a few I believe felt somehow mislead and wanted nothing more to do with me. 😂
Stereotypes are known in the rest of the world as instincts. As it would turn out those little inklings which tell me that a young lady with a predisposition for swearing and being very upset with unfair men who impose such terrible rules as those about shirts and shoes and service, makes not a fantastic wife and men who spend more time on the internet than is good for them make bad company. Very good article!