Recently, I began reading and posting on another blog that relates to my lovely Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I happened upon a thread that began in May of this year and is still continuing at 10 pages! The title of the thread is about how people from Massachusetts are rude.
Now, obviously after 10 pages and nearly four months, this has caused quite a debate to which I have added my two cents. Shocking, I know. But it did trigger a thought process about stereotypes beyond the basic race, religion, etc. Rather those based on different areas of the country, regional accents and rural vs. urban.
In reading through the thread I found that the opinions were regional. The Southerners thought the Northeast, and in particular Massachusetts, was “rude”, “arrogant” and “snobby”. Mind you there were many from the South, Texas, Arizona and California, to name a few, who had visited MA and are planning to move here. Others who were born and raised in MA couldn’t wait to escape!
Some of the Northeast participants in this thread who have traveled or moved to the South or other “more friendly” regions indicated that they thought these areas were overly friendly. They agreed that, yes, we in the Northeast can be rather “stand-offish”. One of the comments said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “I don’t need to know all your personal business and family history at the first ‘hello’! And I don’t need to share mine until I decide whether I even like you!”
Having lived and worked in Boston for many years, I can agree that it is a very busy place and may not be conducive to stopping dead in your tracks to strike up a conversation with a complete stranger. I have, however, seen many Bostonians stop dead in their tracks to help an obviously confused tourist. I’ve done it myself. Living on Cape Cod now, which is considered “rural”, I do find the pace to be slower and the people a little more willing to stop and talk, but we still have the stereotype of being extremely wealthy. Us year-rounders, though are mostly in the trades, waitresses, or other service industries and lower to middle income. Basically, working stiffs.
There were also comments about accents. Southern accents and real Boston accents (not like Ted Kennedy) were stereotyped as being “less educated” and “lower class”. But the “Kennedy” accent is considered “pompous”. I have to admit that I, long ago, recognized this stereotype and worked very hard to eliminate my Boston accent. As many of you know though, from listening to me speak, you can take the girl out of Boston, but you can’t entirely eliminate Boston from the girl! (I still can’t pronounce “Aunt” as “Ant”. I love my Aunt and refuse to call her an insect!) Eventually, though, my place of origin is always nailed. And that’s OK. I’m very proud of where I come from, who I come from, and where I live. But by the time a stranger realizes it, they can’t attach that stereotype to me because I’ve already proved otherwise.
These are only a few stereotypes that were mentioned on this thread. We all have to deal with them. What stereotypes do you find in your area and how do you overcome them?