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National Stereotypes: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:Girls und Panzer - team captains.png|thumb|400px|link=Girls und Panzer|Even in a work where everyone's Japanese, you can still have National Stereotypes]]
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Stereotypes having to do with people of specific nationalities. Some of them are a little bit [[Truth in Television]] (certain others more so), due to having some basis in reality. But remember, nations are not [[Planet of Hats|Planets Of Hats]]. (Except [[Country of Hats|when they are]].) And not all foreigners necessarily speak with a heavy accent, as many films and TV series seem to indicate.
For people who want to edit this trope
▲1. We don't claim that all these types of behaviour are exclusively typical of these nationalities, only that they are very common false or exaggerated perceptions of certain countries. Most of the time these images were created by popular books, comic strips, animated cartoons, films or propaganda, in addition to what people from the country in question may deliberately promote. We're listing stereotypes here, which means that we list all these recurring caricatural ideas about other nationalities that can be found regularly in any work of fiction.
▲2. So no racist or discriminatory quotes claiming: "Hey this stereotype is actually true" or aggressive, offended comments like "Hey, my country or people are nothing like that!" Most countries depict their neighbouring countries as if they are all either lazy, evil, dumb, primitive or arrogant. Nothing new there and it proves that these stereotypical impressions about other countries are universal, rather than tied to one specific country.
▲3. We can also miss proud, arrogant, patriotic boasting remarks like "Our country is uniquely very good at this or that", which is usually also very narrow-minded nationalism. Behavior can not be restricted to an entire race, culture or country of people. Not all Americans [[Crazy Survivalist|are fond of owning guns]], not all Britons [[Spot of Tea|like tea]], not all Frenchmen [[French Jerk|are arrogant]] and not all Asians [[All Asians Know Martial Arts|are martial arts experts]]. Each country has claims to have their own unique drinking culture (beer, wine, tea, coffee,...), particular cultural specialties and a reputation for being hospitable.
See also [[Hollywood Atlas]] and [[Funny Foreigner]].
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Compare [[Country of Hats]], the fun house mirror [[Sister Trope]] to [[National Stereotypes]].
{{examples|Examples of this trope by region:}}
== Africa ==
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== The Americas ==
=== The Arctic ===
* '''Inuit''' or Eskimo people always wear parkas, carve trinkets, live in igloos, go fishing with a harpoon, travel by sled and huskies and eat cod-liver oil. They are often believed to have an unusually large number of words for snow. (See:[[wikipedia:Eskimo words for snow|Wikipedia: Eskimo words for snow]]). This is however an urban legend. Eskimos are sometimes shown rubbing each other's noses together as some sort of greeting ritual (Eskimo kissing) They're also often depicted surrounded by polar bears, seals, walruses and inaccurately penguins. [[Polar Bears and Penguins|Penguins only live on the South Pole and not on the North Pole.]] Sometimes Eskimos themselves are depicted living on the South Pole, which is again wrong for the same reason. See [[The Great White North]].
* The men are usually called Nanook in reference to the famous documentary ''[[Nanook
=== [[Canada]] ===
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==== American West ====
* Hawaii: pretty girls with long black hair and grass skirts who enjoy hula dancing and put flower garlands ("leis") over every tourist's shoulders. The island has a very relaxed atmosphere with parties ("luas") and people drinking soft drinks while wearing Hawaiian shirts. And of course, the word "Aloha" most be mentioned or sung at least once!
* California: Best known for two cities, [[San Francisco]] and [[Los Angeles]], one theme park ([[Disneyland]]), and its beaches. The world knows the state especially for [[Hollywood California|Hollywood]] and its Silicon Valley, [[Hollywood
* When the rest of the country remembers the Pacific Northwest,
* New Mexico is lucky to be considered part of the Union at all,
* Arizona is the [[Wild Wild West]]. All rural and the population consists of outlaws, [[Cowboy Cop]]s, and bartenders.
* Utah, see [[Acceptable Religious Targets|Mormonism]], because nobody knows or mentions anything else about this state besides it's Salt Lake or, for older people, The Osmonds.
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* Everyone in Idaho lives in a potato field, Boise, or ''[[Deliverance]]'' country (where everyone is part of the Klan or the Aryan Nation).
* Montana is generally portrayed as having nothing but [[Crazy Survivalist|survivalists]], libertarian psychos, [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|and national parks/forests]]. Within Montana, people from Missoula are pot smoking hippie pantheists, people from Bozeman just moved there from California/Colorado/Washington, and eastern Montana is a frozen wasteland full of Norwegian Lutherans ([[Take That|in other words, North Dakota]]).
* There are, of course, no stereotypes of people from Wyoming since no one lives there. Well, maybe there are [[Brokeback Mountain|cowboys in the mountains]], but that's about it.
==== American Midwest ====
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* Everyone who lives in Oklahoma is either a proud [[Magical Native American|Native American living in a teepee]], or a dumb-as-rocks hillbilly living in a trailer wondering why the "ternaders" always blow his house away.
* West Virginia has that whole [[Kissing Cousins]] thing and letting kids drive when they are 2.
* [[Florida]]. 98% of Americans think Florida's history began with the invention of air conditioning, the Panhandle is the only part of the state that is possibly south of the Mason-Dixon line, Miami-Dade is part of Cuba, not the United States, and the state's population doubles the day the first snowflake falls north of the Mason-Dixon line. Also, ask more than 99% of Americans what the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in North America is, and the answer will not be St. Augustine. Latin Americans see Florida as a haven for expats from troubled countries, whenever they are the victims or the perpetrators; also as the place those horrible talk shows from basic Spanish cable come from. Nowadays, it is seen as a sort of hub for weird events: see [[Only in Florida]] and [[Only in Miami]] for details.
* Virginia overall is seen (by those who are even aware that Virginia and West Virginia are separate states) as the reddest of the red states, inhabited solely by Pat Robertson, George Allen, Ken Cuccinelli, and Eugene Delgaudio. This also plays into the divide between Northern Virginia and the rest of the state.
* (in monotone) "[[Wayne's World|Hi. We're from... Delaware.]]"
** "[[Axis Powers Hetalia|Delaware. That's a state, but most Americans don't even know that, unless they live there.]]"
* Depending on what show you're watching, [[Washington DC]] is populated entirely by either (i) high-ranking administration officials and corrupt national politicians or (ii) drug kingpins and corrupt municipal politicians. Either way, it is obligatory for depictions of local geography to be [[Hollywood Atlas|horribly wrong]], and everything is the [[Wretched Hive|exact opposite]] of whatever the writer considers to be good and just. Also, version (i) of D.C. has absolutely no long-term residents.
** Don't forget, [[
* Georgia will always be treated as a backwards hicktown that is extremely white and extremely intolerant (see the ''30 Rock'' episode "Stone Mountain"). This is despite the fact that its capital, Atlanta, is 54% black and actually has the 3rd highest population of LGBT people in the U.S. (behind San Francisco and Seattle). But at least since [[Ray Charles]] it is "always on our mind".
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* Everyone in Greece owns or is heir to a vast shipping empire. And in reference to Aristoteles Onassis they will also be called Aristoteles.
* In reference to [[The Olympic Games]] the Greek will be throwing discuses, running marathons or participating in any other kind of athletic championships.
* And, perhaps the most modern of all its stereotypes (most popular in the rest of the EU); Greece, the monetary black hole, unable to cope with the 2008 stock market crash [https://web.archive.org/web/20120510090029/http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/bro/lowres/bron2313l.jpg until this very day].
====The former [[Yugoslavia]]====
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:National Stereotyping Tropes]]
[[Category:Rule of Perception]]
[[Category:Stereotype]]
[[Category:The National Index]]
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