(I'm taking twice as many painkillers as I have been. I hope this comment has any coherency at all.)
The US has a history of distilling countries into myths and stereotypes, all countries. And then selling the fake versions back.
Yes. But so does Great Britain, which I think is where it started to bug me, whether or not my feeling bugged was justified. (Plus my personal issues with someone saying they were going to commit suicide because someone else upset them.) Great Britain sort of perfected doing that, and then we picked it up and did it, because that's what the U.S. does. The trope of the "Ugly American" used to be a trope of the "Ugly Englishman", tourism-wise.
Basically, I think whoever's the biggest turtle in the pond is going to do that. Rome did it. Japan does it. England still does it. France does it. I wouldn't be surprised if in about 25 years, Americans start complaining about how Chinese people do it to them.
I think it is particularly complicated when it comes to the British Isles, because during their most powerful period on the worldwide stage, the government was also severely oppressing part of what they claimed to be their own people, i.e. the Irish and, to a lesser extent (as far as I was taught), the Welsh. Those countries and Scotland have only recently separated from England, and haven't entirely, and part of Ireland is still officially part of England, and things seem to be changing incredibly rapidly. When I was in middle and high school, it was drummed into our heads that you don't say "England", you say "Great Britain". So it's hard for anyone who hasn't been talking about this stuff forever and doesn't have a lot of familiarity with it to figure out what words to even use. I can't even figure it out half the time and I've had a lot of high-level British history classes taught by an Irish woman who is the best professor I've ever had. I think there has to be patience on all sides, and patience is something the social justice movement is very short on.
no subject
The US has a history of distilling countries into myths and stereotypes, all countries. And then selling the fake versions back.
Yes. But so does Great Britain, which I think is where it started to bug me, whether or not my feeling bugged was justified. (Plus my personal issues with someone saying they were going to commit suicide because someone else upset them.) Great Britain sort of perfected doing that, and then we picked it up and did it, because that's what the U.S. does. The trope of the "Ugly American" used to be a trope of the "Ugly Englishman", tourism-wise.
Basically, I think whoever's the biggest turtle in the pond is going to do that. Rome did it. Japan does it. England still does it. France does it. I wouldn't be surprised if in about 25 years, Americans start complaining about how Chinese people do it to them.
I think it is particularly complicated when it comes to the British Isles, because during their most powerful period on the worldwide stage, the government was also severely oppressing part of what they claimed to be their own people, i.e. the Irish and, to a lesser extent (as far as I was taught), the Welsh. Those countries and Scotland have only recently separated from England, and haven't entirely, and part of Ireland is still officially part of England, and things seem to be changing incredibly rapidly. When I was in middle and high school, it was drummed into our heads that you don't say "England", you say "Great Britain". So it's hard for anyone who hasn't been talking about this stuff forever and doesn't have a lot of familiarity with it to figure out what words to even use. I can't even figure it out half the time and I've had a lot of high-level British history classes taught by an Irish woman who is the best professor I've ever had. I think there has to be patience on all sides, and patience is something the social justice movement is very short on.