Culture . 03/04/2008 09:45 AM . Aaron Olmstead

I’ve never been overseas. Embarrassing, I know. But, in my defense, a lack of desire is far from being the issue. Every dollar and hour of the last four years has been ruthlessly sucked into the pursuit of a college education. The lack of global travel is a personal failure that I look forward to rectifying. Visits to Thailand, Crete, Israel, Mauritius and Chili will serve as the beginning of my extensive penance.

Despite the lack of cultural interaction, I have a rather definitive notion of how Americans are perceived by the rest of the world. As far as I know, everyone does. We’ve been conclusively stereotyped as egocentric, obese, and uninformed. Prior to my research for this article, my preconception suggested that this feeling of negativity towards American citizens was a natural consequence of our prosperity as a country.

After conducting numerous interviews with Facebook members from several corners of the globe, my mindset was dramatically changed. Not once did I encounter the harsh and biting viewpoint on Americans that I had anticipated. To the contrary, while most of the foreign students who responded had a few bones to pick, they were often apologetic in tone, not wanting to offend. They considered American stereotypes to be largely inaccurate, although often deserved. And to many, playing up American idiosyncrasies was more of a joke than anything else.

So where did Americans get the blanket “bombastic fools” nametag? My feedback was nearly unanimous. The foremost promulgator of the stereotype was our very own entertainment industry. I was told, to a large extent, that Americans are victims of their own media.

Charlie Withinshaw, one 17-year-old student from Northwich, England, explained, “To be honest, I don’t think of Americans this way,” he said. “I haven’t even been to America, or met an arrogant American. In fact, I haven’t really met any Americans. … The only reason most people say that Americans are either belligerent or stupid is the press.”

Lydia Wassen, an American student currently living in Spain, agrees, suggesting that the conceited disposition portrayed by some of her fellow countrymen has arisen from an awareness of the power and success of their country. She explained that the world’s perception of American belligerence has been “greatly magnified by the influence of the American entertainment industry.”

It’s obvious, now that I think about it. Most foreign countries have been inundated with western culture via both our news and film industry. They watch American movies like Anchorman, Borat and Supersize Me. They see our obsession with the antics of celebrities like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. They watch shows like Jay Leno, where the host confronts random pedestrians with simple questions and airs only the most absurdly ignorant responses. They observe our political leaders being portrayed as bumbling dolts. They hear us bicker endlessly about war, sports teams, and gun laws.

After this impression, it’s small wonder that we come across as pompous idiots. But thankfully, the foreign perception may not be quite as overwhelmingly visceral as we’ve been led to believe. Several of the people I talked to suggested that Americans grant the media a lot more legitimacy than it deserves and that this is a mistake they know better than to make.

Darren Kincaid, a student from London, indicated that the British recognize biased media: “The vast majority of the people realize it’s B.S., and ignore it. We might read the Sun newspaper, but we know it’s all lies. We read it and laugh at it … and don’t take it at face value.”

Stephanie Becker, a German graduate student, agreed on the dissimilarity of U.S. and European media. “Here you can still find unbiased media. The people and the government still remember how much people can be influenced by the media (remembering what Hitler did) and want to know the truth. We also have the ‘cheap’ media that reports what people want to hear, but you know it is crap.”

While the media may have been unsuccessful in convincing the world of an inherent American arrogance and stupidity, it has been entirely successful in convincing the world that our president is the very image of belligerence and idiocy. This was unquestionably the second most dominant response I received as a cause for being so severely stereotyped.

“Sadly for you, Mr. Bush is probably the reason for a lot of this … because we see a lot of him on T.V. and he doesn’t show the American people to be very clever,” Duncan Harvey, a student from Bristol, explained.

John Camarillo, a Mexican-American who has spent the last five years in Belgium and is now attending Vanderbilt in the States arrived at a particularly insightful conclusion. He explained that in the wake of 9/11 most Americans were overcome with a dramatic increase in patriotism that eventually “boiled into a fervor that some considered belligerency.” He continued, “As a figure head of the country, George Bush became the symbol of such an ideology. In the international media, it was not the congressman, nor the American citizens that were being put in the news headlines, it was simply President Bush.”

The third dominant cause for these stereotypes involved the perception that most Americans don’t have a true concern or understanding of other cultures. Most eastern countries don’t get a very positive glimpse of the “American Way” from our tourists waltzing through their borders. The majority of Americans can only afford to do a “supertrip” to Europe, speedily taking in only the most well known sites.

Lydia Wassen explained that “this, mindset of trying to see everything, gives Americans the image of not caring about the cultures they’re visiting.” Obviously this gives us a rather inaccurate perception, but what’s worse is that we’re known for flocking to the western commercialization that has inundated almost any corner of the globe, even when we’re supposedly attempting to experience another culture.

“Americans come to Madrid, or Paris or whatever, and they can visit Starbucks with people tripping over themselves to practice their English. They see adds for Grey´s Anatomy, and watch the Oscars … it’s a little surreal,” Wassen continued. “And you can’t help having a little pride in the culture you know, the one you were raised with, and your own language, especially in a foreign place.”

There’s no denying that America is a virtual “steam engine” of culture worldwide. You can’t go anywhere without seeing the all-too-obvious yellow “M” for McDonald’s or hear the blare of Rihanna’s “You can stand under my umbrella … ella ella eh eh.” And ironically enough, it’s Tienanmen Square that lays claim to the world’s largest Kentucky Fried Chicken sign.

Then, finally, there is the reality that there are actually many loud, annoying and conceited Americans. Sure, we’re not all like that. But it’s pretty obvious that the noisemakers are the ones that get heard. They’re the ones that make a good story and end up defining everybody else in one way or another.

But then again, every nationality has its stereotypes. The difference is that while it’s politically incorrect for Americans to negatively stereotype other nationalities, it’s trendy for both American and non-American alike to go on about our negative stereotypes.

Consuelo Combs, an African-American student from Ohio, offers some words of wisdom on the whole matter: “To better understand why this statement is made across the globe, one should take some time and go to the states. Meet people, travel to different regions and economic areas. Keep an open mind, because the last thing this world needs is another stereotype.”

“Hell! If people listened to stereotypes about people from my demographic, I would be popping out children left and right, drowning, talking Ebonics, getting my hair and nails ‘did’ all the time, rolling my neck, popping my gum, etc.,” she interrupted herself to warn.

“Then after a few years of doing that you’ll see that generalizing a country and its people is counterproductive and closed-minded. The only solution to debunking a stereotype is to find out things for yourself; ‘be wise for self,’ my ma always tells me.”

And that’s exactly what I plan on doing. You should too. Consuelo’s ma sounds like an awful smart lady.

Aaron Olmstead is the founder and publisher of Kritik. He is fat, stupid and belligerent.

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