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this just caused an incensed somewhat outraged discussion in our house, because glahhhhh. it just feels like an insult when we're already so steeped in american culture.
I grew up with american television. at a guess i'd say that 80% of shows on australian commercial television are american, with about 10% each of british and australian making up the whole. it is a rare occassion that a 'foreign film' - australian or british - makes it into the cinema. rarer still that many people see it. only since lotr have american studios been putting the costume dramas into british accents.
i might not know the exact locations of each of american states to the other, but i know and understand perfectly a whole range of american accents. i was boggled when american visitors came here and couldn't understand my very low-key australian accent. i grew up with sesame street and so adopted a bunch of americanisms from there - "zee" instead of "zed" is one. my spellchecker on my computer doesn't have an english option other than 'american english', and so there are always little squiggly lines when i type 'realise' or 'colour'.
someone asked if people outside the US found american accents sexy. the answer is: most definitely not. most of the time i find them brash and offensive. the american accent for me isn't exotic the same way my australian accent seems to be for a bunch of americans. the american accent grates on my nerves and reminds me of the aggressiveness of the american culture and media into australia's culture, makes me bitter to think of how clingy and fawning australia seems to be towards american culture, reminds me of the attitudes of close-mindedness or superiority to other cultures, and the pseudo-sincerity and somewhat pitiful, disdainful air i get from the american media and american people i'm exposed to via the media.
and often by fic, which is a main part of the reason that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
drop_the_u makes me gnash my teeth so. i get offended the way that american writers so frequently come across as unwilling to research into other cultures and mannerisms when they're writing characters from other cultures, with mannerisms other than american. more than that, it's not so much that i'm offended by the decision of an american writer not to use, say, britishisms when writing a british character, but the fact that sometimes it doesn't even seem that the writer is aware that there's a culture other than their own. i mean, i can understand that interpersonal relationships between characters of different cultures are often a difficult thing to perceive and grasp (for example, the disgusting, abject, ridiculous humour of the british vs. the cynicism of american sense of humour; or america's uber-sincerity vs. australia's heavy reliance on sarcasm), but when dom thinks back to when his mom gives him a quarter to go to the corner store? that just really gets on my nerves. because the author knows that part of dom's childhood was in germany, and dom's family is actually british. do these american authors just not realise that there is an actual difference in both physical fact (eg. a quarter vs. a pound) and phrase and culture surrounding it? mom is not mum. the things from your childhood, the dialogue phrases you use every day, would not exist for people in other cultures. people who you are supposedly meant to be writing convincingly. there's nothing that jerks me sickeningly out of a fic more than realising that an author has written this story while thinking of these british, scottish, or australian characters with an american accent, conjuring up american histories for them.
i guess i'm sick both of the way that in australian culture, anyway, american culture is elevated to the status that it's above australian culture, or all other culture, something which it perpetuates itself. i'm not saying i hate america. i just can't stand the way american culture portrays and considers itself superior to all other cultures, to the point where it considers all other cultures dismissable.
er... disclaimer: i'm not trying to attack any americans reading this; i know that not all americans are stupid and close-minded and i know there are stupid and close-minded people in australian society too. none of this has been written deliberately to cause offense; the things i've stated above do have a basis in reality for both me and many of my non-american peers. just calling it as i'm seeing it, folks.
I grew up with american television. at a guess i'd say that 80% of shows on australian commercial television are american, with about 10% each of british and australian making up the whole. it is a rare occassion that a 'foreign film' - australian or british - makes it into the cinema. rarer still that many people see it. only since lotr have american studios been putting the costume dramas into british accents.
i might not know the exact locations of each of american states to the other, but i know and understand perfectly a whole range of american accents. i was boggled when american visitors came here and couldn't understand my very low-key australian accent. i grew up with sesame street and so adopted a bunch of americanisms from there - "zee" instead of "zed" is one. my spellchecker on my computer doesn't have an english option other than 'american english', and so there are always little squiggly lines when i type 'realise' or 'colour'.
someone asked if people outside the US found american accents sexy. the answer is: most definitely not. most of the time i find them brash and offensive. the american accent for me isn't exotic the same way my australian accent seems to be for a bunch of americans. the american accent grates on my nerves and reminds me of the aggressiveness of the american culture and media into australia's culture, makes me bitter to think of how clingy and fawning australia seems to be towards american culture, reminds me of the attitudes of close-mindedness or superiority to other cultures, and the pseudo-sincerity and somewhat pitiful, disdainful air i get from the american media and american people i'm exposed to via the media.
and often by fic, which is a main part of the reason that
drop_the_u makes me gnash my teeth so. i get offended the way that american writers so frequently come across as unwilling to research into other cultures and mannerisms when they're writing characters from other cultures, with mannerisms other than american. more than that, it's not so much that i'm offended by the decision of an american writer not to use, say, britishisms when writing a british character, but the fact that sometimes it doesn't even seem that the writer is aware that there's a culture other than their own. i mean, i can understand that interpersonal relationships between characters of different cultures are often a difficult thing to perceive and grasp (for example, the disgusting, abject, ridiculous humour of the british vs. the cynicism of american sense of humour; or america's uber-sincerity vs. australia's heavy reliance on sarcasm), but when dom thinks back to when his mom gives him a quarter to go to the corner store? that just really gets on my nerves. because the author knows that part of dom's childhood was in germany, and dom's family is actually british. do these american authors just not realise that there is an actual difference in both physical fact (eg. a quarter vs. a pound) and phrase and culture surrounding it? mom is not mum. the things from your childhood, the dialogue phrases you use every day, would not exist for people in other cultures. people who you are supposedly meant to be writing convincingly. there's nothing that jerks me sickeningly out of a fic more than realising that an author has written this story while thinking of these british, scottish, or australian characters with an american accent, conjuring up american histories for them.i guess i'm sick both of the way that in australian culture, anyway, american culture is elevated to the status that it's above australian culture, or all other culture, something which it perpetuates itself. i'm not saying i hate america. i just can't stand the way american culture portrays and considers itself superior to all other cultures, to the point where it considers all other cultures dismissable.
er... disclaimer: i'm not trying to attack any americans reading this; i know that not all americans are stupid and close-minded and i know there are stupid and close-minded people in australian society too. none of this has been written deliberately to cause offense; the things i've stated above do have a basis in reality for both me and many of my non-american peers. just calling it as i'm seeing it, folks.
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yes i realise this, but the point of my post is not that i hate americans, and not that i hate american culture. i respect american culture, and hell, there're lots of things i like about it. but i don't like it when american culture overwhelms and smothers a 'native' culture in a country it is alien in. I respect the fact that, for example, there is a history and reason behind the african american rnb/hip hop/rap music and culture; it's an immovable, significant part of american history, society, culture. why, then, do white, pre-pubescent australian boys in suburban melbourne feel the urge to adopt the dress, dialect, *culture* of this aspect of american society? i understand the exporting of things like music, and i'm not saying that everyone should only listen to and enjoy music produced in their own country, but these boys' histories and cultural backgrounds in no way resemble the historical and cultural background of this group of african americans in the states (except besides a general human condition thing that is present in many many other cultural groups that aren't represented by the hip hop/bling thing).
these boys aren't thinking of the history and culture behind the way they dress and behave, they are only thinking that they are cool. australia has a what we term a 'cultural cringe', yes, but as an extremely multicultural nation (with a 'white history' and an 'indigenous history' of our own as well), we sure are letting one culture, of a country that has little physical influence over our nation's societies, overwhelm our own culture so entirely. australia's own histories and subsequent culture is being ignored in favour of attempting to adopt another coutnry's cultures, created by its own histories, which just doesn't work.
my complaint isn't with american culture, it's with the way that the rest of the western world (or australia, at least) is being homogenised to culturally become 'american'. and it's not that i'd be impressed if it were a culture other than american, because it's not about how much i like or dislike america's culture. it's the fact that australians, despite generally speaking the same language and generally having the same colour skin, are completely different people to americans. so adopting another country's culture, a culture that has grown up around a people and serves to nurture and support them, is not going to support a people that it is alien to.
rubbing salt in the wound is the fact that, in my experience, the american perception is that american culture *is* western culture. and maybe that's the fault of your media executives, but it appears to me quite frequently that americans don't really care if it is or not, because why wouldn't everyone else want to be american?
no subject
but i don't like it when american culture overwhelms and smothers a 'native' culture in a country it is alien in.
Something to understand about this is that it's not "American" culture that is doing this, it's corporate monoculture, and it's happening within the US as well. In some ways, some homogenization of the world is a good thing, because it's increasing communication, scientific standards, etc. but when it comes to pop culture, yes, it's annoying as hell. I've lived most of my life in the West, but each city I've lived in is very different, with its own unique culture. Yet that unique culture is going away. Cities and rural areas are retaining much of their flavor, but the suburbs are all identical. Now that I've traveled around a bit, outside my four-state stomping grounds (Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington) I've noticed that suburbia really is all the same. The exact same strip malls with the exact same stores. A Wal-Mart and a Linens N Things on every corner. The assortment changes slightly with how affluent the suburb in question is, but it is largely the same thing. But that's how people here want it, I guess. They've been taught to fear change, to fear anything different, and their lives are so fast-paced and hectic, that they don't have the time or energy to adjust to anything new anyway. They just want safety and predictability and the comfort of everything looking and feeling exactly as it always does everywhere they go. Americans are largely taught to not think for themselves, and not think outside their comfort zones. Doing so, in fact, is considered downright unpatriotic. Dealing with terrorism and economic downturns only makes this fear, and clinging to the familiar worse. Religion is a big part of this, too. People retreat into the comfort zones of God and family when they feel threatened or weak, and anything that theoretically challenges the establishment of those two things is met with the angry bite of a scared animal.
So yes, we're feeling it here, too. The supposed ideal of America being the great melting pot, where all people and races and cultures will be welcomed is rapidly crumbling in favor of this corporate sameness. All caucasian (with maybe some dark-skinned people of vague non-caucasian heritage) all Christian, all nuclear male-dominated families. All minivans, all sitcoms, all PG movies for the whole family. This is what suburban culture is, and it's completely taken over. Us diversity-appreciative Americans are still out here, although we're largely confined to urban areas and college towns, but we're struggling to maintain uniqueness in the face of such strong pressure-- especially from our government-- to homogenize. I think unless the economy strengthens and we finally feel safe from attack, this pressure will continue, and it will unfortunately extend to other countries as well.
On behalf of (at least some) Americans, I apologize.