Stereotypical french from Helsingborgs Dagblad
Plinky.com asked me what's my favourite cliché.
[though, actually, they spelled it without the 'u' in favourite – ah, the joys of two cultures separated by a common language]I guess my favourite clichés would have to be the world-view of nationalities.
Be it the humourless Germans.
The contrarian, amorous French.
The tweed-set, ever-polite British.
The 'fair dinkum' Aussies.
The 'everything is bigger' Texans
[who think of themselves as a nation, so yes they do belong in this list]The overweight, obnoxious, over-loud American tourists
And on, and on, and on – these societal shorthand stereotypes.
As a friend of mine once said, a stereotype is a stereotype because, once you look past political correctness, there's much truth to the depiction. Well, actually, he didn't say that – what he actually said was "I call them fat Americans because they ARE fat".
Why are they my favourite clichés? IDK,
[that one is for you, Fishofgold]it's because armed with the stereotype it's fun to discover each individual within the whole; where they do and, more importantly, do not conform to the stereotype.
Revelling
[two L's]in the variance is one of the true joys of life.
