Austrians
Dynasties are episodes in the history of people, in the Habsburg Empire people are a complication in the history of a dynasty
Budapestians live on daily expectations of a wall of money from Austrian investors,
Border villages put up signs in German advertising hairdresser’s & dentist’s
German language for Hungarians is the language of career and advancement
Germans believe that Austrians have a tendency to sloppiness or muddle, esp. the Viennese → Austrian incompetence
Creeping Germanisation of Austrian economy
Elegant old lady : “at least something happened to the Swiss”
Austria draws a good deal of its strength from this idea of the middle, of the centre, of the compromise, exhibiting an almost narcissistic love of the middle way and leveling of extremes
The Viennese are associated with pleasure, loving, genial, golden Viennese heart
Others are devious, morose, time-serving, ill-natured
National stereotyping: French or Foe?
Britons and Americans proclaim two things : “France is okay – but the French!”
Studies show that much of the anti-French feeling is the fault of the foreign-owned tabloid press and recurring phrases like “strutting, sex-obsessed frogs”
The Anglo-Saxon myth about the French is that they are luxuriating lotus-eaters, who are so busy making love and stuffing themselves with foie gras and champaigne and they don’t know the difference between a fax and a floppy disk.
Everyone knows it is the land of the 4 F’s –Food, Fashion, Fragrance and Frivolity.
It seems there is the fifth F- Feminine.
Code 1: Don’t Smile!
The French do not smile blandly as they walk down the street. They don’t smile without a reason.
Philippe Labro :”What’s the trouble now? I always say ‘Hi’ when I run into people – strangers! – crossing the campus.’ “Yes, but you don’t smile when you say it”, replied the chairman
De-smiling your face
Smiling at someone who does not smile back can be catastrophic for Americans
Code 2: Flirt!
Flirt! Don’t smile – do it with your eyes.
The French do not realize that being 10 minutes late is an insult to a German.
A foreigner who asks why so many metro stops are named for German cities is not going to make a great impression. (They are named for Napoleon’s great victories)
Arabic people stereotyped in Mass Communication
4 stages of minority portrayals
Non-recognition - minority group is excluded from television
Ridicule – presenting minority as incompetent, unintelligent
Regulation – minority appears as a protector of existing order( police officers, spies)
Respect – full range of roles
The TV Arab is portrayed very negatively
1) terrorist
2) wealthy oil sheik, often greedy and morally dissolute
3) sexual pervert, often dealing in selling Europeans and Americans into slavery
4) Bedouin as a “desert rat”
5) Villains
Hispanics are pictured as greasy Mexican bandit, sensual, musical, laughable
Relatively few well-educated Hispanics with multiple job opportunities