American Superiority?

Question

Why is it that all we see in the media about america is stupid and fat people BUT we know thats not the case and we know there are actually a plethera of smart americans, in fact i'd be willing to say more smart than dumb and yet when so many Americans decide they're going to portray english people do they often fall into that stereotypical trap of doing some silly accent and always pretending to like tea and scones and calling everyone nigel or clive?

What is it actually like in America, do they actually think that about everyone in England??

(The fact I like tea and scones is neither here nor there lol)

Answer 1

Truthfully, most Americans are pretty ethno-centric and uninterested in World issues or learning about other cultures.  I don't think they mean to be purposefully ignorant, they just don't think about it.  Most news media and entertainment media do not focus on events outside the US.  It's really easy to be self-absorbed when you live in America.

:-/

Answer 2

If you expect to get a representative view from the media, you're just not paying attention.

It's simply not true that all Americans are either stupid or fat (and I seriously doubt that all Americans shown in your media are, either -- if your media are covering our presidential elections -- and I gather they ARE -- then explain how, say, Obama is stupid and fat).

On what do you base your claim that more Americans are smart than dumb? (just curious -- I live her, and people vary regarding intelligence here, as everywhere else).

Yes, the stereotypes that much American entertainment portrays of the English IS dumb -- but not all American entertainment does so.

America is huge and varied, so it's not possible to answer "what it's like here" in any accurate way.

Nor do all Americans think exactly the same of the English; many of us have known English-persons.

And now that we have this Internets thingy, we can communicate more than ever with people from all over.

Answer 3

It is a stereotype that, I believe, has generally been fuelled by the media.  I believe there are stereotypes toward most modern countries, and most come far from representing the general population of that country.