Saturday, February 4, 2012

"All Americans are fat....right?"

Yesterday I learned that Spaniards think all Americans are fat. Period. Unless they are from California. California people are the only exception to the rule.
(Well at least that's what the 2 Spaniards who were working at a convenience store at 3am this morning thought.)

The whole conversation that I had with them was ridiculous. Funny, but ridiculous. It started with me (drunkenly) deciding I should buy some plain Greek yogurt at 3am so that I would have some to eat for breakfast the next morning. After a little fiasco with them only having Greek yogurt with sugar added and them not understanding that I wanted it au natural, they asked "inglesa?" And then when I corrected them and said 'Americana' they looked VERY confused. "But...you're..you're not...fat!" 

I couldn't help but bursting out into laughter and saying "Why thank you!" Cause I mean, what else do you say to that statement? Then they explained that they thought all Americans were overweight, with the exception of people from California. (Thank you Baywatch....) 

Just to humor them I told them that while that was most definitely not true, I actually was from California. I probably should have left that part out though, since that just seemed to confirm their belief.

Fellow American expats, it looks like we have a job to do while we're here. Either that or I just need to have a string of comebacks about Spanish stereotypes...Hmm..I'll start making a list.



America in a nut shell?


..................................................

OKAY, HOLD UP. This is a blog update. (3/12/12)

My blog has been getting an astronomical amount of hits lately from various forms of the search phrase 'all americans are fat'. This makes me feel...slightly ashamed of having posted anything with those words.
I gotta admit, I think its fun to check my daily stats section to see how many people have checked my blog today, what countries they're from (I once got a hit from Isle of Man...that was exciting), and what search phrases they've used to come across my blog. This last one is usually pretty funny.
For example:
  • pura green flood --- (umm what??)
  • reir entry system --- (again, umm what?)
  • alien abduction egg harvesting --- (this one made me burst out laughing, it got a hit on a post about when I had to explain the differences of martians vs. aliens to my kids)
  • funny person falling down stairs --- (about the time I ended up in the hospital after tripping on the stairs)
  • surprised kid --- (this makes sense, since I myself googled 'surprised kid' and took the first picture I found)
  • gas tank bombona --- (clearly I am not the only person who has trouble with these things...sorry that my post on this didn't actually clear up any of those problems..)
There were lots of other funny ones too, but they don't show up on my list now because the most popular search hits have been replaced by 'all americans are fat', 'fat americans', 'fat people', you get the idea.

STOP.

For all of you who are reading this because you just searched that exact phrase, I have a revelation for you.
It's not true. Sorry if that just crushed all of your dreams of America. 
Yes, there is an obesity problem in America. But no, it does not define or overwhelm our population.
It's a stereotype.
Just like it's a stereotype that all Spaniards get drunk off Sangria and dance Flamenco. Or that all Germans like leather pants, beer and world domination (gotta admit though, that one is kind of funny. And very Eurotrip-ish).

This post will probably double or triple the number of hits I get for that phrase, but as long as I can set at least one person straight about it, I'll be happy.

I also found this little quiz online, (which is where I discovered that classy German stereotype), about guessing which stereotypes belonged to which country. I got 18/24, how many can you get?

5 comments:

  1. LMAO!! I'm sure my gordita self from Cali would have surprised them :P

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is one of my hugest pet peeves I hear here. My students, and seemingly 90% of the population here, think that Americans only eat hamburgers. I had someone in town argue with me and tell me I was lying when I said I'd never eaten Burger King before in my life (queee?).

    For this very reason, I haven't eaten a single hamburger in public since arriving in September (I ordered one from roomservice once in Lisbon but shhhhhh) and I only buy healthy food from the grocery store. It seems so silly that I even care, but I live in a veryyyy small town and I stick out like a sore thumb, so everyone watches my every move!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'd like to point out that the current obesity ratio of the United States of America 2:3. That means two-thirds of our population is overweight. I live in a household where everyone except me is obese. I am the in 1 in 3 that is not obese, and I see obese people EVERYWHERE I go. I noticed that you are expats. How long has it been since you returned to the states? We waste 1 billion gallons in gasoline to haul our extra pounds in cars, and the airline industry is losing 175 million gallons for the same reason. They get to charge more for that gas, and the seating changes in planes. I have to pay for that. Our stadiums are making wider seats to accommodate fatsos, thus shrinking total number of seats, and charging more per seat. I have to pay for that. Communities and local officials are enforcing new toilet specs to reinforce flooring for fat people toilets. I have to get the "upgrade" should I decide to sell my home. Again, I have to pay for that. This is bullcrap, and I'm tired of the fat people in this country. You're late night Spaniard friends were right. Nearly everyone in the country is fat now. It's not just some "stereotype", anymore.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, that is probably the most narrow minded, arrogant, and just plain stupid statement I've ever heard. I would go into detail as to why, but it's not worth the time...

      Delete
  4. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db82.pdf

    You could start with the fact that 2/3 doesn't =35.7%
    ....and that whole post was backwards on statistics.

    And the fact that skinny people still use gasoline lol

    ReplyDelete