American Stereotypes of Canada
The following paper will analyze the discussion generated from our
Focus Group session, which covered American stereotypes Canadians
portrayed in their media. The topic an interesting one to Canadians
and rather enlightening to you because of your American upbringing was
chosen based on what we observed during the Olympic coverage.
We noticed that the Americans covered the events only when their
athletes were participating or would abandon a broadcast of an event
when it was clear the American athlete was not in contention for a
medal to watch something a little more interesting. However, when an
event has a dedicated audience such as figure skating, and the judging
scandal took place, it was the American audience that stood up for
their neighbours to the north. Since in the eyes of the United States
we are "weak, mild and timid". (USA Today) Yet it was obvious by the
media coverage around the world including the American views that
Canada was not about to take the Gold medal scandal sitting down.
We asked the class what some of the negative stereotypes Americans
have of Canadians and it became apparent as an observer that our
multicultural classroom was one under the Canadian flag. How so? In
the discussion I noticed that we Canadians are all in on the joke. We
all understood that the Americans were ignorant of Canada and that we
played up to the stereotypes at their expense.
What are some of the negative stereotypes we encounter on a daily
basis? As shows like the Simpsons and South Park made so evident was
that Canada is known for are the RCMP, hockey, maple syrup, and of
course snow. However are these stereotypes a bad thing to Canadians?
Not necessarily, because American satirists use Canada as a tool for
satirizing themselves. Trey Parker and Matt Stone did not create the
flip-top headed Canadian characters in South Park to offend Canadians
- they did so to take a jab at Americans' stereotyping of Canadians.
They chose to "Blame Canada, before somebody thinks of blaming us" for
Canada as a nation has been striving to characterize itself as more ?Canadian? for decades. This has included numerous struggles and events such as protests, bans, and the creation of the Massey Commission, to encourage national development in the arts, and support major companies like the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and National Film Board (NFB). However, this has not been an easy task for the Canadian government, as major influences from below the border (the United States) have been captivating the Canadian audiences by large. American media has had a momentous revolutionizing effect on Canada, even through efforts made to define Canada with its own cultural identity.
Canada Is Becoming Too Americanized Today Canada and the United States are major trading partners, allies, and two neighboring countries with a long history of cooperation with each other. But is it possible for Canada to protect its independence and culture living next door to the country so powerful and rich as the United States. Since the Canadian confederation, Canada started developing relations with the U.S. As the years passed by, Canada began to relay on the United States in the national defense. Many Canadians think that the military, political and economical dependence would not make a difference to their daily life.
In order to understand the complexity of the Anti-Americanism, it is important to understand the history and relationship between Canada and the United States. The sentiment was first conceived by the Europeans and the issues it had with the upcoming “rebellious” American culture. Europeans at the time had the tendency to see Americans as, “overconfident and self-important… it was this egocentricity that most aggravated Europeans” (O’Connor, 2004). In its earliest form, the American ideology seemed to be an opponent to the popular European ideology. Which soon became a campaign between “high culture” (the European ideology) and “low culture” (the American culture) and through that rivalry many European citizens held the belief that,
The culture of Canada refers to the shared values, attitudes, standards, and beliefs that are a representative of Canada and Canadians throughout Canada's history, its culture has been influenced by American culture because of a shared language, proximity, television and migration between the two countries. Overtime, Canadian-American relations have helped develop Canada’s identity during the years 1945-1982; thus introducing changing social norms , media and entertainment. In support of this, due to the United States being approximately 9.25 times larger in population and having the dominant cultural and economic influence it played a vital role in establishing Canada’s identity. With Canada being its neighbour, naturally, the United States would influence their way of life upon Canada. In other words,
As Lester B. Pearson once said “Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.” Politics may create disagreements and conflict between two countries, but it can also affect countries relations. When Canadian Prime Minister Diefenbaker refused to accept American warheads it has set back Canadian and American relations. However In many ways we still help each other out. Canada benefits from close ties to the United States of America because it helps our economy, forms our culture, and they provide military protection.
America was widely known as a “melting pot” of sorts for many generations. The country earned its title by accepting immigrants of various cultures and molding, or melting, them into the American lifestyle. However, the “melting pot” idea of America is starting to dissipate. According to a Newsweek Poll on the public, “only 20 percent still think America is a melting pot” (Morganthau and Wolfberg, par.4). As more Americans push away immigrants and create stereotypes against said immigrants, America continues to lose its title as a “melting pot.” There is ethnic friction in America and people have begun to have a hard time assimilating (Morganthau and Wolfberg, par.18). .America is beginning to place a negative outlook on its culture. Authors Jack Shaheen, Richard Rodriguez, Peter Marin and Zora Neale Hurtson all shape American culture in a detrimental way.
In conclusion, Canada was influenced throughout the 1920's by America, that by 1929 Canada became very similar to America in social trends, economics and produce. But has this stopped in modern day era? Canada continues to be heavily influenced by the amount of American products and media outpouring into Canada. Canada has made attempts throughout time to impede the onslaught of American invasion but American invasion is seen on a huge global scale. Hit movies, tv shows, products among others are generally based on American culture, views, or based within American domain. It is a reign yet to be stopped.
The main context of all three sources relate to nationalism. In source 1, Quebec wants to gain sovereignty in order to achieve ethnic nationalism. While the context in source 2 relates to narrow civic nationalism, since Harper concentrates that Canada is not a bilingual country. Source 3 demonstrates general nationalism, as the Aboriginals feel a sense of belonging to Canadians, because they lost their land too. Although all three sources do not express the same type of nationalism, the general meaning shown through the source connects with nationalism. The type of nationalism shown in sources 1 and 2 are similar; both show a type of civic nationalism. In Source 1, general civic nationalism can reflect from Canada’s side of the source, because
The two ideologies that dominate America are Liberalism and Conservatives. The Republican Party known as right wing are conservative, while the Democrats are the left wings known as Liberal. To start off the Liberals and Conservatives have different opinions on things, Conservatives tend to be traditional, they focus more on the economy, limited government, while Liberals focus more on equality and freedom, they also protect human rights and believe that their leader should mostly help the people. In my opinion the Liberals are more open minded they believe abortion should be legal because mistakes happen, they believe gays should be treated like a normal human bean with the same rights, they do believe that the death penalty isn't correct
Many people might have a diverse opinion on the extend of the American cultural influence on Canada, but the truth is, these two countries share a long common border, they use frequently the same language, they watch the same movies, listen to the same music and collaborate on other numerous levels, including economic and political activity. In this paper, I would like to show the extent of the influence on Canadian popular culture that comes from the United States. For my analysis I have chosen four segments of popular culture: television, printed media, music and films. In these are the main sectors where we can see the biggest evidence of this phenomenon. In the first part I would like to shortly introduce the history of this issue. The second part is the analysis of the four sectors.
Canada and the United states while closely related also have many differences. Today we will be covering the differences in their governments and Regional divisions. The distinction between their languages. And the diversity between holidays. You can think of Canada and the United states as siblings. While they are very similar they have their differences.
Hispanic American students are stuck with the stereotype that they have the tendencies to be emotionally troubled and violent and may be slow learners, which is often associated with the frustrations of being English language learners. They often live in inner city areas where schools are staffed with teachers that lack experience or lack funds to upgrade to materials that are current and up-to-date.
“ Canada 's national obsession seems to be its own identity.” For many years Canada has feared the increasing influence of its North American neighbors on its culture - the United States . It has become a matter of growing concern for the people of power and influence in Canada to maintain their separate cultural identity and to promote their own cultural norms. Gaetan Tremblay presents his views on this topic and does this from the perspective of a person living and working in Quebec.
Canadians have come along way in their culture and identity. Canadians have participated in multiple wars and battles that have shaped our country and the people that live in this country. But it’s not just the violence what shaped our country but the people and traditions that originated outside of Canada and was brought here. European, British and French cultures and tradition have all influenced Canada’s culture and identity. (Blattberg, C. 13, January 02). Immigrants from all over the world have in the passed contributed to the way we view Canada and because of that we live in a safe, mosaic, multicultural country. (Blattberg, C. 13, January 02).There have also been the First Nations people who started Canada’s good reputation and because of them we have accomplished everything that we have done today. (Blattberg, C. 13, January 02).
Canada. The typical stereotype: kind, considerate, always saying sorry. Everyone of every size, shape, and color seem to inhabit one part or another in Canada. The question really is how they got there. Granted, the stereotype didn't always apply to Canada. At points, Canada wasn't all smiles and rainbows. Rather, violent periods of cultural crashing occurred in the country that were hidden in plain sight via specific literary devices such as imagery, conflict, and irony. These same devices were used to convey more mild blending of cultures as well. This blending of cultures eventually became a prominent theme in Canadian writing.