Ignorance, a two-way street

After last week's post, I was really curious about the other side of this issue of stereotyping. People are more likely ignorant than informed, so I figured there had to be equally as inaccurate stereotypes regarding Americans. With the help of the same PBS article, and an assortment of political cartoons and blogs, I've chosen five common misconceptions to address that the rest of the world may hold about Americans.

1. All Americans are rich. I feel as though this is a stereotype that people internalize, but with a little bit of thought they know it cannot logically be true. In fact, about 15% of Americans live in poverty, but that isn't the image we try and project to the world at large because that is not part of the "American dream". The TV shows we send abroad tend to focus more on the glamorous Hollywood side of things, which fuels more negative stereotypes.
2. American women are promiscuous. Again, thank you Hollywood. This misconception seriously struck me though, because I think women are highly sexualized in American, there are many Americans who would say the same of European women. I know among my high school we would venture to make that judgement given our experiences with exchange students. European teens just seem so much more wild than us. They can drink and go to night clubs, while we have curfews until we are 18. I found it ironic that the country founded on Puritanical values now has a worldwide reputation for promiscuity.
3. Americans are hypocrites. This stereotypes has validity in regards to the American government though. Obviously when we say we stand for freedom, but prop up dictators, we are labeled as hypocrites. Take for example our part in the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat, or even our involvement in Iraq can be seen with some hypocrisy. Although we do the same, projecting the actions of a government onto the population of a country, we all need to keep in mind that there are always people who opposed the government and no one idea or belief is shared by everyone in a country.
4. Americans are lazy. This probably stems from the fact that one-third of Americans are obese, but I actually find this stereotype ironic because there is also the impression that Americans are always busy and always working. I keep playing with the idea of how you can be both lazy and incredibly over-scheduled?
5. Americans are stupid. Well my appologies President Bush, but you didn't help us out much there. As an American who does not consider herself to be particularly stupid, this is one of the most offensive stereotypes to me. And here is a study, that is cited in the book Stupid White Men that made me feel better about my fellow Americans, turns out we are not alone in our stupidity...

89% of Canadians couldn't locate Iraq on a map, a higher "ignorance rate" than that of the United States.
81% of Canadians couldn't locate Israel on a map
5% of Canadians couldn't locate Canada on a map
90% of Britons couldn't locate Iraq on a map, again a worse figure than that of the US
21% of Britons couldn't locate the USA on a map
7% of Britons couldn't locate the England on a map
Swedes scored highest in the poll -- but even there 70% couldn't find Iraq

How Americans Perceive the Middle East

In my English class we are learning about the Middle East and have taken a couple of days to address common misconceptions about the area. I was struck by how prevalent these misconceptions were and how I was tempted to accept some of them as fact. I will address the five that were the most striking to me. It's incredible how wrong our perceptions can be.

1. All Arabs are Muslim and vice versa. Actually, most of the world's Muslims live in South East Asia in countries like Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Click here for a map of the world's Muslim population. A minority of all Muslims are Arab, and not all Arabs are Muslim. There is a sizable Christian population in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon. There are also Zoroastrians and Baha'i followers, although most of them are in Iran and Iranians are not Arab, they are Persian, which is a whole new misconception.
2. Islam is a violent religion. "Islam" itself literally means "peace and submission to God", and every chapter of the Quran (the holy text of Islam) begins with, "In the name of God the Merciful and Compassionate". That was about all the convincing I needed to prove that the religion itself isn't violent, but instead a small minorities interpretation of the scripture is violent.
3. Islam is oppressive towards women. Again we are confusing the culture of some Muslim societies with the religion of Islam. Just like there are conservative Americans who argue that women should "stay in the kitchen", there are conservative Muslims that believe in a domestic and restricted role for women. The difference is that in America, those who advocate fewer women's rights are not in power whereas the Taliban of Afghanistan, the Al Saud family of Saudi Arabia, and Islamic Republic Party in Iran are actually in power.
4. The Middle East is one big sandy desert with lots of camels, populated by... men in turbans and long white robes... women in black with their faces covered... men waving long curved swords... harems with scantily clad women serving one man... husbands with four wives... rich oil sheikhs... and terrorists. I borrowed this from a PBS article because I believed it captured exactly how most Americans perceive the "Middle East". I don't think many people understand that the Sahara is in fact in Northern Africa, other than that the Arabian peninsula has deserts, but Iraq and Afghanistan are mountainous. Also turbans are not exclusive to Islam, Sikh men also wear turbans, and the harems and swords are reminiscent of Aladdin. Here again, most of Americans' knowledge of international culture comes from Disney movies.
5. The veils are a sign of oppression, and all veils are burqas. First of all, there many different styles of veils ranging from just a head scarf or hijab, to the ultraconservative burqa which is extremely rare. Click here for an illustration of the different styles. Although we've adopted the word burqa, it is the most uncommon form of veiling. Even in Saudi Arabia, one of the most conservative Islamic states the burqa is uncommon. Secondly, the veils are not always a sign of oppression. Many women feel freer while wearing a veil because they are free from unwanted male attention; they feel less likely to be sexualized and viewed as an object while veiled. Some Muslim women also believe that women in the West are more oppressed for this same reason. Because we are so sexualized, they view that as just as much oppression, the same way we view the veil as oppression. These opposing view points really interested me because I had never imagine wearing a veil as freedom, but then I thought about how nice it would be to avoid unwanted attention...

Another great resource, click here to read Ruben Navarrette, a Muslim and Chicago native, debunk more myths and stereotypes about Islam and Muslims.