Geography-related Questions 61-70

THE QUESTION:
G70: I am going to the Dominican Republic this summer and would like to know a little more about the culture, religion, food, currency and anything else you could tell me.
POSTED FEB. 16, 1999
14, non-denominational <Provokesgirl@yahoo.com>, St. Louis, MO
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THE QUESTION:
G69: Why, exactly, do most American women feel it necessary to shave their armpits?
POSTED FEB. 15, 1999
B.K., 20, Baltimore , MD

ANSWER 1:
I was taught by my peers as a teenager that unshaved armpits (or legs) are gross, unsexy, unfeminine and a sign of being a dead beat (I think the last was an anti-hippie sentiment). Though I gave up on shaving my legs years ago, I still shave my armpits every month or so – the hair seems to make it harder to keep them clean, and while I don’t mind getting stinky and sweaty, I do like to be able to wash it off.
POSTED FEB. 16, 1999
Catherine H., 25, female <tylik@eskimo.com>, Woodinville, WA

FURTHER NOTICE:
The main reason is that it’s what fashion dictates. There may be some, but I’ve never seen a supermodel with hairy armpits. Secondly, and this is only a personal observation, I feel cleaner with my underarms shaved. And my legs, too, for what it’s worth.
POSTED FEB. 16, 1999
Jen, white female, 28, Detroit, MI

FURTHER NOTICE 2:
Because Coco Chanel announced in the ’20s that shaving was de riguer. As Americans tend to take their fashion sense from Europe, the custom stuck. It’s ironic that nowadays many European women don’t shave.
POSTED FEB. 23, 1999
Emma, female, Los Angeles, CA
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THE QUESTION:
G68: A while back I moved from a Miami suburb to the Boston area for college. People here seem less inclined to greet one another on the street and less courteous in general. Does anyone have an explanation for this, which many others have noted as well?
POSTED JAN. 20, 1999
Alex, 18, white male <purdy@fas.harvard.edu>, Cambridge, MA

ANSWER 1:
It is not so much that people are less courteous in the Northeast, but that things are quite a bit faster paced. Boston has been called “The fastest city in the country” by USA Magazine, and not without reason. If you can get the average Bostonian to stop and chat with you, you will find they are the same as anyone else. Granted, we of the Northeast tend to be more brusque and hurried, but we’re really not that bad.
POSTED APRIL 16, 1999
Marc, 18, male, college student and Massachusetts native <MDeScham@lynx.neu.edu>, Boston, MA
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THE QUESTION:
G67: Is it true that Polish women give strength to their family when they get married? In which ways do they, if this is true? What does an average Polish man expect from the marriage and from his wife? Is there an open communication between wife and husband in Poland?
POSTED JAN. 14, 1999
Lidia, female <lidia_morales@mailcity.com>, Guadalajara, Mexico
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THE QUESTION:
G66: Do people living in the South have more racist attitudes than people living in the North?
POSTED JAN. 14, 1999
Nicole, 21, white female <ngebhart@hotmail.com>, NJ

ANSWER 1:
As a white female raised by well-educated parents who are both native to Birmingham, I never heard a racial slur in my house while growing up. I never had reason to fear or hate black people, though there were neighbors who took exception to my brother’s best friend being black. Now, still living in Birmingham, my roommate (white, from Wisconsin) is dating a great guy who’s from here who is black. Although I am not inclined to date black men myself, I love Reggie as a dear friend and enjoy spending time with him. In all the time they’ve dated (well over a year) they’ve encountered no hostility and precious few awkward glances from strangers. Sure, I know people with prejudices, but they live all over the country. I do find my rural friends are more inclined to react badly to black people, but I think that is a function of their lack of exposure to them. So I guess my answer, from my own narrow exposure, is that although we are often portrayed as fearful, narrow, Bible-thumping conservative teetotalers, I would not buy into that stereotype if I were you.
POSTED JAN. 18, 1999
KR., Southern born and bred, single white female, 28 <kathryner@ehsmed.com>, Birmingham, AL

FURTHER NOTICE:
I doubt if people in the South are more racist than people in the North. Those Southerners who are racist just happen to be more open about it. I believe I experienced a lot more racism in Boston than in all the places I have been to in America. Maybe that’s because I know where not to hang out in the South.
POSTED JAN. 18, 1999
Donna, black female, originally from South Carolina <djg73@hotmail.com>, Los Angeles , CA

FURTHER NOTICE 2:
I don’t know that there is a blanket answer for that question. I am a white Southern male. I grew up around some rather racist people. I also grew up around people who thought everyone should be treated with respect and dignity. When I was in the military I was around some non-Southern white people who were more bigoted than anyone I ever knew when I was a child. I also knew liberal non-Southern whites who assumed because I was a white Southerner I had to be a member of the Klan. Talk about pre-judging someone. There is no definitive answer.
POSTED JAN. 18, 1999
Jas, white Southern male, Norcross, Ga

FURTHER NOTICE 3:
We are a mixed race couple who moved five years ago from Berkeley, Calif., to Florida’s “Redneck Riviera.” My husband, who is African American, says racists are simply less subtle in the South. He says employment and police discrimination are less here than in California. And I have to admit the LAPD hassled him much more than any Southern sheriff ever has. But as a white person,I hear a lot more blatantly racist conversation than I did “up North,” which he doesn’t hear. Part of it seems to be things they consider “Southern” that I consider racist, like Confederate flags and Civil War reenactments. They don’t seem to want to take responsibility for the way their symbols are interpreted by people of color. My husband, who has more experience with Southern white folks, says they are more used to being around blacks than Northerners and that although they have stereotypes, they don’t have that Northern liberal paranoia. I, on the other hand, find the South vaguely discomfiting, and I have yet to meet any white person born and bred here who has not, when push comes to shove,made it clear that white is right.
POSTED JAN. 18, 1999
Lori, 39, white female, Fort Myers, FL

FURTHER NOTICE 4:
I would have to say that they do. I have lived most of my life in the North, but I lived in southwest Virginia for six years. Even though that area of the country is not very far into the South, there were quite a lot of white people in the area who were violently racist. They were also very unfriendly toward white people who did not share their views. In general, people in the South were very hospitable when in your presence, but they would do anything possible to undermine you when you were not looking. This attitude eventually led me to move back to the North, where people may be more up front with their prejudices, but at least they are not hiding anything.
POSTED JAN. 18, 1999
John K., 25, male <the-macs@geocities.com>, Cranford, NJ

FURTHER NOTICE 5:
I feel qualified to offer some insight here because I was born and raised in Astoria (Queens), New York (that’s “Archie Bunker’s” neighborhood), and have lived in Texas for more than 10 years. I will not pretend that either the North or the South is a paradise for blacks, or that race relations are ideal in either region. However, the nature and scope of racism differs from place to place. In my opinion, if racism is measured by how often racial slurs and epithets are used, I would say that blue-collar New Yorkers are far more prejudiced and bigoted than anyone I have encountered in Texas. If racism is measured by how much intermingling of the races one sees, again, I would say there is far more interracial mingling and socializing in Texas than in the North. On the other hand, where hiring and school admissions are concerned, I think blacks get a fairer deal in the North. This may be an oversimplification, but my feeling is that people are less racist in the South, while laws and institutions are less racist in the North.
POSTED JAN. 18, 1999
Astorian, white male, 37 <Astorian@aol.com>, Austin, TX

FURTHER NOTICE 6:
My answer, having lived in both places, would be no. However, I think Southerners are quite a bit more open about expressing whatever racist views they have. Northerners are just as bigoted, I think, but are more careful about how they express it. In any case, actions speak louder than words – do you think minorities are in a substantially better position in the North? I don’t. Just as in the South, Northern minorities are more likely than whites to be murdered, not hired for jobs, live in depressed neighborhoods, etc.
POSTED JAN. 18, 1999
Andrew, 35, white, former Louisiana resident <ziptron@start.com.au>, Huntington , NY

FURTHER NOTICE 7:
I was born and raised in the North, and lived in the South as an adult for more than seven years, and my experience with Southerners during this time showed them to be much more open-minded and honest than the Northerners I grew up with. In the South, if someone has a racist attitude, they have the backbone to state that, and why, thereby giving one a clear point of reference to work from. In the North, racists will smile in your face, and spit after you as you walk away, wipe their hand after you shake it (after they offered it to you), etc. They try to present themselves as being open-minded, but their actions give them away. Many times in the South, I worked with people who stated they did not particularly care to work with, or be around black people, and knowing their true thoughts made it easier to work with them. In the North, however, people will smile in your face, act pleasantly and then undermine you the minute they get a chance – instead of being up front with how they really feel, so that you can deal with them accordingly. It’s worth noting that a few of the Southerners who stated they did not care to be around blacks made sincere attempts to try to find out why they felt this way; I can’t imagine any of the racist Northerners I know to have enough gumption to do this. If it weren’t for the fact that I have older parents who need me here, I would move back South in a heartbeat.
POSTED JAN. 18, 1999
G. Long, 37, black female <gelong@usa.net>, Chicago, IL

FURTHER NOTICE 8:
Northerners tend to feel superior to Southerners in terms of not being racist. However, it’s not justified. I see an analogy to family life where there has been some divisive development. The South has had some ugly “family arguments” since 1960, but much of the air was cleared and people are more open to discussing the matter. Northerners are smug because they didn’t have the arguments (soldiers in school doors, etc.), but it just means there are a lot of unspoken grudges under the surface. For example, Massachusetts is a very liberal state (Ted Kennedy, Barney Frank), but go to Fenway Park in Boston and see if you can find one black in a crowd of 30,000. It is a highly segregated city.
POSTED JAN. 19, 1999
B. Hale, Northerner <halehart@aol.com>, Hartford, CT

FURTHER NOTICE 9:
My high school teacher (a Southern white male probably not offended to be called a redneck) said Northerners are more likely to accept black people (for example) as a group but not individually, i.e. “They’re OK, but I wouldn’t have them to dinner.” Southerners, on the other hand, are likely to accept black people individually but not as a group, i.e. “Old Roscoe is a decent fellow, but the rest of them …”
POSTED MARCH 16, 1999
Kevin, male <jones@ecel.ufl.edu>, FL
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THE QUESTION:
G65: For television, movie and screen writers: Why are less-intelligent characters always portrayed as Southerners? Why is there a perception that Southerners aren’t as “smart” as people from other geographical areas? Do you really believe that more “laid back” translates into “not as bright”? Would you be willing to spend some time with us to learn more about our lifestyle, our beliefs and way of living before you write the next character into a “Southern” role? Deliverance wasn’t a documentary.
POSTED JAN. 7, 1999
Curtis J., 40 white Southern male, NC
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THE QUESTION:
G64: To Australians: What is your opinion of Pauline Hanson?
POSTED DEC. 30, 1998
Jackie, 40, female, Japanese/American <vegemate@yahoo.com>, Chicago, IL

ANSWER 1:
Australia’s perception of Pauline Hanson seems to mostly be disgust – easily seen when she was voted out of her electorate, her “One Nation” stronghold. Her nationalist policies cut against the grain of multiculturalism in Australia, yet paradoxically fit in with the Australian image of either the blond-haired, blue-eyed tanned surfie, or the rugged countryman. Her opinions most certainly do not represent anything of Australia – the school I attend is very diverse in ethnic backgrounds – and practically everyone has been “assimilated” into the Australian way of living. I think Australians will heave a sigh of relief when Pauline finally sinks into obscurity. It has adversely affected our image – especially when it’s considered “un-Australian” to be unaccepting of new experiences and new “mates.”
POSTED FEB. 19, 1999
Alex V., 17, white Australian male <yasha@zip.com.au>, Sydney, Australia

FURTHER NOTICE:
If your question relates to the perception of Hanson as anti-Asian (or pro Anglo-Celtic), then the answer is that there isn’t much sympathy. Australians understand both the advantages as well as the adjustments brought by diversity. Some cope less well than others. The political machine that uses Hanson as its masthead adroitly weaves the insecurities of a range of groups, especially rural communities coping inadequately with economic change, into a not particularly coherent coalition that (on a good day) can attract electoral support in the range of 8 to 10 percent. That level of support is transient, heavily dependent on the declining relevance of a major, rural-based party, and will eventually bind itself to some other mainstream cause. In the meantime, a party that professes sympathy for just about anyone who is unhappy about anything is bound to attract interest. Interestingly, the demographics indicate that support for Hanson is strongest among middle-aged males. And, while more than 90 percent of Australians neither agree with nor support Hanson, they rather like a phenomenon that signals to mainstream political parties that the electorate can’t be taken for granted.
POSTED MARCH 30, 1999
Peter M., 40, white, male, Canberra, Australia
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THE QUESTION:
G63: What are the politics of Zambia in southern Africa? Specifically, does anyone know its position on current events related to the conflict in the Persian Gulf?
POSTED DEC. 27, 1998
Frattaruolo B., <BFRATTARUOLO@HOTMAIL.COM>, Turin, Italy
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THE QUESTION:
G62: Why does it seem that the French hate Americans so much?
POSTED DEC. 21, 1998
J.P.P., 28, MI

ANSWER 1:
Some reasons I’ve heard of (not only in France but also in my country): 1) They envy the United States for its power in foreign affairs. Especially in France, where people still believe in “la grande nation,” it is unpleasant for them to see that the United States plays a greater role in international relations. 2.) People become angry because American people are not as interested in their country as they are in the United States. For example, I felt a little angry when an American teenager asked me if there was a moon in Germany (no fun). 3) Some (especially older) people feel threatened by the American culture that is assimilated by their own country. This is more important in countries with a strong national self-esteem like France.
POSTED FEB. 5, 1999
Phil, 19, male, Germany <pmal42qgmx.net>
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THE QUESTION:
G61: Why do people think that people in the Midwest of the United States are all boring, uncultured idiots?
POSTED DEC. 18, 1998
B., 28, white male, Minneapolis, MN

ANSWER 1:
I grew up in New Jersey and have lived in the Midwest the past seven years. In my experience, Midwesterners aren’t particularly boring or uncultured. However, I find many white people here in Minneapolis terribly naive and awkward when it comes to people who are not white. I’ll never forget meeting a young suburban man who, upon hearing I was headed to a Hanukkah party, proclaimed: “Oh! I know someone else who’s Jewish, too!” I’ll never forget an acquaintance who casually infomed me that he moved to Maple Grove because it has the lowest minority population of all the suburbs. I like Minneapolis, but I miss the diversity of the East Coast, and I’m sick of suburban hicks who think that anyone different from them is exotic.
POSTED DEC. 21, 1998
Rhiannon, 28, white Jewish pseudo-Midwestern female <rock0048@tc.umn.edu>, Minneapolis, MN (for now)

FURTHER NOTICE:
I am from the Midwest and now live in Buffalo. Look at how the Midwest is portrayed in the media, TV shows, movies, and in general. That is where people get their ideas if they have never been there. Also, while traveling through these parts to go down South, my husband and I have encountered many people who are not open to a cultural mix. Not all people believe this, but people without any experience from the real world are not open to change. Let’s face it, we are all creatures of habit, and not many of us adjust to change and new ideas very well.
POSTED DEC. 21, 1998
Babs <Babs127@aol.com>, Buffalo, NY

FURTHER NOTICE 2:
I am from Minnesota, and while serving in the Marine Corps I was stationed in Virginia and really loved that state, but the people thought that we closed down the state during the winter months. They truly wondered how we got from point A to point B without dying from the bitter cold. And many of them thought Minnesota was either over there by Montana or east of Michigan. Don’t get me wrong, I really thought the people and culture of Virginia were wonderful and kind. It is just that those I met didn’t travel much farther than the western border of their own state.
POSTED DEC. 21, 1998
34, male, <gjmurd@willmar.com>, MN

FURTHER NOTICE 3:
I don’t think they all are, but I think there’s less divergence from the norm there, and less tolerance for being outside the norm. This may sound terribly elitist, but here are some things I’ve had a lot of trouble finding every time I’ve ventured into our nation’s middle: Excellent ethnic restaurants. Unusual book stores. Theaters specializing in foreign and/or independent films. Neighborhoods full of art galleries (not just one or two). Decent coffee. Good radio. I’m sure all these things exist in some parts of the Midwest, but when I’ve lived on the east and west coasts and in New Orleans, I had all of those things at my fingertips.
POSTED DEC. 21, 1998
Andrew, 35, tri-coastal (East, West and Gulf) <ziptron@start.com.au>, Huntington, NY

FURTHER NOTICE 4:
I lived in the Midwest (Kansas and Missouri) for more than 15 years and was happy to return to the Northwest recently. The Midwest is quite bland. Sorry if that offends. In religious, moral and racial terms, I fit in with most Midwesterners, yet I still find them boring. There is too much willingness among Midwesterners to accept and even celebrate the status quo, rather than seeking anything new or perhaps better. I can’t tell you how many Midwesterners I know who have never lived more than 30 miles from where they live now. I realize that builds stability in a community, but it does lend a very limited worldview as well. The tendency to be absorbed by country music, rodeos, trucks, hunting, guns and the like doesn’t allow much room for discussions of things that happen outside the area, and in fact, most of the news reporting in the Midwest is along the lines of “A huge earthquake rocked Southern California today. We’ll tell you how it’s affecting Wichitans.” The Midwest is a white-bread world, and that gets incredibly boring when you can’t even look out the window and be diverted.
POSTED FEB. 17, 1999
Cathy, 29, female <gwalchmai@tenforward.com>, WA

FURTHER NOTICE 5:
To me, the Midwest has a culture of its own. Like other cultures, it is stereotyped and exaggerated by individuals, such as in the previous posting. One can just as easily say of the Northwest that “alternative music” and coffee shops/Internet companies are the dominant theme there. If you don’t like those types of things, maybe you won’t like the Northwest. Of course, there are a whole lot of white hillbillies in Washington and Idaho, and I’ve never heard Oregon described as a bastion of racial diversity. Basically, some people don’t like country music, hunting, guns or farmers. That’s fine, because there are plenty of other places to live in this big old world. And to quote a Kris Kristopherson song, “If you don’t like Hank Williams/ you can kiss my a–”
POSTED FEB. 18, 1999
B., white male, 23, Kokomo , IN

FURTHER NOTICE 6:
I am a native Minnesotan and have lived in many different cities, most recently in San Antonio. I think it is naive to say the Midwest is without culture. Chicago is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the country. Minneapolis has some of the finest art museums in the nation, and an excellent symphony orchestra. Compared to South Texas and other areas with significant populations of non-Anglos, however, Minnesota always struck me as too homogenous. Growing up as a child, I did not meet a non-Anglo until I was about 14. I always find myself wondering what I would have been like had I stayed in that world. I am glad I moved out and experienced a variety of cultures and points of view. I am glad my children have that opportunity at an early age. They think nothing of the fact that others are different. They will never be able to mark the time when they first met someone of a different race.
POSTED FEB. 18, 1999
Jeff, male <jbermel@aol.com>, San Antonio , TX

FURTHER NOTICE 7:
I live in Minneapolis and don’t find it boring or bland. Minneapolis may not be as culturally diverse as Chicago, but I don’t think it could be considered homogenous, either. Rap, alternative, pop and dance music are much more popular than country music, and the idea of going to a tractor pull would be ridiculous to anyone I know. The music scene here has produced groups such as Soul Asylum, Prince and Johnny Lang. Janet Jackson comes here to work with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Walking down any street in Minneapolis you can find stores owned, operated and catering to Chinese, Somolian, Cuban, Japanese, Mexican and every other culture you could think of. We have world-renowed medical centers and art museums people come from all over the world to see. This diversity may not be true of the whole Midwest, but it is here.
POSTED MARCH 26, 1999
Becki, 17, white female <beckione@netscape.net>, Minneapolis , MN
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