stevenpiziks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stevenpiziks) wrote2012-02-26 02:01 pm
stevenpiziks) wrote2012-02-26 02:01 pm
Hollywood vs. the Midwest
It does get tiring watching Hollywood portray the Midwest. A thousand years from now, archaeologists will watch movies from this time period and get completely the wrong impression about the middle of America.
As just one example, I was watching SMASH yesterday. Katharine, one of the main characters, goes home from New York to visit her family in Iowa. When she got there, I alternated between cringing and outrage.
Katharine, who states several times in the show that she's a Midwesterner, is struggling to escape the horrors of the Midwest, you see. And here we see why. Her hometown reeks of stereotyped hick-dom.
--Katharine's mother spends a great deal of time trying to convince her that she should move "back home" and get married. Because, you know, that's what Midwestern moms demand of their daughters.
--The reason Katharine comes home is to attend a friend's baby shower. (And how the hell, by the way, can a coffee shop waitress afford to travel halfway across the country to attend a freakin' BABY SHOWER?) When she arrives, her friends all squeal like high school girls and swarm all over her, demanding to know what the big city is like. Because, you know, there are no big cities in the Midwest.
--At said baby shower, the pregnant friend remarks to Katharine how nice it is to have a husband "take care of you." "You should try it," the friend says. Because, you know, having a man take care of you is what makes Midwestern women happy.
--During her visit, Katharine stays at her parents' house. Her father has some unstated office job and her mother seems to have no career at all. Their two kids are grown and gone. Despite all this, they live in a huge, three-story Victorian farmhouse in the middle of a cornfield. (Yeah--a family of four on a mid-level executive's salary buys a mansion. And what the hell is the cornfield for?) Because, you know, that's how all Midwesterners live.
--At the baby shower, the girls (they don't act like women) beg Katharine to sing karaoke for them. She claps on a cowboy hat, bounces up to the stage, and sings a twangy country piece of awfulness titled "I'm a Redneck Girl" while her friends howl "Yeeha!" Because, you know, that's the kind of music all Midwesterners love and how all Midwesterners react to such music.
--Just when Katharine is about to break down and cry at all the awfulness of the Midwest that has surrounded her, Daddy encourages her to stay in New York to follow her theater dream and gives her a check to tide her over. Because, you know, no Midwestern dad would do such a thing, which makes this is a stunning Hollywood plot twist.
It's not just SMASH. THE BIG BANG THEORY, one of my favorite shows, is guilty of the same thing. Penny comes from Nebraska, and the show consistently portrays Nebraska as a place filled with people who live in trailers, get pregnant in the back of pickup trucks, cook meth to pay the bills, and are stupid enough to pour manure into gas tanks to create alternative fuel. When Penny returns from a visit back home, Sheldon shuns her because she mentions one of her relatives was sick. Eventually, she does give him the flu despite his best efforts to avoid it--Nebraska even carries disease. Penny herself is the only person on the show of average intelligence, and she's also the only Midwesterner. Meanwhile, not ONE genius on the show comes from the middle of the country. They come from the east coast or the west coast. Sheldon comes from Texas--the south.
Other shows do the same thing. Yeah, there are some exceptions, but the overall picture Hollywood portrays of the Midwest is a place peppered with uncultured, backwoods hicks, and the rare smart or ambitious ones can't wait to escape to a coastline.
Wake up, Hollywood! The Midwest is more than than flyover country, more than hickdom. We have more than our share of intelligent, cultured people. And just as one example, may I point out that the Midwestern accent (specifically the Great Lakes American accent) is the one considered closest to proper American English? And the New York and New Jersey accents is considered harsh and the California accent is considered elongated and lazy? National newscasters and actors strive to speak =our= dialect even while they ridicule our part of the country. How weird is that?
Come on, Hollywood. You can do better.
As just one example, I was watching SMASH yesterday. Katharine, one of the main characters, goes home from New York to visit her family in Iowa. When she got there, I alternated between cringing and outrage.
Katharine, who states several times in the show that she's a Midwesterner, is struggling to escape the horrors of the Midwest, you see. And here we see why. Her hometown reeks of stereotyped hick-dom.
--Katharine's mother spends a great deal of time trying to convince her that she should move "back home" and get married. Because, you know, that's what Midwestern moms demand of their daughters.
--The reason Katharine comes home is to attend a friend's baby shower. (And how the hell, by the way, can a coffee shop waitress afford to travel halfway across the country to attend a freakin' BABY SHOWER?) When she arrives, her friends all squeal like high school girls and swarm all over her, demanding to know what the big city is like. Because, you know, there are no big cities in the Midwest.
--At said baby shower, the pregnant friend remarks to Katharine how nice it is to have a husband "take care of you." "You should try it," the friend says. Because, you know, having a man take care of you is what makes Midwestern women happy.
--During her visit, Katharine stays at her parents' house. Her father has some unstated office job and her mother seems to have no career at all. Their two kids are grown and gone. Despite all this, they live in a huge, three-story Victorian farmhouse in the middle of a cornfield. (Yeah--a family of four on a mid-level executive's salary buys a mansion. And what the hell is the cornfield for?) Because, you know, that's how all Midwesterners live.
--At the baby shower, the girls (they don't act like women) beg Katharine to sing karaoke for them. She claps on a cowboy hat, bounces up to the stage, and sings a twangy country piece of awfulness titled "I'm a Redneck Girl" while her friends howl "Yeeha!" Because, you know, that's the kind of music all Midwesterners love and how all Midwesterners react to such music.
--Just when Katharine is about to break down and cry at all the awfulness of the Midwest that has surrounded her, Daddy encourages her to stay in New York to follow her theater dream and gives her a check to tide her over. Because, you know, no Midwestern dad would do such a thing, which makes this is a stunning Hollywood plot twist.
It's not just SMASH. THE BIG BANG THEORY, one of my favorite shows, is guilty of the same thing. Penny comes from Nebraska, and the show consistently portrays Nebraska as a place filled with people who live in trailers, get pregnant in the back of pickup trucks, cook meth to pay the bills, and are stupid enough to pour manure into gas tanks to create alternative fuel. When Penny returns from a visit back home, Sheldon shuns her because she mentions one of her relatives was sick. Eventually, she does give him the flu despite his best efforts to avoid it--Nebraska even carries disease. Penny herself is the only person on the show of average intelligence, and she's also the only Midwesterner. Meanwhile, not ONE genius on the show comes from the middle of the country. They come from the east coast or the west coast. Sheldon comes from Texas--the south.
Other shows do the same thing. Yeah, there are some exceptions, but the overall picture Hollywood portrays of the Midwest is a place peppered with uncultured, backwoods hicks, and the rare smart or ambitious ones can't wait to escape to a coastline.
Wake up, Hollywood! The Midwest is more than than flyover country, more than hickdom. We have more than our share of intelligent, cultured people. And just as one example, may I point out that the Midwestern accent (specifically the Great Lakes American accent) is the one considered closest to proper American English? And the New York and New Jersey accents is considered harsh and the California accent is considered elongated and lazy? National newscasters and actors strive to speak =our= dialect even while they ridicule our part of the country. How weird is that?
Come on, Hollywood. You can do better.