Task- stereotypes and TV dramas examples for regional identity

•    Scottish

Scotland is a nation with a big personality, they proudly display their heritage and preferences to outsiders this is why they are an easy candidate to build stereotypes upon. Many of their stereotypes include the clothing they were which usually consists of tartan patterns in red and green colors and kilts. These are outfits known to be worn by Scottish ancestors for centuries and of course there is the adjacent tradition that underwear is simply not in the question, whatever the temperature. The obvious foods that a stereotypical scot would eat would mainly include haggis (a meat made from sheep’s stomach and various other types of offal) and a wide variety of hearty foods like curries and vast amounts of seafood, washing it all down with 1 or 10 pints of beer. There are also, because of this large quantity of food and drink consumption, stereotypically seen as overweight and sometimes rude or abrupt. Their appearance is seen to also be very stereotypical; they are often represented in different types of media as red haired, pale, freckled, overweight men; which is obviously not 100% correct.

•    Liverpool

Liverpool and Liverpudlians have been stereotyped and Ostracised by middle and upper class inhabitants of London, South east England and much of leafy suburban and comfortable middle England for years as being thieves, violent, uneducated, uncultured and hopeless. This is partly down to right wing conservative ideologies combined with a contempt for the working class. As a result any media generalisations and stereotypes over the past 50 or so years portraying Merseyside and her people have been derogatory, demeaning and belittling to the denizens of Liverpool and its Environs. They are seen as fairly confident people that are not to shy away from conflict but are also friendly and willing to have a chat with anyone. Lots of liverpudlian women are stereotyped to wear very fake accessories, lots of make-up and dress up for every occasion no matter how overdressed they may seem

•    Newcastle

The stereotypical Geordie is drunk, brawling, red-haired, red-faced, and loud! Dressed in their Newcastle football kit, they trawl from pub to pub talking gibberish and getting drunk on Newcastle Brown Ale which they buy with their unemployment money. It's one of the ugliest stereotypes we have for the people of the UK, and one of most unfounded. A 'Geordie' is a person from Newcastle, UK. They have been named the nicest in Britain. Famous people such as Cheryl Cole and Joe McElderry are Geordies. Not all people from Newcastle have strong accents, there is a stereotype of Geordies that they are rough, common slobs who nest in council houses and suckle on 'Newcastle Brown Ale' and 'Guinness' all day. They are also seen as a region that is extremely well known for underage pregnancies and the tendency for people to have an abundance of children dressed in tracksuits and uneducated.

•    Yorkshire

The Yorkshire dialect and accent is distinctive, although use of dialect words is receding. The most common stereotype of a Yorkshire person is as tight with money: there is a British saying that "a Yorkshireman is a Scotsman with all the generosity squeezed out of him", which references how Scots are also stereotyped as being tight but not as tight as Yorkshire folk. Yorkshire people are often stereotyped as friendly but "bloody-minded", stubborn (also known as "Yorkshire-stubborn") and argumentative. Indeed throughout the history of the area, going back to the time of the tribal Brigantes, through the Norman period and the Wars of the Roses, the region has seen a number of rebellions against non-Yorkshire or non-Northern rulers. It is this stereotype which is referred to in the saying 'You can always tell a Yorkshireman, but you can't tell him much'. One social stereotype of a Yorkshireman had a tendency to include such accessories as a flat cap and a whippet; this alludes to rural life. The cuisine of Yorkshire and that of Northern England in general is known for its rich ingredients, especially in sweet dishes. Foods that are commonly associated with the Yorkshire region include: Yorkshire puddings, potatoes, Wensleydale cheese and gingerbread!below is a picture of Zac dingle from emmerdale farm, he shows the idea of the typical farmer, he has a broad accent and is a fairly stubborn character which links to the points I made above.

•    Birmingham

A study was conducted in 2008 where people were asked to grade the intelligence of a person based on their accent and the Brummie accent was ranked as the least intelligent accent. It even scored lower than being silent, an example of the stereotype attached to the Brummie accent. A common misconception is that everyone in Birmingham speaks the same accent. It could be argued Brummie is an accent rather than a dialect as in Black Country which is a dialect with unique words and phrases, as in owamya? For How are you? Which many comment is not used in Brummie speech. Similarly Brummies pronounce 'I' as 'oy' whereas Black Country uses the dialect 'Ah' as in 'Ah bin' meaning I have been. They are often seen as commonly British as they are seen to drink lots of tea and eat traditional pub curries! They are also often seen as lower class because of their unintelligent sounding accent and serious football fans supporting teams such as Manchester United, Birmingham city and Aston villa.

•    Welsh

There is one main stereotype associated with welsh people and that is that they are very close to sheep, the country is generally seen as having great farmland that is ideal for farming animals like sheep, they have become a kind of emblem to people all over the world to represent the country. The daffodil and the leek are national flowers of Wales. One species of daffodil, narcissus obvallaris, is found only in a small area around Tenby which explains how the flowers have become associated with the regional area. Wales is sometimes known as the land of song, and is famed for its singers for instance Aled Jones and Tom Jones. A sport that is commonly associated with Wales and the welsh people is rugby which they are known to be very good at, this creates the stereotype that everyone plays it, which is clearly untrue. The welsh have a very strong accent which again can be easily picked up however they also have their own language which is the main difference between this region compared to others.
This is a picture of some of the characters from 'Gavin and Stacey' which included lots of welsh characters which were often seen to be very confident speaking and have strong accents, also saying phrases that are common of welsh people like 'whats occurring?'

•    Irish

An assumption for Irish people is generally that they drink too much, this is a stereotype that could be proven true but after many polls it is unconfirmed. The area is linked to the popular drink Guinness that has come to Ireland as some kind of representative symbol. Along with the idea of eating habits, the potato has also become widely known through media as a foot type that generalizes the Irish people and there love for its different varieties. There is a main color that is highly representative of Ireland and its inhabitants and that is green; from the idea of lucky clovers to the outfits of fictional lepricorns, it’s a color that has been built upon the island for hundreds of years. Regarding the people living in Ireland and there general behaviors there is the typical view that every Irish home has a ‘mammy’ a woman that over protects her children and is essentially a housewife. This idea has been used throughout lots of TV dramas in the modern day. Religion is also seen to be a large part of the Irish peoples lives through the strong belief of Catholicism, many Irish people are seen to be vicars or holy people that try to empower non believers with stories of god and the bible. this is the cast of 'Mrs browns boys' which features the classic 'mammy' they are often seen to be drinking beers in the local pub and they are Catholics that keep very in touch with the local vicar.

•    London

There are different types of stereotypes for Londoners depending upon the area exactly that they live or are from. Chelsea and Kensington areas of London are seen to be the most upper class area of the UK; the houses are all marketed for extremely high prices worth millions of pounds each. The accent is also very easily recognized are they are very well spoken, polite and seen to be posh. This region is therefore identified as an area where the people have to be extremely ‘well-off’, wear designer brands and have a very formal or smart appearance, swept back hair and/or shirts and suit trousers. Because of the formal language and dress the people are usually stereotyped to be fairly intelligent with good education, possibly private school children and well paid professional jobs. They do not have a specific foot type that they are stereotyped to eat however it cloud be seen that they eat high quality foods such as good cuts of meat and often eating at acclaimed restaurants. The east end of London is seen as a lot more lower social class that the Chelsea, they are often seen to have very strong accents and are often seen as very confident, ‘mouthy’ and confrontational through the stereotypes created by media. They are known for their famous pubs and often live in terrace style houses in close knit areas. below is a picture of the cast from the reality TV show made in Chelsea, although this is not a TV drama it is a great example of how the people are stereotyped and represented as they are all extremely intelligent, rich and formal speaking and looking.

this picture is a great example from eastenders of people from the east side of London, they are dressed informally, are seen to be hard-faced and lower class because of their clothing and even their breed of dog. they live in a pub in a very social area of London.

•    Essex

Essex has been extremely popularized in recent years through media and its influences on the entire population. There has even been phrases added to the dictionary such as ‘Essex girl’ to describe women from Essex and the broad stereotype that its created. Essex girl, as a pejorative stereotype in the United Kingdom, applies to a female viewed as overly promiscuous and unintelligent, characteristics jocularly attributed to women from Essex. It is applied widely throughout the country and has gained popularity over time, dating from the 1980s and 1990s. it is primarily associated with variations of dumb blonde jokes and often sexualized. Some positive stereotypes have however came from Essex including the idea that women have a lot of entrepreneurial power in owning there own businesses and franchises. This however does not overpower the general image given to Essex women which consists of bright orange fake tans, fake white teeth, surgically enhanced features, fake hair and eyelashes and the extreme love for anything glitzy!

Cornwall/South West

Cornish cuisine is a regional variety of British cuisine, strongly rooted in a tradition of using local produce,^] which is used to create relatively simple dishes. Most prominent in Cornish cuisine is the pasty (sometimes known as the Cornish pasty) made from diced beef, potato, onion and swede (commonly called 'turnip' by the Cornish), enclosed within a pastry crust and then baked.One idea of its origins suggests that it evolved as a portable lunch for Cornish miners, the crust serving as a disposable handle that could be held by a miner's hand without soiling the filling. Fish was an important element of the Cornish diet, but international commercial fishing was also well established by the 16th century, and tons of pilchards were exported from Cornwall to France, Italy and Spain every year. Stargazy pie is an occasional festive Cornish dish with the heads of fish standing on their tails, originally pilchards, piercing a pastry crust. The saffron bun, also known as the tea treat bun, is a sweet bread with its origins in Cornwall.surfing was popularized in Cornwall during the late 20th century, and has since become readily associated with Cornishness.The waves around the Cornish coastline are created by low pressure systems from the Atlantic Ocean which unleash powerful swells eastwards creating multiple, excellent surfing conditions in some parts of the coast of Cornwall.