The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. About the lives of mostly American and English expats in Paris and Spain who are usually eating, drinking, dancing, looking for sex, or watching bullfights.
http://nomadcapitalist.com/2013/08/20/are-white-people-and-expats-in-asia-really-worshipped/
- Article discussing the idea that Asians worship and throw themselves at white foreigners and expats.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWUxDi426kg&t=3m57s - Clip from CNN's Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. In this episode, an American in Spain discusses his love of Spanish architecture, alcohol, siestas, and his Spanish fiance.
Former Americans and Brits in The Fast and The Furious and James Bond live it up in exile. Not pictured, their native girlfriends in bikinis (sorry, BYU search filters).
Expatriates fascinate me, particularly American expatriates,
though I have more experience with English ones (my father's family is from the UK but has many members who've moved to Latin America).
The overarching tendency I've seen in the media is to portray expats
as sexual or lifestyle tourists. Most
shown in our media are white men, leaving their country for foreign women,
food, and adventures. Speaking English and being American/English is seen as a
free pass for social preference and success internationally. This is the “single
story”.
There are some other versions of this type of portrayal. Expats have also been shown as disaffected
draft dodgers, or failures that were unable to succeed in their native country
and are trying in another. In many films they are fleeing criminal prosecution
in their native country, hiding away in a mansion in some corner of the world.
This happens in James Bond, Bourne, and The Fast and The Furious. However, the sexual/lifestyle theme is often still present. The man who is in exile is
usually drinking a beer with a gorgeous native woman in a bikini. Exiled, but still a privileged tourist. The theme
permeates all portrayals of expats.
Why is this limiting? For one, It makes expatriate culture, and just
living overseas, seem unprofessional. There are many who choose this lifestyle for rational and professional reasons. This story also make expat life seem very male dominated. It spreads the idea that white
American/British men are the ultimate and most successful type of men,
and are free to travel and pick from the world’s variety of women. It’s normal. What would we think of a white American woman who travels to Africa because
she likes African men? Or to Asia? The perception we have is very different.
“Couldn’t she do better than that? Why doesn’t she stay in America to find a
man with a future?” Since this seems ridiculous to some of us, we also assume that living in a foreign country as a white American/British woman is ridiculous.
There was a guy in Nicaragua where I served my mission named King George that IS this stereotype. He lived in a house with three of his wife's and recounted to us about how his last wife swindled him out of a thousand dollars and all of his furniture.He still owes me five bucks.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting stereotype. I wouldn't have thought that this group would have a single story like this but it's true.
ReplyDelete