The New Italian American

The Jersey  Effect

      The Italian American has been a stereotype for a very long time. Often portrayed as mobsters, gangsters, and general loud aggressive tough guys. That has changed in the last decade and a half as a new culture of "Jerseyliciousness" has taken over our view. In 2009 we transitioned from The Sopranos and Growing up Gotti to Jersey Shore and The Real Housewives of New Jersey.  The single story being presented is that Italian Americans only care about looks, status, and partying. The key elements include working out, tanning, excessive hair product, wife beaters, promiscuity, and bling. Many people didn't really see this new element of the  culture arise until Jersey Shore took over TV in 09. From their many thought it was a one shot piece of trash. However, it instead began to spread and launch many similar portrayals on television. All of these have embraced the idea of loud and proud vain lifestyles. They have come in the forms of reality TV and fiction. 

The Guido Handbook Feat: The Situation from Jersey Shore. 

(Content warning This is from MTV...)

 Jerseylicious title banner

The Real Housewives of New Jersey

The new film from Joesph Gordon Levitt about a porn obsessed guido.

Now the image is being imitated and over-exposed. 

     The limitation of this stereotype is that this is only a small fraction of Italian Americans. This is mainly a portrayal of a lifestyle group in the North East. While this is the highest concentration of Italian Americans it is not a single lifestyle. This dilutes the character of hard working Italian Americans who are not vain or outspoken. Now with the single look at a persons style or a listen of their accent many people categorize them with this group we see everywhere on TV. 

     All of these artifacts show a very limited dimension of what makes up one persons life. They all show an outward appearance that suggests an internal mindset. The many pieces of media that have emerged take no further depth into these people, nor do they attempt to show any other lifestyle of an Italian American in Jersey, Boston, New York, or anywhere else. These messages create a social stigma of incompetence, immaturity, and vanity that misrepresents a larger group and culture.