I was surprised to hear "Joe Sixpack" used as a term of approbation. I always thought it was something elitist (white, middle-to-upper-class, educated) people called white people who didn't make their standards of class and education.
I find it very disturbing to hear Sarah Palin use it as a badge of honor on MANY levels, among them all those you have mentioned. What really disturbs me is to hear a term, like "Archie Bunker" (who I think of when I hear "Joe Sixpack"), that's meant to place certain widely spread attitudes among the perceived underclasses, used without any change in racist, sexist, or otherwise chauvinistic nuance--the views Archie/Joe are supposed to hold, the bad behavior, ignorance, etc., that are supposed to be his--and yet as a badge of pride of trueblue Americanism, without any irony at all. Not only has Palin typed herself as a chauvinist, not only has she excused inexcusable attitudes, but she's shown herself to be ignorant of what "Joe Sixpack" really means AND also of the slur on the very populations she's claiming to defend.
I'm a white American, first generation, but since I'm German it becomes awkward. But I will say that there is at least one obnoxious stereotype of the Bostonian that is put forward as an ideal type. The Irish Catholic boob from Southie confused, perhaps via the Kennedys and Tip O'Neill, with an ivy league type--that's a very weird stereotype but one that kicks around a lot.
Married into Armenian culture, I think the Armenians from the former Soviet Union have several obnoxious-ideal stereotypes--the up and comer in America, the former-Communist corruption magnate; those from Persia and the Middle East don't seem to have as many obnoxious-ideal stereotypes, for some reason, at least not among men. There is an obnoxious-ideal stereotype of the gossipy Armenian female that is very much like the Jewish "yente."
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Date: 2008-10-04 04:07 am (UTC)I find it very disturbing to hear Sarah Palin use it as a badge of honor on MANY levels, among them all those you have mentioned. What really disturbs me is to hear a term, like "Archie Bunker" (who I think of when I hear "Joe Sixpack"), that's meant to place certain widely spread attitudes among the perceived underclasses, used without any change in racist, sexist, or otherwise chauvinistic nuance--the views Archie/Joe are supposed to hold, the bad behavior, ignorance, etc., that are supposed to be his--and yet as a badge of pride of trueblue Americanism, without any irony at all. Not only has Palin typed herself as a chauvinist, not only has she excused inexcusable attitudes, but she's shown herself to be ignorant of what "Joe Sixpack" really means AND also of the slur on the very populations she's claiming to defend.
I'm a white American, first generation, but since I'm German it becomes awkward. But I will say that there is at least one obnoxious stereotype of the Bostonian that is put forward as an ideal type. The Irish Catholic boob from Southie confused, perhaps via the Kennedys and Tip O'Neill, with an ivy league type--that's a very weird stereotype but one that kicks around a lot.
Married into Armenian culture, I think the Armenians from the former Soviet Union have several obnoxious-ideal stereotypes--the up and comer in America, the former-Communist corruption magnate; those from Persia and the Middle East don't seem to have as many obnoxious-ideal stereotypes, for some reason, at least not among men. There is an obnoxious-ideal stereotype of the gossipy Armenian female that is very much like the Jewish "yente."