Talk:Stereotypes of British people

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Neutral Point of View/ Other Issues

This article is too opinion-based and overall needs some heavy revision. The following are a few of the several problems with this article.

All of the negative stereotypes contain some sort of counterargument, while none of the positive stereotypes are disputed.

"In reality, however, the UK has seen some record-breaking sunny weather as well and also it rains less quantity in London than Sydney or Miami."

The rainfall in Sydney and Miami is irrelevant.

"Tea is seen as a key part of British culture."

This is under the section 'Positive stereotypes', but I do not see a reasoning for why it would be considered 'positive'.

"Football is very popular in the United Kingdom, and has some of the best players in the world."

This is an opinion.

"British people overall are welcoming to people of different nationalities and sexualities." "British people eat a huge variety of dishes from a great wealth of cultures."

Both of these statements are dubious and overgeneralizing.

Again, these are only a few of the large amount of problems and I believe that this article needs a major overhaul in one way or another. There are also several problems that do not involve POV, including, but not limited to, grammar, reliability of sources, formatting, and relevance of material.

Momo824 (talk) 10:54, 28 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

It's still a work in progress but I have started to address some of the concerns you raised here.Llewee (talk) 21:38, 6 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Personally I think since the very subject of stereotypes of an ethnic group is so subjective, it needs a complete overhaul or else deletion. St Judas the Lazarene (talk) 10:55, 22 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

What was wrong with my revisions?

@Snowded: Why did you revert my changes, which were well-sourced? You seem to be trying to make things look worse than they are. St Judas the Lazarene (talk) 12:56, 20 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Well simply stating my reason for reversion in reverse will not make progress. You were bold, you were reverted now make the case for the changes if you think you were right -----Snowded ^TALK 06:47, 23 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Teeth

This presupposes that the stereotype is based on Americans viewing British teeth as unhealthy. In my experience, it's not based on any assumption of health. Americans (the ones perpetuating the stereotype) just think that it looks bad.

I'll point out, that as it stands, the piece implicitly admits that American and British teeth DO look different; it's not a misperception. (This is contrary to my own personal experience, though; the British that I meet here tend to have teeth as straight and white as Americans.) Drsruli (talk) 14:06, 23 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

How old are the Brits you are meeting? I think the teeth straightening in childhood technology might have started to catch on in the UK in recent decades. Polar Apposite (talk) 00:30, 18 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Came here to say the exact same thing. The author of the teeth section is completely missing the mark. The stereotype is not that British people have unhealthy teeth or somehow that their oral hygiene is poor... That's a textbook strawman right there.

The stereotype is that their teeth look bad, e.g. crooked and/or yellow.

Whatever that might imply about oral health is beside the point, the stereotype is about appearance. This British dentistry blog is right on point about this, it says that while it may be true the British have "healthier" teeth, it is also true that the Americans seem to care more about the appearance of their teeth, with only 3% of British having had their teeth whitened compared to 14% of Americans.

https://www.uniquesmiles.co.uk/blog/brits-really-bad-teeth/

This stereotype being about appearance is reflected in American jokes about it, e.g. Family Guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vczN_lK9-9w, the Simpsons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF5mH_ggZv0, American celebrities joking about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd02sAnCviw.

Websites/articles/blogs about the topic, including British media, also hit the nail on the head -- it is about appearance. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BritishTeeth ("Brits in (usually American) media are commonly stereotyped as being completely indifferent to the physical appearance of their teeth."); https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150602-do-the-british-have-bad-teeth ("...some UK-based dentists say that their customers prefer a more “natural look” than their American counterparts."); https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-22429,00.html ("British teeth are not bad, but irregular by American standards. American middle class children are normally tormented with gratuitous cosmetic dentistry to make them look like Stepford wives, so that any dental individuality is regarded as strange. ")

And so I question the relevance of the ranking that has the British teeth being "healthier"... That may be true, but it has nothing to do with the stereotype about British teeth being ugly and so it doesn't belong in this article.

And not that personal anecdotes matter, but I will say having lived in America and the U.K. and China, the Americans have much nicer looking teeth, straight and white, and do seem to care about the appearance of their teeth more with all the whitening and all the children wearing braces; the British seem to have noticeably worse teeth overall as a population (again, I am only talking about appearance); and the Chinese it seems to be tied to social class, e.g. perfect teeth or terrible teeth with little in between.

Of course, in every country you are going to find people with very nice teeth and very bad teeth. But the stereotype here is that the British have bad-looking teeth. 2601:18A:8181:BE50:D0F8:A7E7:2469:B5D5 (talk) 03:19, 17 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 24 November 2021

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: There is a consensus against move. —usernamekiran • sign the guestbook • (talk) 16:27, 7 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Stereotypes of the British → Stereotypes of Britain – Article includes a section on Britain's weather which does not relate to the British people 2603:9000:CA02:CACC:6DF0:812:566D:CE0E (talk) 03:32, 24 November 2021 (UTC) — Relisting. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 04:11, 1 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose - Britain is too ambiguous. We should keep articles' contents on-topic, rather than change their names to fit whatever someone randomly decides to include. (I've removed that co-called stereotype from the article.) Bazza (talk) 15:20, 24 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Comment Rather than "Stereotypes of Britain" it should be renamed to Sterotypes of the United Kingdom, the article often points out "UK" rather than "British" which do not mean the same thing, as the UK owns terrritory outside of Britain, and this information would be helpful to include. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Spider241 (talk • contribs) 01:59, 1 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose, the climate or geography of a region isn't a stereotype. --Lord Belbury (talk) 08:56, 1 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose per Bazza. --The Tips of Apmh 13:48, 1 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Should Prince be changed to King?

In the teeth section it mentions King Charles III as 'Prince Charles'. It is talking about an episode of The Simpsons released before his reign, but it doesn't specifically speak in the past tense. Henriio (talk) 08:06, 26 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Mr. Bean is famous, but not necessarily held in high regard.

Mr. Bean is famous around the world, but I have heard some foreigners say it is low brow humor and a bit of a rip off. Not sure whether Mr. Bean should be said to be a "highly regarded comedy", unlike Fawlty Towers. Maybe it's just successful and lucrative. Mr.Bean and Fawlty Towers really are very different. I've also heard that Mr. Bean is slapstick, and as such is not typically British in style. Polar Apposite (talk) 00:38, 18 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I don't particularly like Mr. Bean, but I am not certain if slapstick is the correct term here. It certainly relies of physical comedy, but much of the humor is about an eccentric character who copes with daily life in unusual ways. The series has little to no dialogue, and only one recurring supporting character. There are no major story arcs, or anything resembling character development. Dimadick (talk) 19:48, 18 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]