sabato 17 novembre 2012

"Campanians are dodgers and Lombards are snobs": Clichés within Italy


Reading Sara's post I realized that there are many national stereotypes about Italy, but we have also many regional clichés. It is fun to identify them.

Here you find some examples:

Ligurians are said to be tight with money.
Lombards are considered pretentious, cold, efficient, hard-working, snobs and money-obsessed.
Campanians are seen as lazy people, dodgers, noisy, friendly and good in making pizza.
Piedmonteses are supposed to be “double-faced”, kind and polite but insincere, as the italian proverb (Piemontesi falsi e cortesi) says.
Romagnoles are considered collectivist and combative people.
People from Latium are said to be uncultured, unrefined and loud.
Sardinians are seen as stubborn shepherds.
Sicilians are supposed to be members of the mafia and very jealous. They are known also to be “omertosi”: when they witness a crime, they tell to the police that they didn't see or hear anything.
Tuscans are considered ironic and expansive.
Umbrians are seen as reserved. 
People from Veneto are defined hard-working, lush and separatist.
People from Trentino are considered all Germans.

Generally Southerners are considered lazy and warm people, while Northerners are seen as hard-working and cold. 


Maybe there is something true in these sentences but almost all are wrong generalization and they can produce discrimination. 

The members of the Italian separatist party, “Lega Nord”, often use stereotypes against Southerners to divide Italian people. Their aim is to convince public opinion that North need to be separated from South, the “black hole of wealth” as they call it. 
The racism against Southerners dates back to the end of  the 19th century, when an Italian positivist, Cesare Lombroso, formulated the theory of the racial inferiority of Southerners. It was an easy and foolish way of explaining historical and economical differences between North and South, but it had great influence on the public opinion. 
These prejudices are so deep rooted that we still hear people saying that Southerners are lazy, criminal and backward.

Angela Pulliero


1 commento:

  1. Unfortunately it is true what you stated above. Northern Italians have less good impressions about southern Italians and these stereotypes are maintained and spread through the media which tends to further this bias by using words with pejorative tinge to the southern Italians. Agree to disagree. I believe that people should be "catalogued" individually and not collectively. I was able to get in touch with both northern Italians and southern Italians and my opinion about the Southerns is quite good, they are great people - they have an extended sense of humor, they are very open, optimistic,and jovial. I do not understand what hatred can exist between people of the same origin. It's sad how much materialism can leave its mark on this one, because ultimately this is all about: the fact that the Southerns receive funding from the Northerns.
    Regratably, we are losing out of sight the essential:and that is to be human,to be tolerant and to accept and understand others.

    RispondiElimina