Pride and Prejudices

I don't think it's news that North Americans have a certain romantic conception of 'Britishness.' Even as someone who went to an Anglican girls school, where about 30% of my teachers were British of some description, and even though I have loads of cousins in the UK, the accent still always had a sort of romantic ring to it. I'm not sure what it is but anything said in a (particular sort of) British accent always sounds prettier, cleverer. Or at least it did until I lived there for three years. And I sort of regret that loss, even though I am happy to be disabused of certain fancies of what it means to be British.

On the other side of things, it is often thought that Brits think that Americans are a bit ignorant. And they do. But there is a less obvious, and more romantic notion of Americans that I think the Brits are less eager to share, because it is slightly more humbling for them. I didn't realize that this sort of romantic stereotyping went both ways until a friend in Edinburgh informed me that her only understanding of America was from television and films, and so she had this skewed yet persistent idea that everyone in New York lived like the characters on

Seinfeld or Friends. (This sort of reminds me of another friend from school who, when she was younger, changed schools three times in the space of three or four years, and somehow it just happened that she had only Canadian history for about three or four years in a row. As a result she entered her teenage years with the strange notion that everyone around the world for the past 500 years had been pioneers who lived in log cabins. She knew it was wrong and yet she couldn't get the image out of her head.)

Anyway, examples of this more romantic stereotype of Americans can be seen in many of Richard Curtis's films, such as Four Weddings and a Funeral. I have seen this movie about a hundred times, but I will never forget the one time I watched it with an American friend. She became increasingly agitated while watching it, until she finally turned to me and said angrily, referring to Andie McDowell's character: "Is that really how the rest of the world views Americans? As complete sluts?" Now, while it's true that there is a scene in which this character, Carrie, confesses that she's slept with something like 34 men (is that even a huge number these days? anyway), until that moment it had never occurred to me that it was a negative depiction. "Er, I don't think that's what Richard Curtis means by that character," I replied. "Honestly I think it's coming more from a sense of quiet admiration for American sexuality." I mean, throughout that scene Hugh Grant looks on with a uncomfortable awe, not disgust. What's interesting about this is that my American friend seemed to disapprove of Carrie much more than the British ever would.

But I'm still trying to figure out what the romantic notion of a Canadian is. So far the most I've gotten is that Canadians are 'nice' and 'tolerant.' Which isn't really romantic. But I think that we can use this to our advantage. Thoughts?