Where Were You Born? How Old Are You?

I have to confess, those are questions that quite literally make my skin crawl. Questions I will never ever answer. Not because of any vanity hang-ups, I hasten to add - and I can easily prove it when I say I wouldn't even reveal the month I was born in.

I just don't like to give people the chance to stereotype me. Tell somebody your birthday, and they're bound to exclaim "Ah, that makes you an aries (libra, virgo, whatever) then, bit stubborn, are we?" And I really can't stand that sort of thing at all. Somebody once exclaimed "What?? You're from Munich and you don't like beer?!" Err, yes imagine. Except, I'm not "from" Munich, I just happen to live here at the moment. I lived in Edinburgh once, and would you believe it, I don't like whisky.

People's urge to put you in a culturally determined identity box seems to be unquenchable. Born in the 70s?  "Haha, you must like flares" 80s? "All those shoulder pads, I can see that's you". 90s? "Grunge! You like grunge then?" "Born in England? Have a cup of tea, the English like their tea!"

Why oh why does it matter where your mother happened to give birth? Does the umbilical cord tie you to that local hospital forever? Are you meant to have imbibed some tribal thinking in those first few earthly hours? Of course, loads of people are very proud of their place of birth "Yup, Kansas girl me, the Sunshine State", or whatever advertising slogan happens to be attached to that neck of the woods. "Us Yorkshiremen are strong and silent, we call a spade a spade". To which of course the only possible reply is "Oh do shut up please".

I admit, I'm pretty extreme in not wanting to be stereotyped. If possible, I'd like to prevent people from knowing my gender, too. I live in constant fear of coming across something like "Oh you females, you just love babies dont'ya". No, I don't actually - I always fear they might give me some dreadful illness, and I don't like people who only ever sleep and eat.

Also, my attitude to this whole identity and stereotype thing has disadvantages. I don't have c.v. for example, so I can't apply for jobs, and am forced to stay self-employed. Still, it's preferable to listening to some HR person kneading a stereotype dough that has nothing to do with who I am - all on the basis of some arbitrary data.

I am very happy, though, to talk about things that really were formative, and therefore matter. For example: At a young age, my family moved to Holland. A country,culture, language, experience that really had an impact on me. Much more so, than an arbitrary place on the map which happens to be my place of birth

Only Here For the Beer - Intercultural Stereotypes

Recently somebody said to me: "What? You're from Munich, and you don't like beer??!!" Eyebrows raised skywards.  Faced with such a verbal full-frontal, it's quite a challenge to come up with a polite and patient reply. You could say "Well, I'm not actually from Munich, I 'm just living here for the time being" - But that would imply that everybody who is actually from Munich, does like beer. In the end I opted for : "Well two years ago I was living in Edinburgh, and I don't actually like whisky." I thought that made my point quite clear (in an ironic and educational way).

There is something more than just a little backward in remarks like that, even though they obviously try to come over as worldy-wise and informed. But this sort of cultural cliché just takes an intellectual  short-cut by classifying people into geographic cut-out figures. "From the North of England? - So, you probably like warm beer in the pub, whilst disucussing the miners strike with your mates, huh?" "From Paris? Oh là là, Mademoiselle!"

And whilst these examples are harmless, and just show the simple-mindedness of this approach, it's easy to extrapolate how it can quickly degenerate into xenophobic and racial compartmentilisation. "Brazilians - ah they got music in their blood!", "Africans are more in touch with their feelings", "Arabs? Bit fanatical, aren't they?" "Yes, Jews are very good with money" And so on, and so on...

Let's just  remind yourselves that not every Finn is taciturn and likes the dark, not every American is monolingual, or all Spaniards like bullfights and paella. Let's celebrate individuality and diversity. That people are not the embodiment of a cliché associated with a country or place. That people move about and have to come to grips with different cultural surroundings. That everybody is their own person, made up of a myriad of cultural fragments and influences. And that there are people from Munich who prefer wine to beer ...



Any comments? Share them on twitter, @Margit11