#Italian American Stereotypes

[marlowe1-blog]

Another Story (The Stories of John Cheever)

Italian Prince comes to America. Has a bad time

This is a weird one. Mostly it's making me think of stereotypes because everything that Marcantonio Parlapiano (what the hell is with that last name? Parlor Piano? Also the first name is two names - Mark Antonio - Mark Antony?) does is an Italian stereotype, but why are Italian stereotypes so different than Italian American stereotypes. Italian American stereotypes are gangers, tough guys, distinguished gentlemen who are very polite until you don't give them what you want and then there's a horse head in your bed.

Italians have weird stereotypes. Despite Mussolini and Machiavelli and Garibaldi, Americans typically think of Robert Beningi as the stereotype. The goofy heavily accented guy who just is whacky all the time. Even in Fellini movies, there's a bit of a wild horny element going on. I guess "talking with one's hands" is there, but frankly, it's just interesting that Italian Americans have managed to create a scary stereotype while Italians are stereotypical goofballs (and then we can also talk about how Jews and Italians look alike to the point that when an Italian seems nebbish or goofy, he plays Jewish characters and when a Jew can seem tough and nasty, he plays Italians.)

And if I start talking about Nicholas Cage, we could be here all night.

Suffice it to say that Mark Anthony Player Piano, aka Boobee, is the harmless Italian stereotype. Cheever wrote this one in 1967 and it's all about the cultural divide. Poor Boobee (yes, he prefers to be called Boobee) can't speak English that well, keeps getting shit from people, marries a woman whose family hates Italians (and Jews!) and then confides in the narrator who is a New England blueblood schmuck who can't deal with "emotions".

So the narrator is telling the story of Boobee and it's one of those in-and-out relationships where the narrator keeps tacitly comparing himself to Boobee. Boobee can't deal with his wife wanting a career in music. Boobee can't deal with his wife trying to do something. Boobee won't stop talking about it to the narrator. The narrator hates this honesty.

Poor Boobee. Finally Boobee just goes home. The wife gives a concert and it's terrible according to most accounts. But since Boobee never respected her in the first place, it doesn't really matter, now does it?

And then we get this anecdote at the end where a guy tells the narrator a story about how his wife worked at Newark airport and how she kept taking her work home with her. Like she sounded so official when she told him to come to dinner or come to bed.

So how the fuck are these stories related? I mean, did John Cheever just not know how to end the story? So he felt like it was a wet fart of an ending and had to include this other sad husband?

Or maybe it's all about how marriage is hard, especially if you are man who doesn't even want your wife working in the first place? Or maybe it's just that there is a foolishness when it comes to women happening here. This is the 1960s.

But honestly it's a weird sad story about weird sad people who don't understand each other and can't really get over patriarchy. Boobee expects his wife to be ok with being a wife. The other guy expects his wife to at least stop with the work and maybe that's also about how he resents the fact that she's working. The narrator doesn't really care much for his wife. Everyone is drunk.

Buy cigarettes!

[jccheapalier]

Rocky Marciano: A Life Story (2004) | Full Movie | Marino Amoruso

[whalehouse1]

Why do you want all the Supers to exist at once?

Because Martha and John deserve nothing better than this. And let me tell you as a Midwesterner who has a huge family, the older generations absolutely loved when we filled up an entire park.

*not sure if it’s confusing here, but, “nothing better than this,” or “no less than this,” at least in my part of the native English speaker world, means that the person deserves all of this in a positive way. Not really sure how it turned into the phrase it did.

[pikslasrce]

cousin richy may be italian by choice but i see him for what he truly is. that balkan blood is so strong in him 😌💅

[doraspenlow]

“are you in the mafia”

“am i WHAT”

….

“ITS A STEREOTYPE AND ITS OFFENSIVE”

[nero-neptune]

they write black people so weird in the sopranos, like the dialogue's got me frowning and pressing my lips together

[poorlittlegreenie13]

Sorry if you like it but The Pairing by Casey McQuiston is the grossest book I’ve ever read & they should be made to take one of those webinars about consent that they make u take before u join a frat

[inkyself]

god reading the tags on that post about the racism in portraying South American mobsters vs the romanticising of Italian mobsters is pissing me off. Americans really should watch an Italian show instead of that Hollywood bullshit and try to understand that mafia is fucking destroying our country and we hate it being just a cool movie genre for them when it is a fucking huge cultural problem

[lockerandom]

So, Oda said that Robin's real world ethnicity would be Russian. What would we think of an Romani actress for her?

[allthecastlesonclouds]

not to go crazy about these tags but you just simply must say more on the thistlesprings as italian i’m obsessed with that

I OF COURSE WILL I WILL PUT IT UNDER A CUT THO BC IT GOT LONG

i do mean italian american because that is what i know. and also slightly catholic italian american but. yeah.

alright so it did first strike me with the extended family. i do believe that the vision that the sphinx showed gorgug in the forest had some amount of truth to it– everyone else's did, and wilma and digby are very much the idea of "we don't need anybody but each other! :D"– and so, therefore, what's the reason the extended family isn't in wilma's and digby's lives? misguided kindness on both ends.

the thistlesprings (extended) have prejudice and boy howdy the italian grandparents i know. they try and they cook and they have their laws but also they have their beliefs. my (italian, catholic) grandmother called unitarian christianity a cult and tried to stop my (jewish) aunt from marrying my (catholic) uncle in front of a rabbi (that meme of "i consent" "i consent" "i don't!"). it's giving "all they know is wrong and they must change but you cannot change them without being hurt." We cannot accept people of other beliefs so you cannot let anything else in to prove us wrong, all under the paper-thin veil of wanting to protect.

and wilma and digby are such contradictions. they're so, so self-sacrificing, and yet they'll fight the whole world. they have a tank (wonder what happened to that lawn mower, actually...), for gods sake. they care so much about their boy but they also left their families at the drop of a hat? there simply must be more but also the self-sacrificing and yet horribly defensive... they are trying so hard because they know what they want and they are willing to do anything to get it but they would prefer to not fight extensively. but they do, because they over-corrected from their upbringing, and gorgug doesn't have the solidest of ground at home to rely on.

there's also just the gnomish/orcish culture mashup of focusing so much on food. i love food so much guys. you reach out and share those dishes with others– if you're having an event, you best bet you're getting up crack of dawn and making a multi-course meal that anyone and everyone can enjoy. the frosty fair folk festival being right up w+d's alley– of course it was, it was bonding. especially the as-homemade-as-we-can-get-it. never met an italian american who prefered canned sauce or preshredded cheese over homemade. that shit is as fresh as it gets.

there's also the dramatic family gatherings where everything goes wrong. why did gorgug see basically his entire extended family. i know that. the grandchildren are in the basement playing twister or some shit and the parents/grandparents/in-laws are Hashing Shit Out. there is a veil of politeness until 5 year old is gone and then it's a Shouting Match. gorgug saw "Digby and Wilma [are] having a fight with a lot of other gnomes. [He knows] that [he has] aunts and uncles and grandparents and stuff like that." that was Moonar Yulnear or some shit and stuff Went Down. Everyone was there. the cousins were in a tire swing or something but the extended family was there.

point 5b actually both sides of the family know each other. why do italian americans know either nobody or Everybody In Your Life and Their Life and The World Actually.

they just. they have so much (misguided) care and they mean so much to me. and do you think that any side has tried to reach out or has it just been years and years of blame game, of they'll never accept him and this is just how it is and how could they destroy themselves and how could they destroy something good. it all feels very italian american to me. homegrown experience gone sour because you want to thrive.

[bioswear]

Actually I think we as America could potentially Benefit by more white people digging into their white culture (barring people like nazis bc that’s the bad side of history and you should not be taking up Nazi history as your identity and yet😬 but I digress), but like if your family is Finnish or German or French, I think we should let the white insta-girlies connect to it more.

At least it would give them a more interesting facet to their personality beyond iced mochas, Pilates, and social media.

[storyofmorewhoa]

Martini from Olive the Other Reindeer (1999), voiced by Joe Pantoliano

Tip from The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (2000), voiced by Max Casella

If I had a nickel for every time a male Italian American actor voiced a cartoon penguin who served as comedic relief to a plucky female protagonist in the late 90s/early 2000s, I would have two nickels-- which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.

[simptasia]

yeah i hc that PT9 speaks very broken simlish

[commodoreshock]

I’m curious as to why Amy Jo Johnson didn’t want to do the Power Rangers nostalgia thing. That “maybe I didn’t want to wear spandex in my 50s” rings kinda hollow because girl you KNOW they aren’t making the actors dress up in the power ranger suits for the most part.

[dexylloyd]

Hello! Here are some sketches and some of my headcanons!

Nationalities:

Lloyd: Japanese/Chinese/British

Wu, Garmadon and FSM: Japanese/Chinese

Misako: Japanese/British

Kai and Nya: Italian/Vietnamese

Jay: Irish/Korean

Cole: African-American/Indian

Zane: Not having a clear nationality this cutie can be how he wants but I mostly hc them as a person poc

Pixal: The same as Zane but I see her Dad Cyrus as south Korean

Skylor: Irish/American

Morro: Italian/American

Harumi: Japanese

Vania: Tibetan/Nepali

Benthomaar: As much as I love him I really don't have a specific hc for him, I think he would be from the same zones where lemon sharks are!

(the Italians ones are a bit of a meme, because I'm Italian and sometimes I joke about Italian stereotypes, for example: Kai favourite football team is the Neapolitan one lol)

Maybe in another post I will also do sexualities and genders but for this time I don't really have the energy :P

For the other hcs in the pictures:

I headcanon that the FSM putted some kind of mechanics in the humans to identify what is not human. But, well, he and his family are not really humans themselves! So plain mortals can't see their faces and also see some kind of halo on them, to symbolize their "divine" status (none of them knows about it tho).

But there are exceptions:

-Kids before puberty can see them clearly;

-People who have been in contact with supernatural/magical things for a really long time;

-And, the most rare, people who naturally can see them for all their life;

[gxldencity]

This is the top review on goodreads lmao

I have started on the pairing and I gotta say this book is pushing the limit of what I could tolerate in terms of romance novel antics. like...yes with romance novels there is some level of disbelief that you have suspend in order to buy into It (especially the ones by this author bc their thing truly is people in chaotic situations) but truly theo and kit have nothing going for them that could excuse their actions besides being hot and available which ok...that's like every romance novel character. what's different with you two. I haven't even gotten to the hookup competition mind you.