Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

Whistler wrote:I'm sounding like a whiny Californian again, but some of us are just homesick or used to something different. And by some of us I mean me.

It's natural to be homesick or to be used to something different, but that works both ways. A Californian in Utah could be homesick for California and a Utahn in California could be homesick for Utah.

What's different about the Utah stereotypes, in my observation, is that it they only work in the anti-Utah direction and that they come from all sides to gang up on Utah.

An example of the first issue is that I've never heard anyone say nasty stereotypes about Idaho Mormons or Arizona Mormons, even though there are significant Mormon populations in those states, so if it's a mere matter of homesickness, there should be just as many Utah Mormons making nasty comments about Mormons in other states.

An example of the second issue is that a Hawaiian who comes to Utah and a Mainer who comes to Utah will probably both be very homesick, but each of them should be homesick for completely different things, since Hawaii and Maine are as different from each other as each is from Utah. And yet, I've heard many people from backgrounds that don't have much in common with each other gang up to make anti-Utah remarks.

I will acknowledge that there are some serious observational biases at work, here. For starters, I grew up in Utah and did my undergrad there, so I had a lot of exposure to non-Utahns coming to Utah and very little experience with Utahns going to not Utah. And I have definitely heard stories of Utahns (or people from the greater Mormon Corridor) making disparaging or naive or unappreciative comments when they had to move outside of that area. So, just because I don't think I've acted like a jerk as a Utahn moving to the Midwest or to New England, that certainly doesn't mean everyone in that position has behaved well. And it's reasonable that people who are sick of hearing about Utahns complaining about living in the "Mission Field" or having to move out of "Zion" would have some negative stereotypes about Utahns. (Although then I have to point out the selection bias and confirmation bias at play there, too. Selection bias in the sense that you're more likely to be aware that the annoying Utahns are from Utah, because they're the ones who won't shut up about it. And confirmation bias, of course, because once you have it in your head that Utahns are annoying, you'll find a lot of evidence to back it up.)

Also, people will make disparaging comments about how terrible it is to live in Utah and in the same breath say that Utahns are all soft and weak, without acknowledging that the very things they think are hard about living in Utah also affect Utahns. E.g., I've found an apartment to live in when I get to Provo, but I'd really rather live in a different complex about six blocks away that won't be open until the fall. In Maine, that half mile wouldn't make any difference in terms of my Church activity. (After my first year here, I moved to a completely different town about four miles away and still stayed in the same ward with the same calling, etc.) In Utah, by contrast, moving those six blocks will probably put me in a completely different stake, and so, although I'd love to live in the new complex, I also have to weigh that against pulling up ward roots after only six months. So, small ward boundaries in Utah lead to high ward turnover which affects one's ability to make meaningful connections at church but that affects Utahns as well!

I think there are negative Idaho Mormon stereotypes. M is from Idaho and when people heard where he was from, a lot of my friends were like "...oh," as if someone from Idaho is less attractive or must be weird in some way or whatever.

Zedability wrote:I think there are negative Idaho Mormon stereotypes. M is from Idaho and when people heard where he was from, a lot of my friends were like "...oh," as if someone from Idaho is less attractive or must be weird in some way or whatever.

Would you say that was an Idaho Mormon stereotype, though, or just an Idaho stereotype? I do think there are stereotypes about almost every state in the union (and province or territory in Canada), but within the Mormon community there seems to be a very specific Utah/not-Utah binary distinction at play. (I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself clearly, here.)

In Texas we (the teenager Mormons anyway) all treated Utah and Idaho as basically the same state. :\ Sorry to both states for that, but at least they were equally made fun of. And probably the BYUs were equally attended by students from my ward - only the inactive Mormon kids didn't go to one of the BYUs, even though both were made fun of.

I had prejudices against Arizona Mormons as stuck-up, overly conservative, and weather weaklings alla Bella from Twilight. Once I got to know some better, they turned out to be some of my favorite people.

On my mission, I heard some negative stereotypes about California Mormons. Most of them included the word "prideful" at least once. Granted, that may have been just a subset of a larger California stereotype.

But a lot of my best friends now are from California and I think they're awesome.

Katya wrote:

Zedability wrote:I think there are negative Idaho Mormon stereotypes. M is from Idaho and when people heard where he was from, a lot of my friends were like "...oh," as if someone from Idaho is less attractive or must be weird in some way or whatever.

Would you say that was an Idaho Mormon stereotype, though, or just an Idaho stereotype? I do think there are stereotypes about almost every state in the union (and province or territory in Canada), but within the Mormon community there seems to be a very specific Utah/not-Utah binary distinction at play. (I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself clearly, here.)

At least for the people from Alberta, it was an Idaho Mormon stereotype, which was kind of like a Utah Mormon stereotype except more pious and hickish.

I once finally, in exasperation, told an acquaintance that "He's from the racist north part, not the Mormon south part," and she seemed to think it was an improvement. Which I mainly did as a test to see if she was really being as unreasonable as I thought she was, and I was right. Facepalm.

Zedability wrote:

Katya wrote:

Zedability wrote:I think there are negative Idaho Mormon stereotypes. M is from Idaho and when people heard where he was from, a lot of my friends were like "...oh," as if someone from Idaho is less attractive or must be weird in some way or whatever.

Would you say that was an Idaho Mormon stereotype, though, or just an Idaho stereotype? I do think there are stereotypes about almost every state in the union (and province or territory in Canada), but within the Mormon community there seems to be a very specific Utah/not-Utah binary distinction at play. (I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself clearly, here.)

At least for the people from Alberta, it was an Idaho Mormon stereotype, which was kind of like a Utah Mormon stereotype except more pious and hickish.

I once finally, in exasperation, told an acquaintance that "He's from the racist north part, not the Mormon south part," and she seemed to think it was an improvement. Which I mainly did as a test to see if she was really being as unreasonable as I thought she was, and I was right. Facepalm.

LOL. I'm thinking of adapting this. "I'm from the insufferable two-child-Whole-Foods-patrons Utah, not the eight-kids-and-Costco Utah."

Portia wrote:I had prejudices against Arizona Mormons as stuck-up, overly conservative, and weather weaklings alla Bella from Twilight. Once I got to know some better, they turned out to be some of my favorite people.

Dear Porsche,

1) Stuck-up: We're not stuck up. We're just better than everyone
2) Overly conservative: Yep. Me and Bro. Romney. At least we oppose gay marriage and support everything in the church.
3) Weather weaklings: I'll show you weather weaklings when you're burning in Hell, and I see it as an average spring day.

Love,
Gio, who's feeling extremely caustic tonight.

Giovanni Schwartz wrote:

Portia wrote:I had prejudices against Arizona Mormons as stuck-up, overly conservative, and weather weaklings alla Bella from Twilight. Once I got to know some better, they turned out to be some of my favorite people.

Dear Porsche,

1) Stuck-up: We're not stuck up. We're just better than everyone
2) Overly conservative: Yep. Me and Bro. Romney. At least we oppose gay marriage and support everything in the church.
3) Weather weaklings: I'll show you weather weaklings when you're burning in Hell, and I see it as an average spring day.

Love,
Gio, who's feeling extremely caustic tonight.

Considering Gov. Romney's history of living in the temperate to cool climates of Michigan, Paris, and Boston, I don't think he'd enjoy the Arizona heat.

("Had." I don't think that word means what you think it means. ;) )

I know I know. I was just feeling all trollolololy.

yayfulness wrote:On my mission, I heard some negative stereotypes about California Mormons. Most of them included the word "prideful" at least once. Granted, that may have been just a subset of a larger California stereotype.

But a lot of my best friends now are from California and I think they're awesome.

I've actually heard "California Mormon" stereotypes, too, but the stereotypes seem to be a bit all over the place. And I'm finding it fascinating to hear about the Idaho Mormon and Arizona Mormon stereotypes, too. Also I'm not surprised to hear that Utah and Idaho get lumped together from a greater distance.

Truth be told, Utahns tend to think of Idaho as just a northern extension of our own state (which is an attitude that Idahoans hate, of course).

I think it just hits too close to home.

Giovanni Schwartz wrote:I think it just hits too close to home.

What hits too close to home?

To play devil's advocate, there have been multiple times I've been in conversation with a non- or former-Mormon, and they've stopped and said "you're not from here, are you? I can tell," and meant it as a compliment. But I don't know what the difference was.

UffishThought wrote:To play devil's advocate, there have been multiple times I've been in conversation with a non- or former-Mormon, and they've stopped and said "you're not from here, are you? I can tell," and meant it as a compliment. But I don't know what the difference was.

Yes, but I often got those kinds of comments at BYU, too. (And then they would sometimes refuse to believe that I really was from Utah.)

So maybe what they meant is that I didn't fit the stereotype--and obviously, many Utahns don't fit it, either.

UffishThought wrote:So maybe what they meant is that I didn't fit the stereotype--and obviously, many Utahns don't fit it, either.

Exactly.

Katya wrote:Truth be told, Utahns tend to think of Idaho as just a northern extension of our own state (which is an attitude that Idahoans hate, of course).

This hits too close to home.

Giovanni Schwartz wrote:

Katya wrote:Truth be told, Utahns tend to think of Idaho as just a northern extension of our own state (which is an attitude that Idahoans hate, of course).

This hits too close to home.

Ah. Gotcha.