History Main / CulturalCringe

The TropeNamer and TropeCodifier is Australian literary critic and social commentator A. A. Phillips, who coined the term in his 1950 essay ''"A.A. Phillips on The Cultural Cringe,"'' where he observed this behavior in rampant abundance among his contemporary fellow Australians. This trope is at least OlderThanRadio, though, enough so that among the people GilbertAndSullivan felt "[[TheMikado would not be missed]]" was:

Compare InternalizedCategorism, where the character starts hating himself for being a part of a bad culture rather then merely hating the culture that he comes from.

-> ''Have you ever met an American? [[BoomerangBigot Most of us would]] [[MisanthropeSupreme level half the country]] [[BoomerangBigot for Canadian citizenship...]]''
--> '''@/TwinBird''', this Trope's Discussion page

The Cultural Cringe, to quote TheOtherWiki, "is an internalized inferiority complex which causes people in a country to dismiss their own culture as inferior to the cultures of other countries." A country with a cultural cringe will tend to discount a lot of its own culture. In fact, it's not uncommon for people suffering from Cultural Cringe to disavow that there is a national culture ''at all''. Cross-reference [[http://www.zompist.com/amercult.html How to recognize that you're an American]] and the various spin-off lists for other countries.

[[http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/zz253/NoNumbersPlz/survey-of-national-pride.jpg?t=1271027985 This survey]] found [[http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/10/06/japan-least-proud-nation/ here]] (Use caution: Site is [[NotSafeForWork NSFW]]) at SankakuComplex shows how CulturalCringe among nations has changed in recent years; it appears now that Canadians and Australians lead the pack for those who have the most PatrioticFervor for their country, while Americans (who are traditionally mocked for having "a flag on every building") are actually in the middle of the pack, near Russia in terms of national pride. Japan, it seems, is the country that now suffers most from the Cringe.

The TropeNamer and TropeCodifier is Australian literary critic and social commentator A. A. Phillips, who coined the term in his 1950 essay ''"A.A. Phillips on The Cultural Cringe,"'' where he observed this behavior in rampant abundance among his contemporary Australians. This trope is at least OlderThanRadio, though, enough so that among the people GilbertAndSullivan felt "[[TheMikado would not be missed]]" was:

The TropeNamer and TropeCodifier is Australian literary critic and social commentator A. A. Phillips, who coined the term in his 1950 essay ''"A.A. Phillips on The Cultural Cringe,"'' where he observed this behavior in rampant abundance among contemporary Australians. This trope is at least OlderThanRadio, though, enough so that among the people GilbertAndSullivan felt "[[TheMikado would not be missed]]" was:

The Cultural Cringe, to quote TheOtherWiki, "is an internalized inferiority complex which causes people in a country to dismiss their own culture as inferior to the cultures of other countries." As such, the countries which have such a cringe, like Australia, will tend to discount a lot of its own culture. In fact, it's not uncommon for people suffering from Cultural Cringe to disavow that there is a national culture ''at all''. Cross-reference [[http://www.zompist.com/amercult.html How to recognize that you're an American]] and the various spin-off lists for other countries.

Compare DontShootTheMessage, where one feels embarrassed by aspects of a culture but still defends it, and which tends to have more to do with politics or religion than with nationality.

This trope is fairly old, enough so that among the people GilbertAndSullivan felt "would not be missed" was:

Funnily enough, this didn't happen with Australian popular music. Bands like AC/DC grew in the 'pub rock' scene of the 70s and early 80s, with many notable Australian artists such as Midnight Oil, Hunters and Collectors, and Cold Chisel being phenomenally popular within Australia but virtually unheard of elsewhere.

Funnily enough, this didn't happen with Australian popular music. Good thing too, because otherwise there wouldn't be bands like AC/DC.

* This exists within the United States' borders as well. Good luck trying to find more than a handful of residents from any larger Rust Belt city with any semblance of hometown pride that isn't tied into one of the local sports teams. Sometimes averted with Chicago, but even then it's usually only to make claims that Chicago doesn't suck quite as bad as the other Midwestern cities due to its sheer size.

Over the past century, the United States has struggled with a Cultural Cringe of its own. However, in the recent decade, there has been a ''very'' strong surge of the Cringe. Take a look around TVTropes--sometimes you'll get the sense some of our American tropers want nothing more than to decamp from the United States. Or better yet, witness the sheer number of disaffected Americans ''anywhere'' who refer to their country as if it were {{Eagleland}} Flavor #2 (in other words, the "[[TooDumbToLive brainless]] [[FatBastard obese]] [[AlwaysChaoticEvil barbarians]]" flavor) and have [[BoomerangBigot sheer loathing for their fellow countrymen]].

Cultural Cringe is often [[BeyondTheImpossible taken to ridiculous extremes]] in Russia. Up to this day, the country's intelligentsia proudly upholds a 200-year old tradition of scorning their country's "backward" culture and "atrocious history" and their people's "brutish" mores while literally gushing about the "civilized", "democratic" and "tolerant" West. To cite an infamous example: in TheNineties, Vladimir Pozner, a then-popular talk show host, suggested that the country's history and culture would have gone the "right way" if the country had adopted Protestantism as a state religion... [[YouFailHistoryForever back in 988]]. What's interesting, while Pozner [[NoTrueScotsman isn't really Russian]] (he's half-French and have spent much of his life in France), this position is ''very'' wedespread in the educated circles. On the other hand, there're also Slavophiles, who're just as bad.

Cultural Cringe is often [[BeyondTheImpossible taken to ridiculous extremes]] in Russia. Up to this day, the country's intelligentsia proudly upholds a 200-year old tradition of scorning their country's "backward" culture and "atrocious history" and their people's "brutish" mores while literally gushing about the "civilized", "democratic" and "tolerant" West. To cite an infamous example: in TheNineties, Vladimir Pozner, a then-popular talk show host, suggested that the country's history and culture would have gone the "right way" if the country had adopted Protestantism as a state religion... [[YouFailHistoryForever back in 988]].

Sometimes it seems this is the entire nation's ''modus operandi.'' It might be hard to tell how much of it is simply [[SelfDeprecation typical British humour]], as opposed to typical British self-loathing.

Sometimes it seems this is the entire nation's ''modus operandi.'' It might be hard to tell how much of it is simply [[SelfDeprecation typical British humour]].

Over the past century, the United States has struggled with a Cultural Cringe of its own. However, in the recent decade, there has been a ''very'' strong surge of the Cringe. Take a look around TVTropes--sometimes you get the sense some of our American tropers want nothing more than to decamp from the United States. Or better yet, witness the sheer number of disaffected Americans ''anywhere'' who refer to their country as if it were {{Eagleland}} Flavor #2 (in other words, the "[[TooDumbToLive brainless]] [[FatBastard obese]] [[AlwaysChaoticEvil barbarians]]" flavor) and have [[BoomerangBigot sheer loathing for their fellow countrymen]].

Notions that TrueArtIsForeign have grown quite strong in many aspects of American culture. It's also showing up in American media; NationalStereotypingTropes like AmericaSavesTheDay are not simply being averted, but brutally and humiliatingly ''subverted'' more often (witness the plots of ''ModernWarfare'' and the ''Red Alert'' and ''Generals'' series of ''CommandAndConquer'', where the United States seems to cause problems or make them worse, leaving heroes of other countries to clean up the mess).[[/folder]]

Notions that TrueArtIsForeign have grown quite strong in many aspects of American culture. It's also showing up in American media; NationalStereotypingTropes like AmericaSavesTheDay are not simply being averted, but brutally and humiliatingly ''subverted'' more often (witness the plots of ''ModernWarfare'' and the ''Red Alert'' and ''Generals'' series of ''CommandAndConquer'', where the United States seems to cause problems or make them worse, leaving heroes of other countries to clean up the mess).

Incidentally, the American media, particularly Hollywood, skews much more liberal than the country on average, giving the indication that American cultural cringe is more widespread than it actually is. This is one of those things people have written research papers and books on.[[/folder]]

Notions that TrueArtIsForeign have grown quite strong in many aspects of American culture. It's also showing up in American media; NationalStereotypingTropes like AmericaSavesTheDay are not simply being averted, but brutally and humiliatingly ''subverted'' more often (witness the plots of ''ModernWarfare'' and the ''Red Alert'' and ''Generals'' series of ''CommandAndConquer'', where the United States seems to cause problems or make them worse, leaving heroes of other countries to clean up the mess).
[[/folder]]

Over the past century, the United States has struggled with a Cultural Cringe of its own. However, in the recent decade, there has been a ''very'' strong surge of the Cringe. Take a look around TVTropes--sometimes you get the sense some of our American tropers want nothing more than to decamp from the United States. Or better yet, witness the sheer number of disaffected Americans ''anywhere'' who refer to their country as if it were {{Eagleland}} Flavor #2 (in other words, the "[[TooDumbToLive brainless]] [[FatBastard obese]] [[AlwaysChaoticEvil barbarians]]" flavor) and have [[BoomerangBigot sheer loathing for their fellow countrymen]]. Notions that TrueArtIsForeign have grown quite strong in many aspects of American culture and it's also showing up in American media.

Over the past century, the United States has struggled with a Cultural Cringe of its own. However, in the recent decade, there has been a ''very'' strong surge of the Cringe. Take a look around TVTropes--sometimes you get the sense some of our American tropers want nothing more than to decamp from the United States. Or better yet, witness the sheer number of disaffected Americans ''anywhere'' who refer to their country as if it were {{Eagleland}} Flavor #2 (in other words, the "[[TooDumbToLive brainless]] [[FatBastard obese]] [[AlwaysChaoticEvil barbarians]]" flavor) and have [[BoomerangBigot sheer loathing for their fellow countrymen]].

Notions that TrueArtIsForeign have grown quite strong in many aspects of American culture. It's also showing up in American media; NationalStereotypingTropes like AmericaSavesTheDay are not simply being averted, but brutally and humiliatingly ''subverted'' more often (witness the plots of ''ModernWarfare'' and the ''Red Alert'' and ''Generals'' series of ''CommandAndConquer'', where the United States seems to cause problems or make them worse, leaving heroes of other countries to clean up the mess).

Sometimes it seems this is the entire nation's ''modus operandi.''

Notions that TrueArtIsForeign have grown quite strong in many aspects of American culture. It's also showing up in American media; NationalStereotypingTropes like AmericaSavesTheDay are not simply being averted, but brutally and humiliatingly ''subverted'' more often (witness the plots of ''ModernWarfare'' and the ''Red Alert'' and ''Generals'' series of ''CommandAndConquer'', where the United States seems to cause problems or make them worse, leaving heroes of other countries to clean up the mess). Much of this may be a commentary on current events, but we'll leave the specifics of that as a mental exercise for you, the reader.