Americentrism

This is like Fan Myopia, except that it's Nationality Myopia. The majority of tropers are unsurprisingly American. Yes, I am not from the United States (though I have visited there a few times).

The stinger for The New Rock & Roll for example says the following:

TV Tropes is corrupting our youth! America is doomed!

Apparently, TV Tropes has no ill effects on non-Americans. But again, the vast majority of Moral Guardians mentioned in this website are Americans.

It would be great if we could fix the stinger for The New Rock & Roll to be inclusive of non-Americans. It would also be great to find other examples of Americentrism.

Edited by Nen_desharu on May 2nd 2021 at 12:25:41 PM

Kirby is awesome.

...is this really an issue, let alone an issue worth a Long-Term projects thread?

back lol

I know that if there's one page that suffers from Americentrism, it's UsefulNotes.The Presidents, as UsefulNotes.The Presidents Of Germany and UsefulNotes.The Presidents Of France also exist but they note the specific country while that page doesn't. Ironically, Music.The Presidents redirects to Music.The Presidents Of The United States Of America, so I guess there's subpage collision or whatever (but it's minimal since it's a work page and a UN page).

Edited by Piterpicher on May 3rd 2021 at 12:57:36 PM

Currently mostly inactive. An incremental game I tested: https://galaxy.click/play/176 (Gods of Incremental)

on changing the stinger. It's only a common stereotype where Americans are Holier Than Thou conservatives.

Edited by callmeamuffin on May 3rd 2021 at 9:16:15 PM

Come play Character Uplift Game!

Not entirely sure how much of an issue this is. Maybe worth a short-term thread, but I'm not even sure about that though.

TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall

Yeah, my issue with the Moral Guardian's wick is that I don't think other countries had the same "Rock and Roll Is Evil and Satanic" scare like America had. It's referencing real-world ideology that existed in America, and as far as I know, not in other parts of the world, or at least not to the same degree. Changing that will water it down to the point of the joke basically not making sense at all.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

I heard somewhere on the internet a long time ago that some weird Russian guy claimed rock music was invented by America to destroy morality or something, but I'm not going to say anything for certain because if the source is what I think it is, it isn't a very good source, so don't quote me.

TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall

I think there were moral panics about rock music in some Eastern Bloc countries, but don't quote me on that.

I think the original poster's point is that this joke already makes no sense to non-US users of the site. So, it comes across as a sort of 'in-joke' for people who have lived in the US long enough to get it.

That said, I don't personally think there's any reason to change the wording of the footnote. It can be solved by finding a more appropriate trope to pothole the 'America is doomed' part of the comment than the current pothole (Moral Guardians, for example).

On the subject of the original post, while it's true there are some pages that are Americentric to the point of not being understandable to the rest of us, I'm not sure a project thread will work for that. It's more a case of just dealing with it as you find it. Would the existing Trope description clean-up thread work for that?

In my experience, this site's single biggest issue is the persistent removal of International English in violation of the Wiki's 'first come, first served' policy. Some tropers seem to edit solely to change correct non-US spelling into US-spelling without making any other edits on the page. I've seen an entire pages get 'cleaned up' to change the whole thing from British spelling to US spelling.

A project thread isn't going to solve that. It requires people knowing about, and adhering to, the 'first come, first served' rule. A lot of tropers don't know about it and assume this site is supposed to be US English only. It also requires people to stop relying on browser spellcheckers to do the work for them; US spellcheckers are obviously going to incorrectly flag words and grammar that are correctly following a non-US system — but then, I think a lot of tropers don't realise this wiki has a 'don't rely on spellcheckers' guideline either.

Edited by Wyldchyld on May 6th 2021 at 4:35:19 PM

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.

FWIW, we have a trope for this phenomenon: We All Live in America.

"It's just a show; I should really just relax"

Sometimes it's not always intentional. I might've done it before, but without realizing it was an alternate spelling and not just a typo.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Regarding the topic of this thread, I've been working on fixing various paedophilia-related tropes (Lolicon, The Jailbait Wait, Jail Bait) and it seems like many of them - including UsefulNotes.Consent - assume that we all live in California. It's not super problematic most of the time but it's noticeable when they keep talking about adults.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

The description of People of Hair Color seems weirdly dismissive of ethnic divisions that aren't widely known in the US, even using phrases like "in all too many works". Of the three links to Truth in Television, two have qualifiers to downplay it or show surprise at such a thing, and the last is

"It's Truth in Television that they're wrong"?

Though honestly the page has other problems. The very first example of a people "distinguished by hair colour" also has red eyes and darker skin than their neighbours, with their "scary eyes" being considered their most distinctive trait. There's even examples of characters whose bodies are covered in green scales because they also have red hair. It seems like it's trying to be too many things at once, and would be better off as a "Fantastic Ethnicity" page or something.

Edited by Prime32 on May 7th 2021 at 5:37:10 PM

@ Septimus Heap. I'll bear that in mind, thanks.

I think you're right about that page having more than one problem. The trope description relies heavily on a 'justification' paragraph that references the debunked (but persistent) US 'dark/red Irish' stereotype, which is rooted in xenophobia and racism rather than reality. However, even that paragraph has more problems than just this.

I think that page probably needs a visit to the Trope Description clean-up page, given how widespread its issues are.

Edited by Wyldchyld on May 6th 2021 at 5:11:31 PM

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.

Just the beginning: On UsefulNotes.Consent, it says this after clumsily explaining different consent ages in the United States and other English-speaking countries ("Western world" doesn't equal "anglosphere", American netizens):

Edited by ccorb on May 8th 2021 at 12:54:44 PM

Rock'n'roll never dies!

I think that was chosen because it was the highest minimum, rather than any regional thing, just to cover all bases. Unless there's somewhere that says that even 18 is too young to consent?

SoundCloud

Why use a fixed age assumption in the first place? Why not just assume compliance with local law?

That would be a much better idea.

Kirby is awesome.

How's this for a change?

That is much better.

The examples would be revised if necessary.

Kirby is awesome.

Made the change.

Mighty Whitey might need some cleanup. The description is a Wall of Text which opens by talking about white European protagonists, then says that "Non-American media can exhibit versions of this trope tailored to their home audiences" (implying that all Americans are white, and Europe is part of America). It also refers to whites/Americans/??? outdoing others as the "conventional" version, implying that other people only started glorifying their own races in imitation of it.

Given how tacked-on the non-white section feels, and the number of "similar themes" mentioned in the last paragraph of the description, there might be a case of Missing Supertrope Syndrome here.

EDIT: The Majored in Western Hypocrisy page says that Mighty Whitey is limited to white Americans, and there might be other similar references.

Edited by Prime32 on May 15th 2021 at 1:10:04 PM

Mighty Whitey is indeed problematic.

Kirby is awesome.