Americentrism

Agreed, even on the context of European colonization slavery had many different context than of the USA.

What are some suggestions of ways we can encourage tropers to research non-American audiences when working on tropes based on audience reception like The Scrappy? There's a recurring problem of examples having to be thrown out because only American audiences sufficiently dislike the character.

Edited by badtothebaritone on Sep 20th 2022 at 2:07:32 PM

Synchronicity mentioned that the now-defunct Seldom-Seen Species trope was being used in an Anglo-Japanese-centric way, since how seldom-seen something is in media differs from place to place.

That's exactly why I posted here.

Unenforceable, I think, sadly. Without something really intrusive, most people don't bother to learn the rules.

Edited by ShinyCottonCandy on Sep 20th 2022 at 3:09:35 PM

I was typing my comment as you posted yours, so I didn't see it until afterwards.

There are definitely some things we can do to make it less of a problem without being too in-your-face. I think putting a commented note on pages prone to this kind of misuse would be a good start.

This part of Throw-Away Country seems to think that all films are American.

"European countries are very likely to suffer this fate in film. They're Western enough for the American public to identify with, but distant enough to be "over there". If Australia is remembered, it will generally fall in here as well. (See also Shiny New Australia, a related trope.)"

Could we maybe change this to read

"European countries are very likely to suffer this fate in American films. They're Western enough for the American public to identify with, but distant enough to be "over there". If Australia is remembered, it will generally fall in here as well. (See also Shiny New Australia, a related trope.)"

That seems good.

Poor New Zealand never even gets mentioned. But I like the suggestion.

Lettered Sequel has this part:

Japanese has three writing systems.

Yes, what I mean is that, at least in my impression of the paragraph, the text means a different alphabet from the latin alphabet (which is used in English), rather than saying that Japanese uses different alphabets on its language itself. Furthermore, the way the text is phrased makes it look like that kanji isn't technically an alphabet, which isn't true.

Edited by good-morning on Feb 14th 2023 at 12:01:24 PM

I thought this bit from Hello Kitty was too centered around an American perspective of the franchise, even using "we" and comparing it to American products.

It's talking about why malls are dying in America, but not in Europe. And even here in Asia, malls are thriving. While the analysis is understadably (Eastern) Eurcoentric, it gives out factors other than online shopping and outsourcing on why American malls are on the dumps, but Europe, and even Asia are thriving despite the presence of online shopping. He gave out factors like poor purchasing power, oversupply, and poor urban planning. He really emphasized on poor urban planing being not talked about.

In relation to this video, to this day, The Mall trope still has hangovers of Americentrism, and the impression that "malls around the world, but mostly America, are dying and are stuck in The '80s" still makes my head scratch as a non-American who just went to a mall in the city two weeks ago and is full of bustling people and is highly maintained to make it look modern.

I had discussed this some time ago, bit it fell off as it had to provide some example about Asian malls. Just recently I just found out these Narmtastic videos, especially this gem. I say escalator shenanigans, kids being lost in crowded areas, catfights in public, and other Telenovela staples can be applied in situations in The Mall. Though what do you think?

Edited by alnair20aug93 on Jun 15th 2023 at 11:54:49 PM

Wait, are you arguing The Mall's description is Americentric? If there's agreement it is, we could rewrite the description I guess to account for that, assuming there are regional versions of The Mall with their own tropes and quirks that are worth noting as you suggested.

Edited by themayorofsimpleton on Jun 15th 2023 at 11:53:16 AM

Seems like it. It's on the first paragraph too.

Edited by alnair20aug93 on Jun 15th 2023 at 11:53:58 PM

Mmm, maybe we could reword the description then. I'm in an interesting conundrum that I know quite a bit about American malls (one of my past/sort of present Asperger's-induced interests was retail) but I know little about malls in other countries, so I couldn't really write about it.

Edited by themayorofsimpleton on Jun 15th 2023 at 11:54:50 AM

As stupid a trope name as The American Mall sounds, it might actually make more sense to rework it into that than to try to 'globalize' the description, TBH, as it's a trope specifically focused on malls in the US and their historic role.

(I'm not all that convinced that 'shopping malls exist in general' is even tropeworthy, actually.)

to rewriting Hello Kitty.

What about The Mall?

On the Hello Kitty too. I mean, it ain't just popular in America.

Edited by alnair20aug93 on Jun 16th 2023 at 1:10:16 AM

Yeah, I think The Mall is a very American trope.

I was thinking this over and I'm wondering now if the depiction of Asian malls and associated stereotypes that Alnair mentioned could be its own trope. I actually like The American Mall idea.

Usage check would help there. Globalizing The Mall makes sense if it’s “fun hangout spot”, not if it’s “symbol of American capitalism pre-internet age” (not necessarily explicitly).

Edited by Synchronicity on Jun 16th 2023 at 11:01:50 AM