I Drive A Toyota, Not A Kangaroo

On my recent journey to Los Angeles I had the pleasure of meeting new and exciting people every day. As Hollywood is practically the home of the entertainment industry I was faced with a lot of people referring to themselves as "actors" or "in the industry". Not only did they fail miserably at impersonating our accents, but they also had some pretty wild ideas as to what Australians are like. Apparently we are all crocodile hunting, kangaroo riding, Fosters drinking professional surfers. I hadn't even heard of Fosters up until this trip! This made me think "where on earth did they get all of these crazy assumptions from?!" Most Americans get their impressions of Australians from the entertainment media and if you haven't already noticed this is specifically focused on rural Australia. Thanks to productions like "Crocodile Dundee" and "The Crocodile Hunter" we all look like crazy thrill seeking bad asses! Globalisation enables us to discover and learn about other cultures through media outlets such as film and television, as Pieterse (2004) says "globalisation crosses boundaries of government and business, media and social movements, general and academic interest."

To be honest some of the stereotypes about Australians annoyed me, others I found hilarious, but I took a step back and realised that I am also an offender of believing certain stereotypes that I have either witnessed through a Hollywood movie or read on the Internet. Same as Americans, Australians are also influenced by the entertainment media. For as many inaccurate and generalised films portraying Australians that are out there, there are thousands of films and television shows also representing America and Americans inaccurately. For example, thanks to majority of Hollywood films that I have watched I was expecting most food to be super-sized and a heart attack waiting to happen, but in Los Angeles it was quite possibly the opposite. On every corner there was either a smoothie bar or an organic supermarket. Safe to say I felt a bit ridiculous for assuming such things just from going off what I had seen in movies (although not to be disappointed my boyfriend did stumble upon this beauty...)

Universal City Walk

I guess what we can take from this is that you shouldn't be so quick to believe everything you see in a movie or on a television show as evidently it is most likely grossly exaggerated, somewhat offensive and just a poor generalisation. 

References:

Nederveen Pieterse, J 2004, "Globalization: consensus and controversies", Globalization and Culture: global mélange, Rowan & Littlefield, Lanham