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- - Fat Americans (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/fat-americans-51055/)

Having spent a few years living in Europe, I have found that Europeans generally view Americans as being fat, loud and stupid! Are we letting ourselves down while on vacation?

Do a search - you will find numerous topics about this. If anything, too many! Sorry - we don't need another one.

In my dealings, Europeans have been impressed with American tourists. I think that US tourists are largely good ambassadors for their country. We do seem to be larger than most Europeans though.

Americans are fatter than most Europeans.. They are the loudest people in the world, they have to be heard.. As for being stupid, Madonna of all people recently said 'Even stupid people in England would be considered intelligent in America'..

I think Madonna was refering to the stereotype associated with having an English accent in America. Another example of taking things out of context to make a point. A sign of stupidity if you ask me...

Jurgen, you obviously aren't American, being so intelligent...you quote Madonna, definitely one of the great minds of the twentieth century.

I hope we will be good American ambassadors. We are currently working out every day and won't be fat when we reach the UK, we are fairly intelligent, now all we have to do is keep our big mouths shut and enjoy!! Fodors is an education in itself.

Gayle, if you do open your mouth to speak, make sure you quote Madonna. Sidebar: From a British gentleman from whom we rented a house: "We generally rent to English people - you understand, of course - and we would NEVER rent to Germans or Dutch". Nice to know that Americans aren't the only despised group. Anybody have a clue why someone wouldn't want to rent to the Dutch? This idiot American found the Dutch to be clean, polite, respectful and reverent...

oh, another thread from an American trying to be superior by insulting other Americans and pretending not to be one, and assuming European superiority in all matters. I've visited Europe quite a bit and have seen plenty of loud, stupid Europeans--be realistic, both US and Eur countries have their advantages and disadvantages. You ever heard French rap music? Well, enough said. Not to mention the latest trendy thing (well, it's been around a while) is for punks/low class French to parade around with big, quasi-dangerous dogs to prove how cool they are. I've heard and seen plenty of punk, loud, obnoxious French and Italian teenagers, not to mention German and British punk soccer fans. IMO any country that supports that whole Windsor clan should not be calling other people stupid, either. (I must say that Prince Phillip is really intelligent, he's often uttering brilliant thoughts.) A large part of this European attitude is at least partly, if not largely, based on jealousy. Europeans have a real love/hate relationship with American culture; pretend to hate it but copy it and emulate it--fashion, rock music, even McDonalds that is the sign of decadent Am capitalism-- well, they line up by the millions to eat there, I've noticed. I've also heard some crude British people (and other nationalities) refer to "rich" Americans as an insult or pejorative--somehow the insults/hatred is often tied to that theme (Am being rich), which I think is quite telling about what's really going on. It's an ignorant belief, anyway, especially since many W. Eur. countries are hardly poor (ie, Switzerland), and the std of living in much of Europe is pretty high and many Americans are not rich at all. Of course, many of these people that "hate" Americans have gained a lot of their sociological knowledge from watching bad American TV show (ie, Dallas) reruns, which reflects the depth of their education. Oh, yeah, British television -- what's THAT all about, anyway?? A lot of it is not exactly aimed at high intellects. Also, many Eur. love to visit and vacation in the US. For example, I live in Wash DC which has a lot of French expats, and Florida is crawling with British, German and Canadian tourists. I agree that Americans as a whole should stop eat less (espec junk food) and get in better shape; but, this also is a somewhat misrepresented viewpoint. I'm a public health professional, and I just read a recent report on the fat issue by the WHO (World Health Org in Geneva) -- this report stated that it's true that the US has a very large percentage of overweight adults (55 pct, if I recall), more than many Eur. Countries. BUT, as a matter of fact, the pct overweight is as high, or almost as high (50-55 pct) in Russia, UK and Germany. Eastern Europe is also very high; I think the "fattest" country in the world is Micronesia. The WHO convened a special conference on worldwide obesity in 1997 and the final report is just being published now, I think. Anyone who is really interested in facts on this topic, can see the preliminary report on the WHO WEBsite: www.who.int/dsa/justpub/obesity.htm. It's really rather interesting.

Very well said, Christina. All of it.

I hate it when americans consider the British to be smarter, sometimes just because of their accent. From traveling, I've learned that that accent isnt all that cute when the englishman is acting like a "you know what". Dont let that accent fool u!

Amen, Amen, Christina! You could be speaking for a lot of us!

I'm in Toronto, with a downtown office in the heart of the entertainment district. All summer long about half the people I pass seem to be American tourists (parking lots full of US cars, etc.) and the people do not seem overly noisy, nor overly chubby. A great many seem well dressed, although casual. They certainly are welcome here, notwithstanding their tourist dollars. When I travel to the US, the same seems to apply, except there actually does seem to be a whole lot more hair on the heads of certain American women, and thre seem to be a large number of people who seem to be professional visitors to Bob Evans restaurants, where they specialize in consuming sausage gravy, causing them to enlarge. But, for the most part, American tourists I've seem are fine folk. BAK

Forgive the sarcasm but: I don't get it....Americans are all fat and dumb? Could you say that slower?

Hey what about those fat German businessmen on vacation, trying to form pyramids at poolside and frightening all the children?

VERY well said Christina. I wish the whole subject of "ugly-Americanism" will end. Yeah, we are loud, obnoxious, overbearing, overweight, ignorant, and mono-linguistic...I could go on and on. That's part of our culture, it's the way we've been raised. Yes, I know it's not perfect, but it's ours and it's all we've got. (Believe me I know it's not perfect...my ancestors were slaves!) Think about it...where would this country be today if it wasn't for those loud, persistant people we call our "Founding Fathers"???

Oh, it's my dear friend Inky. You're always such a treat. How've you been lately?

Well I have been just peachy of late, Kay. I haven't had much time to go online lately, my real life prevents me from sitting online too long. thanks for asking.

To quote a Nat King Cole song....."And I say to myself, what a wonderful world". ;-)

It was Louis Armstrong, not Nat King Cole, you big fat dumb American. I think Chinese are the loudest people on the face of the earth. They are also the skinniest.

Thankyou, your responses have proved my point nicely! I do feel, however, that it is not entirely your own fault. In the modern world TV is having the biggest influence on society. American TV is beyond belief, it is largely inane tripe which is having a terrible effect on your people. Unfortunately it is spreading and effecting the rest of the civilised world as well. Your preferences in sport also shows deep national character flaws. Americans have to be the best at everything. So what do they do? They invent their own sports which nobody else can be bothered to play, then call themselves world champions! They have 'World Series' that no other countries participate in. I prefer to look American performance in proper world sports, such as football(soccer) and rugby.

As predicted, this has turned into an abusive, offensive and totally useless topic. This must be the most over written topic on this site. And one thing, if we can't even keep peace over our keyboards - then what hope does the planet have? You're pecking at each other like chooks in the roost - you all ought to be ashamed of yourself! Regards A non-American, non-European :-)

I agree with the above. I say we end this topic right now. This site, if I'm not mistaken, is Fodors TRAVEL for Europe...not Fodors "Why are americans so fat"..or, "Why dont French men love me". Lets keep it on a travel basis, and stop posting questions that bubble forth hostility.

Jurgen, I would suspect, is a student of psychology, quite probably using us as a case study. In just a few words, he turned us AGAINST EACH OTHER. Brilliant. This is a technique that's been used by extremist groups for a long time.

I think Cory and Jurgen are "boys just trying to have fun," as that great mind of the Western world, Madonna, might sing it! 'nuff said!

Maybe Jurgen and Cory are the same person?

Jurgen: just for your edification, let's talk about baseball for a moment. It was developed from an old British game called "rounders." I seem to recall that the 1992 World Series was won by the Toronto Blue Jays, a Canadian team. Recently, the Baltimore Orioles played the Cuban national team ... and lost. There is a fine team in Montreal. Japan can boast many fine baseball teams. Many players on American major league and minor league teams come from...the Dominican Republic (Sammy Sosa, for example), Mexico (Erubiel Durazo and Armando Reynoso), Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Japan. Your statement that Americans "invent" games and claim then to hold World Series -- well, sir, you are just plain wrong. As to World Champion boxers, I can cite you a few contenders from outside the U.S. -- but you would only be wrong again. I think you should check your facts. Oh, and then there is women's soccer, golf (did you miss seeing Sergio Garcia last week?), tennis, etc. Go soak your head.

Al - calm down! Stop taking everything so personally and flaming the fire... please. If you are happy with your sportspeople - great. Smile satisfied to yourself knowing that the others are displaying their lack of knowledge. Don't show yourself up by having to return the arguement like a child... :-)

Thanks Al! That's tremendous! English schools have two traditional summer sports, cricket and rounders. The Americans could not cope with cricket because it was too complicated for them, so they took up rounders and developed it into baseball. Cricket is the boys game and rouders is the girls game. The Americans play girls sport. Canada always do what the Americans do and the Japanese are... well Japanese. Thanks again!

The reputation for loudness & fatness is outdated.The Americans are now thought of as thoughtful & fairly quiet, but still fat. The English are now thought of as the loudest & worst behaved (the term lagerlout was invented for them) the Germans are next.Childish isn't it. come second.

Americans - thoughtful and fairly quiet!!! Now we have really lapsed into dreamland.

Jo, Al is engaging in that too-seldom-used debating technique of employing facts to dispel gross generalizations and misstatements of the kind that Jurgen chose to bandy about in his most recent post. Al has simply picked up a gauntlet flung down by Jurgen who assumed, incorrectly as it turned out, that no one would challenge him. Let me pick up where Al left off. Jurgen, in your blanket condemnation of all things American, you also chose to blast U.S. television. Yep, there's a lot of tripe on six broadcast and 106 cable networks, but there is also a stunning amount of quality. That's why those U.S.-originated programs end up on both state-run and private networks around the world. Do I think "Baywatch" is great television? I don't know; the only time I've ever seen it was when it was dubbed into Italian and Greek, and I had trouble following the plot subtleties. But am I pleased that programs like "E.R.," "NYPD Blue," "Ally McBeal" and "Law and Order" serve as U.S. cultural ambassadors? Absolutely. And stayed tuned for "Sports Night," which may be the best written program currently airing. And I, for one, would be pleased to export Madonna on a no-deposit, no-return basis.

This just gets better and better!

To ease this tremendous tension, I think we should all meet, get naked and do the bunny hop for a few blocks. ;-) It's hard to stay mad at people when you see their body parts jiggling and they see yours. ;-)

To everyone who has responded to my posts, I wish to apologize. You see, I am 15 years old and I'm bored. I usually write messages to teen boards here in Europe, but everyone is on vacation. Fodors looked like an interesting place to visit, and I was surprised that you people took me seriously. However, I've gotten tired of looking up the words that Al uses. He must be some kind of professor. I really like it when people write long responses, because all I have to say is "it keeps getting better and better." I used to say that to my parents but they got angry and took away my Nintendo for a week, so I can't say that to them any more.

Jurgen: my suspicions are confirmed.

I think that trying to imitate me in order to discredit my point is childish in the extreme. What's the point of a forum if people try to discredit others by imitating them. A very childish act, probably by a 15 year old rounders playing American.