Ugly American

Ugly American is an epithet used to refer to perceptions of loud, arrogant, demeaning, thoughtless and ethnocentric behavior of American citizens mainly abroad, but also at home.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} Although the term is usually associated with or applied to travellers and tourists, it also applies to US corporate businesses in the international arena.^{[7][8][9][10][11]}

Definition

The Encarta dictionary defines "Ugly American" as: stereotypical offensive American: a loud, boorish, nationalistic American, especially one traveling abroad, who is regarded as conforming to a stereotype that gives Americans a bad reputation.^[12] In contrast, Dictionary.com defines "the Ugly American" as: Pejorative term for Americans traveling or living abroad who remain ignorant of local culture and judge everything by American standards.^[13]

Other use

Sport

The term has also been used in the international sporting arena. At the 33rd Ryder Cup held in September 1999, the United States over-zealously celebrated after Justin Leonard holed a 45-foot putt on the 17th green, resulting in extensive and adverse media coverage.^[14][15] Later, at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the term was widely used after members of the US 4 x 100 relay team pranced around the stadium, flexing their muscles and making poses with the American flag, after winning a gold medal.^[16] One foreign journalist called the incident "one of the most cringe-making exhibitions that the Olympics has seen".^[17] This event was very heavily criticized by the American press and public. The members of the relay team were contrite and apologized for the incident the same day. Then, at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, the term was regularly used after the skiing superstar Bode Miller, who bragged about skiing drunk before the Olympics, was adversely compared to the term "Miller time," and went home medal-less.^[18] A lesser-known teammate was sent home for fighting in a bar.^[19]

In tennis, John McEnroe was regularly cited in the media as being an "Ugly American" for his on-court tantrums and off-court negative comments about London and Paris.^[20] In contrast, Andre Agassi who early in his tennis career was labeled a "potential ugly american", managed to transform himself into a crowd favourite.^[21] In women's tennis, Serena Williams's outburst at the 2009 US Open semifinal against Kim Clijsters, reiterated that the "Ugly American" was no myth.^[22]

Science

In the scientific fields, the term has been widely used by the international community for the failure by the US to adopt the metric system.^[23][24][25] Along with Liberia in Africa and Burma in Asia, the US is one of only three countries in the world who have not adopted, or swapped to the metric system.^[26][27]

Politics

In May 2008, the US House sub-committee passed a Bill (House Resolution 4080) that would allow more foreign fashion models to work in the United States, and was subsequently dubbed the "ugly American bill".^[28] The Bush Administration was often referred to as "The Ugly American" because of its foreign policies.^{[29][30][31][32]}

Movies

The 2004 film EuroTrip was originally slated to be named "The Ugly Americans" due to its depiction of stereotypical American tourists in Europe.^[33] The producers changed the title shortly before its release.^[34]

Origin

The Ugly American

The term originated as the title of a 1958 book by authors William Lederer and Eugene Burdick. Ironically, the character referred to as the "ugly American" is one of few Americans who does not exhibit the traits now known by that term. ^[35] In 1963 the book was made into a movie directed by George Englund and starring Marlon Brando.

The best-selling, loosely fictional account provided contrasting characters with different approaches to opposing communist influence in Southeast Asia, and the use of foreign aid in particular. The majority of the Americans exhibit a range of blundering, corrupt, and incompetent behaviors: often concentrating on impractical projects that will serve more to benefit American contractors than the local population. A minority are effective because they employ knowledge of the local language and culture, but most of these are marginalized and some even considered suspect. As a result, their influence is more limited than it should be.^[36]

The title character, Homer Atkins, is introduced late in the book. The "Ugly American" is an engineer whose unattractive features, rough clothing and dirty hands are contrasted with the bureaucrats' freshly pressed clothes, clean fingers and smooth cheeks. Their behaviors have the opposite contrast: the engineer wants to provide practical solutions to day-to-day problems faced by the populace; the bureaucrats want to build highways and dams that are not yet needed, and with no concern for the many other projects that will have to be completed before they can be used. ^[37]

The book led to a move by President Dwight Eisenhower to study and reform American aid programs in the region.^[38]

In the book, a fictional Burmese journalist wrote, "For some reason, the people I meet in my country are not the same as the ones I knew in the United States. A mysterious change seems to come over Americans when they go to a foreign land. They isolate themselves socially. They live pretentiously. They're loud and ostentatious. Perhaps they're frightened and defensive, or maybe they're not properly trained and make mistakes out of ignorance."^[39]

The idea of the ignorant or badly behaving American traveller long predates this book. Mark Twain wrote about The Innocents Abroad in the nineteenth century, and Algonquin Round Table member Donald Ogden Stewart wrote Mr and Mrs Haddock Abroad in 1924.^[40]

See also

• American exceptionalism
• Anti-American sentiment
• The Quiet American
• Plastic Paddy

References

External links

• Washington Post's How the World Sees America
• Ugly American: Common Errors in English