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Sep. 11th, 2008 12:13 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
rodentfanatic.livejournal.comThis baffled me when I first read the books, and it still baffles me yet. Just what the heck does she mean by “whitebread”?
I mean, I’ve got a pretty good idea that it means one isn’t Black, Latino, Native American, or Asian, but beyond that, I’m a little confused. That leaves one of these:
1) Anyone who fits into the anthropological category of Caucasian. This would include people of South Asian and Central Asian/Middle Eastern descent, so I doubt it.
2)Anyone who comes from European heritage. This would include people of Mediterranean and Italian descent, and they’re typically rather dark compared to other countries. And from what I know, the French and German aren’t exactly pale and blonde either; the whole “Aryan” stereotype was a Nazi ideal, but not a reality. North Germans might look like that, maybe, but not the country as a whole. And yes, this entire paragraph here is pretty generalizing and does NOT apply to folks on an individual basis.
3) Anyone whose heritage is from England/Scotland/Ireland/etc. Basically, the stereotypically “average” White person.
4) The Nordic/WASP stereotype. Tall, pale, blonde, blue-eyed.
I figure either 3 or 4, probably 3. I was going to go for 4 because that seems like the look she really hates, but then recalled that she paints “whitebread” as really being “the norm”, and LKH is self-confessed “whitebread” and of Scots-Irish heritage. Come to that, why does she seem to have a serious minority complex, especially in relation to tall blondes? It’s like she just wishes she was one, and decides to dress up the immaturity of bashing them through her books by disguising it as racial angst for Anita, who really, really, really does not look anything more than Irish in my mind’s eye. I mean, the most common look for them is dark hair and pale skin, and yet she claims everyone can tell she’s “mixed”? Oh, no, wait, she can “pass”.
So, when you first read the term, what exactly did you think she meant by “whitebread”? And do you find it a terribly stupid term, especially since one can't just have a tan without being "not quite whitebread"? Because I sure do.
I mean, I’ve got a pretty good idea that it means one isn’t Black, Latino, Native American, or Asian, but beyond that, I’m a little confused. That leaves one of these:
1) Anyone who fits into the anthropological category of Caucasian. This would include people of South Asian and Central Asian/Middle Eastern descent, so I doubt it.
2)Anyone who comes from European heritage. This would include people of Mediterranean and Italian descent, and they’re typically rather dark compared to other countries. And from what I know, the French and German aren’t exactly pale and blonde either; the whole “Aryan” stereotype was a Nazi ideal, but not a reality. North Germans might look like that, maybe, but not the country as a whole. And yes, this entire paragraph here is pretty generalizing and does NOT apply to folks on an individual basis.
3) Anyone whose heritage is from England/Scotland/Ireland/etc. Basically, the stereotypically “average” White person.
4) The Nordic/WASP stereotype. Tall, pale, blonde, blue-eyed.
I figure either 3 or 4, probably 3. I was going to go for 4 because that seems like the look she really hates, but then recalled that she paints “whitebread” as really being “the norm”, and LKH is self-confessed “whitebread” and of Scots-Irish heritage. Come to that, why does she seem to have a serious minority complex, especially in relation to tall blondes? It’s like she just wishes she was one, and decides to dress up the immaturity of bashing them through her books by disguising it as racial angst for Anita, who really, really, really does not look anything more than Irish in my mind’s eye. I mean, the most common look for them is dark hair and pale skin, and yet she claims everyone can tell she’s “mixed”? Oh, no, wait, she can “pass”.
So, when you first read the term, what exactly did you think she meant by “whitebread”? And do you find it a terribly stupid term, especially since one can't just have a tan without being "not quite whitebread"? Because I sure do.
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