America can claim to be a land of psychos, but
not of gigolos, beauties or scholars
FRANK JOHNSON
One of the latest films is entitled Amer- ican Psycho. Before that, there was Ameri- can Beauty. Rather longer ago, there was American Graffiti. Before that, there was American Gigolo. Many of us non-Ameri- cans are bewildered by all this.
By putting `American' in front of the noun in a film's title, do Americans seek to persuade us that America produces a lot of the commodity, quality or people con- cerned? Or does it mean that the commodi- ty, quality or people thus described are so rare in America as to be in need of the emphasis that the psycho, beauty, graffiti or gigolo are American and not some other nationality?
It is reasonable to say that the only one of those nouns which the rest of the world associates with America is psycho. America seems to produce more serial killers than anyone else, though I hope it is not chau- vinist of me to say that our home team of John Reginald Halliday Christie, Dennis Nilson, Peter Sutcliffe, and the partnership of Fred and Rosemary West would give America's mass murderers a run for their money, not to mention Britain's Jack the Ripper — the genre's first international star. (I give Christie his full name so that he be not confused with the late John Christie who founded the Glyndebourne opera house and who, so far as we know, mur- dered no one.) But what of beauties? Does America pro- duce more beauties than, proportionately, the rest of us? I confess to a bias here since, concerning my taste in beauties, I am an English rose man. You cannot beat the English rose, in my view. Among female beauties, I mean; I cannot say whether there are any male English roses. Does Rupert Brooke fit the bill? Perhaps repre- sentatives of our gay readership will offer an opinion.
I have not yet seen American Beauty. Per- haps I never will. I do not like what word of mouth reports about it. But from what I gather it is possible that the title is ironic. The eponymous beauty is not a woman, but a society: suburban America. The film does not intend us to think that suburban Ameri- ca is beautiful; quite the opposite. Still, non-ironists the world over will pay to see American Beauty assuming that it is about a woman. But supposing it were not ironic. Is there any evidence that American women are more beautiful than others? Common observation of American women in the news, such as Janet Reno, Attorney Gener- al, as opposed to the minority in Holly- wood, suggests not.
American graffiti, then? The noun is Ital- ian. This does not mean that modern Italy is any better at graffiti than America. Opera is also an Italian word, but the last time Italy produced a world-conquering opera was 1926 (Turandot). A glimpse of a British council estate suggests that neither America nor Italy dominates the world of daubing and defacing.
That leaves American gigolo. Again, it is an Italian word, and the Italians are tradi- tionally said to have once been the best at it, just as they were at opera. But, just as Italy is now trying international rugby, so the rest of the word is now trying this other sport. But is there any evidence that Ameri- cans play the gigolo game better than other countries? It is true that one simply does not associate certain countries with the game. Unconvincing would be a film enti- tled Irish Gigolo.
I shall perhaps be sorry that I wrote that. The Irish can be touchy. I expect a letter from Irish officialdom expressing sadness and surprise that I should seek to perpetuate the old stereotype that the republic lacks its own gigolos. The letter would go on to say that, as well as what Dublin has to offer in this leisure area, vis- itors to Ireland can enjoy an extensive new, custom-built facility near Cork which offers gigolos, either straight, gay or of no sectarian affiliation, and that if only the peace process could overcome Unionist intransigence, there are plans for cross- 'Son, it's a jungle out there border co-operation in gigolo provision, not excluding transvestism, as befits the term 'cross-border'. The letter would be signed: Fergal O'Pander, Irish Tourist Board (Vice Section).
So I had better make it clear that equally unconvincing would be Norwegian Gigolo, as would be Frinton Graffiti, Swiss Psycho, or Sco use Beauty. Doubtless all those places produce all those things, but the world does not associate those places with those things. The world does not have the time to form its own judgment after prolonged inquiry. The world judges most people, places and things by their 'stereotypes'. This causes much unfairness, but it is useless to com- plain or to try to change the stereotype oth- erwise it would not have taken root, would not be so stereotypical.
Most people who have had direct experi- ence of Russians, especially after a war, associate them with rape. Chechnya shows that yet again. But the world associates them with the epic novel and ballet. Russia is an example of a country which does well out of its stereotype. The United States is not. In every Vaguely uplifting activity in which I have ever been interested, such as the theatre, opera and ballet, the contribu- tion to understanding by American schol- arship has been indispensable to me. But American Scholar is a comparatively small- circulation magazine. No one in Holly- wood would make it a film title. Germans are associated with music, British and Irish with literature, Italians with painting, and French with some mysterious art of living — all of which is undoubtedly too fair to all concerned. But in the world's eye America is associated with baseball caps worn back to front, slasher movies, women whose only confident topic of conversation is themselves, McDonald's, and handguns — not scholarship.
Naturally, Americans are to be found who argue that all this could be changed by that other force invented by and most associated with America: public relations. But public relations, and the things about America which it has most chosen to tell the world, are part of America's problem, not its solution. It would take at least half the present century for the stereotype to change, if then. Let a few of you stick to scholarship, but go on making money out of rubbish, is my advice to the rest of the cousins.
Previous page
