Ugly American

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For other uses of the term, see Ugly American (disambiguation).

Ugly American is an epithet used to refer to perceptions of loud, arrogant, demeaning, thoughtless and ethnocentric behavior of American citizens at home, but mainly abroad.^{[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]}

Contents 1 Definition 2 Other use 3 Background 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] 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]

[edit] Other use

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]

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 critisized by the American press and public. The members of the relay team were contrite and apologized for the incident the same day.

At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, 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 the scientific fields, the term has been used by the international community for the failure by the US to adopt the metric system, despite the United States Congress legally recognizing the metric system of measurement in 1866 and passing the Metric Conversion Act in December 1975.^[20][21] The US, along with Liberia in Africa and Burma in Asia, remain as the only three countries in the world who have not adopted, or swapped to the metric system.^[22]

Main article: Metrication in the United States

The $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter was destroyed after NASA specified metric units in the contract, but one subcontractor, Lockheed Martin, provided thruster performance data to the team in pound force seconds instead of newton seconds.^[23][24]

In Philadelphia, a businessman opened a bar and restaurent called the 'Ugly American', stating it was a funny and provocative name.^[25]

[edit] Background

The term originated as the title of a 1958 book by authors William Lederer and Eugene Burdick, The Ugly American.^[26] The film adaptation of the novel came out in 1963, directed by George Englund and starring Marlon Brando.^[27] Englund was nominated for a Golden Globe award as director of the film.

In the context of this novel, the title alludes to both positive and negative attributes of its characters. The authors state that one of the "good" characters is "ugly" looking to create a contrast with the "bad" characters who were "handsome". In the book, the authors' "good" characters used their skills and resources to make a positive change in the lives of villagers in Southeast Asia and the "bad" characters used their skills and resources for other purposes. For example, there is an "ugly" engineer who helps villagers with an irrigation system, and a "handsome" Ambassador who does not care about what happens to the people on the village level. The novel weaves many separate stories with these kinds of counterpoints of an "ugly American".^[28]

The best-selling, loosely fictional account included descriptions of blundering, corrupt, and incompetent behaviors of Americans in Southeast Asia that were involved with American foreign aid. The book led to a move by President Dwight Eisenhower to study and reform American aid programs in the region.^[29]

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."^[30]

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.^[31]

[edit] See also

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

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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