question about italian males & stereotypes?

Question

I have a question about Italian males? My mother's side is (mostly) Italian, save for some Irish, and my dad's is Puerto Rican. Growing up around my mom's side, my Italian-Irish grandfather is very racist, and most of the italian males i've known, from working in retail & friends from my mother's side, were very obnoxious & loudmouthed. I find it very annoying, and wonder why my mother likes to be around that so much? Why are (italian males) so loud & obnoxious, and why do women find that attractive in them? And why do a lot of them speak with that brooklyn-ish accent, even when they aren't from there? And why are a lot of them so racist? Do the italian-americans here ruin the culture & cause the stereotypes from over in Italy or they all generally like that wherever?

forgive me if i seem to be generalizing, i am aware that not all of them are like that (but im asking about the ones who are)...

Answer 1

I always wondered if they had hearing problems because even as they get older, they seem to want to yell across the room. I'm Cherokee Native, and that's considered really rude when other people are around. I do think they ruin the culture wherever they live if they're loud like that. And I don't see where they get off being racist unless it's insecurity about the dark olive skin (heck, most of them are darker than I am.)

Then again, my stepfather is a respectful gentleman, and he's Sicilian (doesn't consider himself Italian because his family was originally from India and Spain.) Most people I've met FROM Italy and surrounding islands are much more respectful than Italian-Americans---they're unrelated really.

Answer 2

I traveled through Italy backpacking for a month back in 2000. I was in my early 20's and traveling with my female cousin who is british. We traveled through France to get to Italy and after we met all of the stereo typical rude parisians, we learned that the further south you travel in France the nicer the people become. Traveling from France to Italy was a HUGE change and from Italy to a gay mans paradise in Mykinos was an EVEN BIGGER change.

Two women in their early twenties traveling alone are going to be approached by the most obnoxious and aggressive men. It is a fact of life. We found that the language barrier was huge and that a typical conversation with a man on the train (20's-30's) would go something like this: (with a phrasebook in hand)

"What is your name, where are you from, did you go to university, what did you study, how many brothers and sisters do you have" The hell with translating, want tomake out. It got to a point where we pretended we didn't have a phrase book and we couldn't speak italian. That was the stereotypes we ran into.

We also went to eat at a nice restaurant in venice. We had a different male wait on us each time, one brought he forks, one brought the plate, one took our order.. Then finally one came out and brought us flowers and said "flowers for you because it is my birthday". It was very sweet and they offered to tour us around venice after the meal.

We had another incident on a train where I lost my supplement to my railpass and the gentleman who was sitting with us started talking to the conductor and had a few words with him when I couldn't find it. He hadn't talked to us until that point, but then he sat down and the conductor walked off without fining me. This was in southern Italy. The man said to us "You are lucky, if you had been French, you would have been ******" and that was it. It felt good to be an american abroad that day. :) So overall, I think you just need to adjust to the culture whereever you are or whoever you are with. The further north you are the more aggressive people will be, in the middle of a country and to the south you will find that hospitality is wonderful (even in France). It is a regional attitude. So if Italians are loud, it is probably because they come from huge families and they have to yell louder in order for everyone else to listen. I'm not Italian and that was the way it was in my family. I have run into great italians that came to my rescue and those who tried to woo me. I have also run into the cat calls and obnoxiousness that ensues when a woman is walking alone. You grab another man to walk with - even if it is just a friend, and they respect that man and the cat calls stop. It's an interesting culture and i'd love to spend more time there now that I'm not quite as young and attractive as I probably was when I was 23.

Answer 3

Like you said those are Italian-Americans and not Italians. Although, I seriously doubt all Italian-Americans are loud and obnoxious. I have met tons of Italian-Americans that were very nice and intelligent and didn't speak with a Brooklyn accent. I live in Italy, and can tell you the majority of Italians are not loud or ignorant or obnoxious. Actually, the majority of them are very friendly and well-mannered.

Answer 4

Italian guys especially southern Italian men are basically black men with fair skin and straight hair. If you've hung around Italian guys then it's the same as hanging around black guys. It's a cultural thing but America loves it. there is a reason why every guy tries to emulate black or Italian men by being tough, cursing alot and mackin ho's.