I have seen a common thread (no pun intended) in many of the posts in this forum. For some inexplicable reason, many of us seem to hate Americans for no apparent justification (other than generalised notions of who we think they are and what we assume they are about).

Case(s) in point -- Dennis Rodman is just a ballplayer and so must be less intelligent than the other "British" celebrities who are in the house. Ergo for Traci Bingham, who we like to label as the beach babe from California.

We like to think, in our arrogant and assuming way, that any Brit is automatically more superior to any American! We point to their use of English (the American version) and conclude that just because it is different to ours, then that has to automatically mean that they have inferior linguistic skills than us.

Sadly it is this inability to see beyond our conceit that has led to this nation to being demoted to a second-rate world power in the greater scheme of things. Most of the bases for our claims of superiority are figments of our own imagination, and the sooner we wake up to the fact that we are only as good as everybody else around, the better it will be for all of us.

We think Rodman is just a basketball player, but like most NBA recruits, he graduated with a university degree. Traci Bingham went to an institution that is as revered as Oxbridge. Though they may be different from Brits and therefore seem "less intelligent" that is simply a gross misconception.

Imagine Chantelle in an American version of CBB, surrounded by folk from the Midwest, from the East Coast, from California, et. al. Would she even know how to interact? Would she perhaps be in even more dire straits than Dennis and Traci as we see them now?

I suggest a little self-examination may be in order here. For those whose forays into foreign shores are limited to drunken binges in Ibiza and Mallorca -- I would postulate that these people are not qualified to pass opinions on others' perceived "intelligence."

the brits love the underdog(s)
that rules out the americans

ps great first post

Excellent post, accent does not reflect an intelligence level.

*claps* Well said OP.

its not that we were better than them but the other way around,for example and i have said this on other threads lennox lewis they hated that he took the heavyweight title away from him and did everything they could to take it from him.secondly two yanks in there dont even know who preston and maggot are,but they wouldnt even know who robbie williams is.if you asked them the best british band they proberbly wouls say the beatles.cuz our performers just dont make it out there.just last year england played them at footie in a freindly match and because we said that we was not gonna play our strongest team they had the cheek to say we were making excuses b4 they beat us the cheek of them.it goes back to ww2 they didnt come in till half way through and had the gall to say they won the war.everything has got too be bigger over there, ok were bigheaded so what they.

There's always one, and it appears to be you.

http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/...7&postcount=18

Less of the "our" and the "we", please!

I think that the "americans" in this house are thinking wtf!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great post Bad Dude

I've seen several occasions where the rythmn of conversations is slightly 'off' between the British and American contestants, probably more down to cultural differences between how we communicate.
Yet I see that it's the Amercians accused of being thick or inarticulate.
I notice that their choice of career is somehow translated into an example of how dumb they must be, and that their career is somehow used to define their intelligence and entire persona as an individual.

I've watched conversations on the live feed where both Traci and Dennis have demonstrated that they are intelligent people.

And when Traci and Dennis speak directly with each other there is a more natural flow to how they communicate, and they understand each other better because the pace and rythmn is in synch.

Maybe a lot of the perceptions are based more so on the highlight show, because I've certainly seen Traci having an intelligent conversation with Faria. But she was relaxed, not on the defensive, and not feeling the pressure so much. She was fluent and articulate, and she certainly came across as intelligent as anyone else in there if not more so.

Dennis too has also demonstrated opinions that just don't come from the mouth of somebody who isn't at least quite intelligent.

A good example was on last night's live feed where Traci and Chantelle were with Maggot.
You could directly compare how the two of them came across at the same time. Chantelle was stumbling over her words, uttering limited dialogue, and needing to pause to try to find the right word on occasions, where Traci came across as quite articulate and fluent.

You can often see where miscommunication comes about more from the differences of the rythmns and pacing of American and British dialogue, and less from how intelligent somebody actually is in reality.

Welcome! We should never have been a first-rate power - we are too small! But we, to use a later contribution, punched above our weight.

I do agree there is an unhealthy dislike of people from the USA but that could be the way the British were hated in the past because we were all powerful. May be it is the natural order of things, to hate the top dogs. I would prefer to be a second-rate world power - in fact I don't mind not being very powerful at all but a bit more helpful to poorer countries.

big bro is turning into a sad state of affairs, it invites "americans" then edits....
It is Totally aggresive.
big brother is history.
It stopped bieng good when it went cruel.

TURNING PEOPLE AGAINST EACH OTHER FOR RATINGS IS NOT COOL.

no matter race/creed/continent or what.
big brother = human torture.
public humiliation.

I hope the british public see that once was funny and entertaining has now turned into a public humiliation show.
I dont find it funny in any way shape or form.
i hope dennis rodman smacks the fk outta mr.endemol

Great post Alrightmate as well.

Official Qualifications doesn't mean shit in this context

The context of the BB experience

First, any equivalent Celeb show in the USA would not have one or two Uk entries... and they certainly wouldn't win. It doesn't seem fair therefore that they should be on Uk tv shows. CBB isn't being shown in the USA. USA Citizens are not able to vote for either Dennis nor Traci. Neither of those people are considered celebs in the Uk.
I had never heard of Dennis Rodman before

Neither Dennis nor Traci have even heard of Davina before. What? The woman that was announcing them as they entered the house. Been presenting the show for the past six years. I mean hello?
Both Dennis & Traci's eviction interviews are going to be just as much a test for Davina as the evictees i reckon

I presume they both have agents. Why were they not educated about BB before they entered the house?
You can tell from their body language, and what they have said during these past 10 days. They are clearly ignorant of the way the Uk BB shows are carried out

Dennis comments that he was expecting a much bigger house. He was expecting something much more Californian style.

Americans generally do not understand English humour. It leads to all sorts of misunderstandings

It's ok if they are well mannered and willing to learn.

However many times, during conversations between Traci & Maggot, i have noticed Traci looking away from Maggot and across the room, with a very obvious bored expression on her face. And i think "how rude" when someone is talking to you
Her listening skills are very bad

Traci has also mentioned, the experience has been nothing like she expected. Suggesting perhaps Dennis & Traci were both expecting it to be like Big Brother USA. Then they are out of place on CBB Uk

I think you are spot on. .

I have been with my American partner for several years, and there are still times when we have the odd hicough due to language/cultural differences. Luckily we learnt early on how different our nations are in some ways, so learnt when these hiccoughs happened to take a step back and understand how these differences affected the way we interacted/viewed things/spoke/etc.

I think the fact that we speak the 'same' language and have seemingly similar cultures in some ways makes the matter worse. As a consequence, we assume that we are so similar that it can't possibly make that much difference. But this similarity disguises the fact that American culture/language can be very different from ours, and even the small differences can create quite big obstacles to overcome/understand.

When someone is speaking a totally foreign language to ours and/or is from a vastly different culture, then I think it is much easier to keep it in our heads that they are different and therefor have different cultural/social rules, etc., so it's easier to make allowances.

I personally believe that the reaction to Dennis' role in that whole Barrymore/Rodman argument was completely overblown because of people's failure to understand that when Dennis was shouting "you wanna fight? I'll give you a fight" etc, he didn't mean it in the physical sense that Michael obviously assumed. I mean, I know Dennis is probably a scary guy to have shouting at you from 3ft away, but I don't think committing or even threatening physical violence even entered his mind. It's just that over here we tend to use the word "fight" only in the physical sense whereas in America they use it to describe almost any argument.

Anyway, slightly off the point, but it's something I don't think got enough recognition.

Yet to me Dennis was one of the biggest celebrities in the house. I hadn't heard of Maggot, Preston, Pete, Traci and obviousley Chantelle.


The same could be said of many of the British celebs from the past couple years. Many had no idea exactly what BB was about, or what to expect.

Why any of the celebs allow themselves to go on the show without knowing more about it, I'll never know.


And so long as they like cricket, and drink tea?

Its a fashion thing,Being anti American is seen as acceptable and part of left wing credentials.That this shorthand is acceptable is probably down to envy.

But like, Traci like, you know, she like ooh my god, I like you know?

I don't mind Traci, she's harmless. I don't like Dennis. He's a typical liver of the "American Dream" and expects everyone to fall at his feet. He doesn't like the fact that people aren't worshipping him in there.

I don't think it's an envy thing; Dennis even said himself that because he's American we'll automatically love him (didn't he?). Annoying American Dream-liver attitude.

Traci keeps winning polls on DS, so there's not that much of an American hate on here, I don't think, well, non more than on these forums in general.

i mostly agree with all the positive side of this thread.

but just to be devil's advocate for a moment, i can see some of the reaons why there is anti american thought.

it goes back further than WW2 all the way back to colonial times and the 'war of independance'

put in a simple metaphor, america is like britains blacksheep bastard son. it went away and came back as a trendier, more powerfull and slightly 'rebelious' version of the father.

to conclude, i am not realy justifying anti american feeling, but i can understand why it happens. especialy today in light of Bush's administration. ESPECIALY the intelligence slur.

in my own life, i take evry1 as they come and try to let my little inbuilt predjudices not taint my impression of the individual even if there is a little truth to stereotypes.

to finish, i have been lucky enough to have gone out with women of non UK nationality, 2 of whom were americans. cultures do have diferrences that can be a little scarey or seem odd, but the diferrences can also be lots of fun too and i wouldnt want to stop having fun because i get a little scared now and again

I've not seen the show because I'm American but I have been keeping up with the reading of these threads simply because I'm wondering what the Americans "fates" will be over there.

That part of your post reminded me of this American show called "The Gauntlet II" we had like that.

They basically put people in a house and everyday they have to complete challanges.

Well anyway, All the cast was American expect for one British girl named Jo. All the Americans on the first day of meeting each other were being "loud, drunk, and wrestling with each other, and some even hooking up with each other" all over the house, and she got really annoyed with them and the next day she just snapped! She went crazy and started shouting she was gonna call the police on them and when the Americans were trying to figure out why she was angry she said "You all Stay away from me!!" later on when she called her Dad she told him "The Americans' behaviors are disgusting (she thought someone hooked up in her bed because of some interesting fluids..) and I can't stay here in this any longer". She literally after 2 days in the house, just walked out. To me, what was going on in the house was no different than what goes on at Frat Parties, but I dunno if y'all have those in Britian

I think maybe it might have had to do with Age too, she was probaly a good 10 years older than most of her twenty Housemates on that season, (there were 4 other Americans that were her age too, that didn't walk out though, they partied with the "young ones") but it might have had to do with Culture and what she was used to aswell.

So to make a long story short, I agree with your point about Chantelle being in the US and how she might behave different in a different culture..........

if my comments caused offence to anyone i apologise, i realy didnt think i was breaking rules but as i reread my post i can see that it could have seemed that way,so again i apologise.

My guess is, they put the prude-st Brit they could find in
As over here on BB they all strip,party and we have lost count of how many times the girls have got their tits out for everyone( even the girls) to have a nibble on, and a few have had sex etc

Not that I watched alot of MTV in my day , but I think Road Rules and Real World featured a few different nationalities. Road Rules had a Brit named Piggy who was a very entertaining, very spiky personality but she was consumed with jealousy over another castmate who was the quintessential American cheerleader type. She was eventually voted off by her castmates.

Brigitte Nielsen was on Surreal World I believe. Not British, I know, but not of American origin.

Spot on.Traci is the only person in BB to have behaved with any manners and decorum.I dont think this is just down to a strict upbringing (in her words).
I have always been treated with civility and warmth in the USA , I shudder to think what they must think of us.
And the behaviour of some of the people in the house towards Traci make me downright ashamed.

LOL - the reason the USA isn't too popular with lots of folks should be obvious to most anyone with a passing knowledge of the last 50 years of world history. Whether you agree with the criticism or not it should be pretty clear why people from a certain perspective would make it. Its also a fact that being 'top nation' tends to result in an arrogant attitute that everyone else should just do as they are told - the UK had it then, the USA has it now. Unsurprisingly, that doesn't go down too well with everyone else - it didn't then, it doesn't now.

However, whatever our opinion of the USA its no excuse for having a go at individual Americans. Individuals should be assessed as individuals and not on the nature of their passport.