Further attempt at definition

[electricland]

Eurotrash.

Not a very nice term, but one with fairly wide currency, at least over this side of the Atlantic. It conjures up a very specific set of associations in my head, but I can't quite seem to define it, and mrs_cake has rightly called me on this.

So. What is it? Is there a North American equivalent? Is there a collective term for both types? Am I just unthinkingly using a meaningless pejorative?

Since both UrbanDictionary.com and I have failed miserably in defining it, and I can't leave a failure alone, my brain kept working at it last night. I haven't come up with any better definitions, but I have come up with some examples:

- Jeremy Irons as the bad guy in Die Hard 2. Also, Jeremy Irons as Claus von Bulow (it's the ascot), although that subspecies is not generally to be found at F1 events.
- The royal family of Monaco (dodgy 'cause they're, you know, royal -- but very minor).
- Gianni and Donatella Versace and those who dress head to toe in their products.

Anyone have any other examples, or a definition? monkeycommando, ever given this any thought?

Comments

[elissa-carey.livejournal.com]

Best I could dig up was this:
http://xforums.net/ib/index.php?showtopic=9602

Other than that, I keep thinking of Zeromancer's song "Eurotrash." :)

That's beautiful!

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Certainly as good as the Urban Dictionary. I see that others have been having trouble with the concept too. :D

[alierakieron.livejournal.com]

I always figured the corresponding term was "Ugly American", but of course, that doesn't include our Northern neighbors. of course, I've never witnessed Canadians being as boorish and stupid as we often are.

The generic definition I use for either term is an incredibly rude person with an over-developed sense of entitlement and cultural superiority based on which side of the Atlantic s/he's from.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

I like your generic definition very much, but isn't it kinda long? ;D

[alierakieron.livejournal.com]

Hee: How bout this: "I don't know from Eurotrash, but I know it when I have to wait on it behind the counter. :P"

When I worked at Barnes and Noble there were an awful lot of pretentious Eurotrash music students.

[bryghtboy.livejournal.com]

I've always associated Eurotrash with something along the lines of people who feel entitled to being known and respected. Which I think is something that smacks of the class system that was in place in Europe not that long ago.

Not that we don't have the same sort of people over here, not that they aren't annoying and silly and all that other shit. I think its just that our social norms give them the respect they feel they need. For instance being able to track your royal lineage back 500 years will get you a cup of coffee with $2.50 here... and over where they come from it will get them invited into a home for a 5 course banquet. Not quite a great example but best I could pull outta my brain... I think its just very different expectations and the requsite feelings of talking at cross-purposes. Maybe?

Interesting...

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Maybe. That's certainly part of the vibe I get off it (see: Monegasque Royal Family, above), although clearly not everyone agrees (see: monkeycommando, below).

Hard to nail down once you start thinking about it, isn't it?

[king-mob.livejournal.com]

It's always made me think "Dieter" from Sprockets. I'd just moved from Germany to Ohio when that sketch started running on SNL, and it cracked me up no end.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Oooh. Hmmm.

Okay.

[monkeycommando.livejournal.com]

Now these are all my opinions, but it's a term I've used frequently lately, because the LW and I have been watching "The Next Joe Millionaire" and all the contestants are Eurotrash to one degree or another. Olinda, from that show is probably the definitive example.

So to me: first of all it means trash. Same a US white trash, in that it's people who are basically jerks, ignorant, _tacky_ and in your face.

The difference is one of class: white trash are supposed to be low clash (and usually poor, but not necessarily--look at Kid Rock). Working class wouldn't be right, because trash don't work much.

Eurotrash, however, are more like upper middle class, huge desposible incomes, drunk/looped and partying all the time, insisting on the latest, most expensive fashions (fashion victims in fact) and thinking that those things and their needs are important. They are constantly complaining about being bored, and they're definitely snobby, and are probably the last people on the planet who should actually be elitist. Also, elaborate greasy hair is part of the vibe.

I think women are now the central Eurotrash type, with men being a variant/afterthought (the opposite is true for White Trash).

If you're actually aristocracy then you've got your own set of traditional personality problems, and so you probably aren't Eurotrash.

I suspect, but can't confirm, that the term originated in the UK. There was a show, I think on Channel 4 there, called Eurotrash, hosted by a Czech naked model (don't think quite porn star), but I think it was created long after the term first had currency.

The first Eurotrash "types" I can think of in media, although they predate the coinage as far as I know, are the villains in Die Hard, Hans Gruber and his henchman. Stylish, Nihilistic, generally irritating and not to be trusted. Their filmic imitators definitely fit the mold.

I think the closest North American correspondent to the eurotrash type may be the drunken frat boy. Obnoxious, hedonistic, too much money for their own good. The frat boys aren't as concerned with style though.

There's also a vibe link (for me) to a quasi-ethnic slur we used to use for mediterranean Canadians--and anyone else like them--of a certain style: Gino. Greasy, over-produced bad clothes, full of themselves.

For what it's worth I get the same vibe from everything of Quebecois and Montreal: too stylish for its own good (this is of course relative to tha' T-dot and Kingston, and we all know what they're like). The idea that this aspect of Montreal could actually increase during the car races boggles my mind.

And oddly enough, when the Molson Indy comes to town in Toronto, it's regarded (by some) as the big White Trash festival.

There's also the element of the tourist in it for sure. It's possible you can't be Eurotrash in your own country. The Eurotrash capital would probably be some cross between Amsterdam, Berlin, and Milan, featuring the most stereotypical aspects of each of those cities.

The opposite style impulses from the Anglo centred world have produced Grunge, slackers, sloppy punks (unlike the sleek punks of Montreal), and people who wear Tommy Hilfiger clothes but not in a hiphop way (non-Eurotrash dressing for people who still want expensive clothes with the right labels).

For what it's worth, Dieter doesn't seem like Eurotrash to me. Although obnoxious, he's not drunk, not stylish, and actually kind of smart. He's another kettle of fish, a product of the paranoid era of the cold war, not the hedonistic, historically oblivious post-Soviet generation.

Oh, and I don't know why I think this, but I thought the original Ugly American was actually a good and admirable person, who was just ugly to the Asians around him because of the size of his nose. I'm afraid "American" might actually be the New World equivalent of "Eurotrash".

Re: Okay.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Damn. I knew I could rely on you! I just... didn't realize to what extent. *boggles*

One more thing.

[monkeycommando.livejournal.com]

Well, you asked, I answered. Does it feel right to you?

And thinking about it, one other resonant concept from North America is that of a self-described "Playa"--if you assume that anyone who personally claims to be a Playa, obviously can't be.

Oh, couple more things ...

[monkeycommando.livejournal.com]

Almost all European pop music I can think of seems to have an inherent Eurotrash vibe, except for German metal, Scando-garage, and some of the dancier DJ stuff.

And Ibiza is probably the spiritual capital, with consulates in discos across the continent.

I just can't let this go ...

[monkeycommando.livejournal.com]

It occurs to me (from an allegorically historical point of view)that Eurotrash are basically semi-Romanized Northern barbarians, who know how to wear a toga and lace a sandle, don't give a shit about roads and aqueducts, and think that they're love of orgies and vomitoriums put them at the centre of the civilized world.

Re: I just can't let this go ...

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Works its way into your head, dunnit?

I'm fighting hard to keep from laughing out loud at your allegory, given that I'm *cough* working.

[mrs-cake.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Thanks for exposing more peeps to the problem, ELL. I have no idea what kind of conclusion we have arrived at, but at least I now have a faint notion. I think. Um.

Well, as long as I don't fall into the general category, all is well with my world. And coming to think of it, Berlin is full of rich, stylish, bored types. Only they don't come from Berlin, originally. Berlin raises the tough, independent, open-minded, must-set-myself-apart kind of people. Used to hard work, because it's a hard place. But maybe I just meet the right peeps, and everyone else is a suckah. Who knows.