There are quite a few stereotypes that come to mind when people think of Southern California. Golden tans. Fake boobs. The Valley girl. The Surfer dude. You get the idea. Accurate or not, these are the images that often come to mind from people who live outside of SoCal. And some of these things are totally spot-on dude and others are like, I don’t know, totally exaggerated. Ready to see what stereotypes made the list? Right on brah.
- California cuisine is just a piece of lettuce on a plate.
Wikimedia Commons Not true. It’s 3 three pieces of lettuce. And a garnish.
- We’re all cosmetically enhanced.
flickr/Nathan Rupert Not all Southern Californians are addicted to cosmetic surgery. Some of us can’t afford it. But if we could afford it we would totally be doing it. But then we’d deny it and pretend we weren’t doing it so that everyone else would think we were naturally youthful and perky. So no, we haven’t had any cosmetic surgery.
- Everyone in SoCal is a surfer.
flickr/Cory Doctorow Not true. Some of us have never even been on a surfboard. Some of us actually think it’s a dining table.
- Our other car is a convertible.
flickr/rob No, actually it’s probably a Schwinn 10-speed because we’re all completely broke. Taxes bro. The taxes here are totally killing us.
- Everyone in Southern California is in therapy.
flickr/SolarPunk Not everyone in SoCal sees a shrink. That’s what Chardonnay is for.
- All we do is talk about traffic and what freeway to take.
Wikimedia Commons Yes, traffic can suck depending on where you live/work in SoCal, but the traffic doesn’t consume our entire day. Everyone here knows as long as they’re not on the road from 6am to 2pm or 3pm to 8pm that traffic will never be an issue.
- We are always running into Hollywood celebrities.
flickr/Glenn Scarborough We simply don’t care about the celebrity scene so stop asking us if we know where to see a celebrity. Yes, some of them live here in SoCal, but just because they live close by doesn’t mean we spend our time trying to spot them in a crowd. We save those shenanigans for the tourists. And then we secretly laugh at the tourists while sitting outside Justin Timberlake’s house with a pair of binoculars because a true Californian knows exactly where all the celebrities live.
- We all start our day doing sun salutations on the beach.
flickr/take back your health conference Los Angeles The truth is we’re not all limber yogis who can magically bend into the perfect Pigeon pose without popping out a hip. The reality is that some of us are out of shape. But we don’t want you to know that so we wear yoga pants all day to create the illusion that we’re heading to the gym. It’s our little SoCal secret so don’t spread the word.
- We’re all vegetarians.
flickr/Karol Franks Not everyone in Southern California is a vegetarian. We do eat meat here even if we have to sneak through a drive-thru at midnight while wearing dark sunglasses so no one sees us. You know who you are.
- All we do is hang out at the beach.
flickr/david reid We don’t spend our entire day playing at the beach. We actually have work to do. Even if we’re doing our work while sunbathing in a lounge chair.
Well that was fun! It’s hard not to laugh at ourselves – in a charming way, of course. Any other stereotypes you’d add to the list?
Wikimedia Commons
Not true. It’s 3 three pieces of lettuce. And a garnish.
flickr/Nathan Rupert
Not all Southern Californians are addicted to cosmetic surgery. Some of us can’t afford it. But if we could afford it we would totally be doing it. But then we’d deny it and pretend we weren’t doing it so that everyone else would think we were naturally youthful and perky. So no, we haven’t had any cosmetic surgery.
flickr/Cory Doctorow
Not true. Some of us have never even been on a surfboard. Some of us actually think it’s a dining table.
flickr/rob
No, actually it’s probably a Schwinn 10-speed because we’re all completely broke. Taxes bro. The taxes here are totally killing us.
flickr/SolarPunk
Not everyone in SoCal sees a shrink. That’s what Chardonnay is for.
Yes, traffic can suck depending on where you live/work in SoCal, but the traffic doesn’t consume our entire day. Everyone here knows as long as they’re not on the road from 6am to 2pm or 3pm to 8pm that traffic will never be an issue.
flickr/Glenn Scarborough
We simply don’t care about the celebrity scene so stop asking us if we know where to see a celebrity. Yes, some of them live here in SoCal, but just because they live close by doesn’t mean we spend our time trying to spot them in a crowd. We save those shenanigans for the tourists. And then we secretly laugh at the tourists while sitting outside Justin Timberlake’s house with a pair of binoculars because a true Californian knows exactly where all the celebrities live.
flickr/take back your health conference Los Angeles
The truth is we’re not all limber yogis who can magically bend into the perfect Pigeon pose without popping out a hip. The reality is that some of us are out of shape. But we don’t want you to know that so we wear yoga pants all day to create the illusion that we’re heading to the gym. It’s our little SoCal secret so don’t spread the word.
flickr/Karol Franks
Not everyone in Southern California is a vegetarian. We do eat meat here even if we have to sneak through a drive-thru at midnight while wearing dark sunglasses so no one sees us. You know who you are.
flickr/david reid
We don’t spend our entire day playing at the beach. We actually have work to do. Even if we’re doing our work while sunbathing in a lounge chair.
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