[domparise]

Speaking also as a Midwesterner, I would disagree. I was born and raised in Michigan, and have not really left much other than to couch hop and envy the lives of my friends who've moved out to the coast. I feel that the contempt the author descends into is self-inflicted, and may representative of the culture and authors midwestern upbringing. From what I've observed, midwesterners are brutally humble, almost to a fault, probably stemming from the deeply rooted conservative values. Being midwestern, to me, is not its own identity, but rather a lack of the other negative identities of the regions. Speaking in terms of stereotypes I hear here (not trying to discredit these regions) the vibe is: I'm NOT a no-patience jerk like on the east coast, I'm NOT lazy and pretentious like on the west coast, I'm NOT shallow and two-faced like in the south, therefore, as a midwesterner my strongest identity is defined by a lack of those negative associations. Midwesterns choose not to be defined by what they are, which I see as no-nonsense and generally pretty authentic and genuine, but rather by what they are not. "We are not all of those bad things those other people in those other places are, and that's our best quality." But through my travels I've learned that not all people in those places are like that, and not all midwesterners are nice, but in general they prefer to be viewed as collective lack of bad things, rather than a collection of good things. This, plus an underlying more conservative and humble perspective, I feel gives light to the lack of regional identity that is perceived by people both inside and outside of the Midwest.

[eli_gottlieb]

>From what I've observed, midwesterners are brutally humble, almost to a fault, probably stemming from the deeply rooted conservative values. Being midwestern, to me, is not its own identity, but rather a lack of the other negative identities of the regions. Speaking in terms of stereotypes I hear here (not trying to discredit these regions) the vibe is: I'm NOT a no-patience jerk like on the east coast, I'm NOT lazy and pretentious like on the west coast, I'm NOT shallow and two-faced like in the south, therefore, as a midwesterner my strongest identity is defined by a lack of those negative associations.

Thanks for letting us know that some people think it's humble to be xenophobic. Funny thing: my in-laws are from the Midwest, and they've never spoken like this.

[logfromblammo]

I am from the Midwest, currently living in the South, and I think "shallow and two-faced" may actually be putting it too mildly. The idea that these assholes may actually elect Roy Moore after he unconstitutionally rammed his religion down other people's throats in an official capacity is bad enough, but after mounting credible evidence of him habitually creeping on 14-year-old girls as a grown-ass adult man? No f'kin' way.

Jared Fogle (the Subway creep) went to my high school in Indiana, and if he showed up to a reunion after getting out of the pokey, he would not get the same reception as Roy Moore currently gets in Gadsden, Alabama. Fogle couldn't win an election for county roadkill remover, much less senator for the whole state.

We don't rag on other regions as a matter of course, but we do judge them by their perceived shortcomings, even if we don't call them out on it.

And Midwesterners are stereotyped. We're small-minded, prudish, unfashionable, uncultured, suspicious, avoidant, passive-aggressive, and boring. We drink pop and weak beer and eat fried cheese. Didn't you know?

[exclusiv]

Although I don't agree with all the negative identities the parent posted on the different regions, you twisted the parent's comment. "a lack of the other negative identities of the regions" doesn't mean they're xenophobic.

[throwawayjava]

This is an excellent analysis. The author hints at something similar in the article: "['flyover country' is] a stereotype about other people’s stereotypes". Which I thought was also really an excellent description turn of phrase

[Veelox]

The part the I think was closest to the truth is that the Midwest does not have a strong collective culture like the East, South, West, or Southwest. They are much more likely to identify as part of their state or city more than the Midwest as a whole.

[ashark]

Part of it's the size of the area in which the inhabitants consider themselves Midwestern, and the lack of unifying landforms (a mountain range, an ocean) to give them common experiences, I think.

For instance, it seems like when the Midwestern region comes up[0], people usual mean the upper midwest and especially the Lakes states, which is weird to me as someone who's lived in Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa, because down here we don't really mean to include Lakes states when we say "Midwestern". I mean, there's stuff there. Outdoors stuff. That's worth doing/seeing. That you can reach in less than one entire day of travel by car. Doesn't seem too Midwestern to me, or to have much to do with my experience of Midwesterness (I gather they'd disagree, which is my point). The Lakes states, including Minnesota and Michigan and at least the northern 1/3 of Illinois (and certainly anything East of Illinois) are a Western extension of the East from our perspective.

[0, EDIT] by which I mean when the region comes up in articles, or on the Internet generally.

[MarchHare]

Being from central Kansas, I always say I'm from the great plains. Lumping the prairie into it's own group always seemed useful to me.

[boxy310]

I had a very bitter argument about whether Kansas was Midwestern or not. An important distinction is that what's now considered the "Midwest" used to be just called the "West", and that the Great Plains formed a natural barrier of relatively lower rainfall that settlers headed out to Oregon or California would be crossing over before they hit the Mountain West. As a result, settlers in Kansas had lots of natural connections to Missouri, which is fairly clearly in the Midwest.

[ovulator]

I always thought that the Missouri river was kind of the western border to the midwest. So Kansas City, which straddles the river is still in the Midwest, and a very large chunk of Kansas' population lives there and are midwestern, the western chunk of the state is much different.

[aaron-lebo]

Yeah, the Midwest or Midwestern culture extends well into places that get identified with other regions. Plenty of people from Oklahoma and Missouri that fit it. What's more Midwestern than being called the "Show Me State"?

[aaron-lebo]

The paradoxical nature of this comment is amazing.

There does seem to be a quiet arrogance about Midwesterners. Yeah, we're the most humble. Yeah, we're the best, we just won't tell you. ;)

[watwut]

I am humble unlike all those full-of-faults lower being from other regions. My identity is defined my my lack of faults, unlike other regions. And that attitude is no nonsense, because we are truly better then them.

It seems more like fake humblesness more then really being humble.

[wardrobe]

No one ever thinks about the mountain West/Southwest, what's our stereotype?

[AnimalMuppet]

Others' stereotype of us: Who is there to have a stereotype about? Nobody lives there. Not "nobody" like "nobody lives in the Midwest", really nobody, like "total population: 0". Just a collection of ghost towns.

Our stereotype of ourselves: Rather close to the Midwesterners, minus the emphasis on agriculture. (Yes, we grow what we can where we can, but lack of water means that there isn't much. Agriculture doesn't dominate the way it does in the Midwest.) We say that we are self-reliant, independent, friendly (except maybe to outsiders), down to earth. We're fairly well educated, but we still have good common sense.

[krrrh]

Double this, and you’ve got Canadians.