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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to wonder why it seems to be acceptable to be so negative about people from the North?

131 replies

TeacupTempest · 11/04/2011 17:52

Every day on here I see references to people from the North being less educated, less literate, less fashionable and so on.

How is that acceptable?

There are so many sweeping generalisations going on.

It's ignorant and it winds me up

OP posts:
52Girls · 11/04/2011 18:13

Not, no way, jealous of northerners. ohh, no.

From the Souith, living up here, hate it.

Making the best of it till the kids finish school.

BecauseImWoeufIt · 11/04/2011 18:14

Oh dear.

There are some horrible parts of the North. There are some lovely parts of the North.

There are some horrible parts of the South. There are some lovely parts of the South.

I'm from the North and now live in the South.

52Girls · 11/04/2011 18:15

It's about roots, man.

Original poster
TeacupTempest · 11/04/2011 18:19

I really don't want the to turn into a north versus south slanging match/debate at all.

I just think its often apparent that people have no qualms about mentioning certain regions in a derogatory way.

Looking down on people because they come from one region or another is bad form whether thats the north, south, east or west.

My OP mentioned the low opinion of the north as I seem to see that view more often than not but perhaps I am mistaken there?

OP posts:
52Girls · 11/04/2011 18:20

I see loads of London bashing on here.

diabolo · 11/04/2011 18:27

I love London. I love living in rural East Anglia . I love Leeds / Yorkshire / Moors.

I pretty much like most places I've been and try really hard not to make sweeping generalisations about people and places.

Even though I've been down here for over 10 years though, some people still take the piss out of my accent, like they haven't got one. They ask me where my whippet is etc? [hmn]

It's really bloody tedious.

1Catherine1 · 11/04/2011 18:29

Northerner living in the south here. Moved down due to shortage of mathematicians in the South and mass job competition in the north. I do find the northern bashing interesting given these facts especially since a lot of others that I work with are also from the North.

Both are very different - there is a definite mentality difference between people from the north and from the south. I wouldn't say either was better just different but I can see how you would either fit into one or the other and would find the other rather uncomfortable.

BecauseImWoeufIt · 11/04/2011 18:30

It's a stereotype and, like all stereotypes, lazy.

beesimo · 11/04/2011 18:30

The one thing I really can't stand about posh Southerners is that they all think they speak correctly and we speak incorrectly. Why can't they accept we speak differently not wrongly it is actually bloody rude.

I have been slightly teased on one thread because nobody knew what I meant by a scullery. Funny when I don't understand what the hell some Southern twonk is saying I am thick and when you can't understand what I am saying it is because I speak incorrectly!

Bucharest · 11/04/2011 18:32

Ach, get thee a copy of Stuart Maconie's Pies and Prejudice.

T'is a hymn to the north and utterly wonderful.

Fernie3 · 11/04/2011 18:32

I moved from the south to the north and since then have on a handful of occasions met with a few negative comments. My daughter who is 6 has been build over her accent. I wouldnt mind but I am actually welsh and only lived in southern england a few years! So its not even accurate !

Fernie3 · 11/04/2011 18:33

Bullied

Takeresponsibility · 11/04/2011 18:37

I'm from the South (family from Isle of Wight) DP from Nort - Cumbria so the extremes of England. We take the P out of each other all the time about soft southerners and hard as nails Northerners - even when we are flirting it's sultry Southern Senorita and granite faced rock climber etc.

No offence intended or taken and absolute bollox to say oooh replace Northerner with black, one legged, thick as mince and then see if it's OK - completely spurious argument IMO.

LineOnTheLeftOneCrossEach · 11/04/2011 18:37

I said it was grim up North on that thread. I'm a Northerner. I was being funny. Or not.

Southerners are softies, Northerners keep ferrets in their trousers and whippets in their snickets, people from East Anglia are inbred and the welsh shag sheep. It's all a flipping nonsense and I was relying on it for a cheap laugh.

working9while5 · 11/04/2011 18:43

"Shandy drinking Southerner!" - Insult flung at Londoner by lass from Sheffield on my uni course.

I always think fondly of it when I see a thread like this one.

FellatioNels0n · 11/04/2011 18:54

Hmmm. This has a bit of a crossover to the thread about stereotypes (which I stayed away from for my own good, despite itching to say loads.)

I don't think anyone thinks that all Northerners (or even most) are less fashionable, articulate, educated etc. But statistically, quite possibly more people have a 'small town' mentality, in comparison to to London or the South East generally.

I live in Essex and have to put up with daft stereotypes all the time (and the current TV prog doesn't help) but I have lived here 12 years and I have come across no more than a handful of people who live up to the orange shallow thick 'Essex Girl' label. I can't deny they exist in all their glory though.

My parents were divorced and as a teenager I used to go to stay with my Dad who lived in Lancs, and I must admit I found the other kids deeply unworldly and unfashionable compared to home, but that is not always the case. Take the Madchester movement for example....

MrsChemist · 11/04/2011 18:58

I love the Norf me Grin

I do see a lot of Southerner bashing on here too. I like London and the other bits of the south I've visited. I don't get the region bashing TBH. Everywhere has good bits and bad bits.

iamabadger · 11/04/2011 19:06

I'm a northerner in exile in London, and out of the 40 or so people I work with, there is only one genuine Londoner! TBH all Londoners sound the same accent wise, don't understand this myth that one city has a load of different accents depending on which corner of it they're from. There was a bit of snootiness on the supermarket thread about northern areas only having chavvy ones, but we have Waitrose oop north too!

diabolo · 11/04/2011 19:06

Fellatio - that orange, super-thick, wants-to-shag-a-footballer stereotype exist in RL in every town and city in the UK, not just in Essex.

Lineon... - sorry I "outed" you as being responsible for Northerner bashing. I genuinely didn't realise you were taking the mickey, as I only read the first few posts.

FellatioNels0n · 11/04/2011 19:07

I agree Mrs Chemist but so many Northerners do carry as massive chip.

toeragsnotriches · 11/04/2011 19:13

I used to live in Manchester and my cousins live in Cheshire and Yorkshire and they think it's fine to bash Southerners. I have never once found fault with where they live - they all live in super places - yet they think it's constantly OK to slag off where I live as being grotty/expensive/unfriendly.

Ime, it works both ways.

kaid100 · 11/04/2011 19:14

Having been born and brought up in the Home Counties, now married to a Mancunian in Salford, I can say I've encountered plenty of jokes and amusement but no actual nastiness in either direction. When we go down South my family find my wife's pronunciation of words like "Monkey" or "Buckley's" hilarious; my workmates and her family think the same when I say "Glass" or "Bath" or "Scone" or "Bastard"; but everything is in jest. Though somehow, while I can generally get away with being age 31 and calling my parents "Mummy" and "Daddy" in Hertfordshire, do the same thing in Manchester and people think you are crazy.

FellatioNels0n · 11/04/2011 19:21

I have extended family in a duff part of Lancs, and they have recently practically disowned one of their own for getting a very middle class professional Southerner boyfriend, and getting above herself by 'going out to dinner' and 'drinking gin and tonic'. Hmm Honestly - I would not have believed the bile and vitriol if I hadn't heard it with my own ears. Inverse snobbery is no less attractive than any other kind but it comes loaded with a ton more insecure angst.

diabolo · 11/04/2011 19:24

Fellatio - my DH is actually really posh. Shock

When my very Northern working class family first met him, they treated him like he was Prince Charles. It was embarrassing.

But they were always nice to him. Similarly his, (Wycombe Abbey educated) mother has always been perfectly normal with me. Though she does eat fruit with a knife and fork which I find odd, to say the least.

stoatie · 11/04/2011 19:26

Midland and proud (and butt of everyone's jokes it seems) Lived in Yorkshire for yonks and it was ok (lived in some nice bits and not so nice bits which were a tad grim if truth be told (worked on NHS and some bits of Bradford and Leeds were ones where we visited in two's and never took your eye of the car!)

Went to Manchester last week and found it very pleasant (it was sunny) and helpful busdrivers who told you when you reached your stop. Am off to London tomorrow - will report back on findings - go a few times a year, normally its ok (but wouldn't choose to live there!)