Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
middle-class and was reasonably well dressed, his reply would no doubt have consisted of
a couple of abrupt monosyllables.
It is sometimes claimed that Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland can identify
one another visually. This, one would think, is the ultimate stereotyping fantasy. In fact,
there is probably something to it. The two main religious groups in the region stem largely
from different ethnic backgrounds. Catholics are for the most part of the same ethnic stock
as the Irish to the south of them, whereas Protestants are mostly of Scottish provenance. A
woman with jet black hair and blue eyes is likely to be a Catholic, while a stocky, sandy-
haired man is probably a Protestant. Of course this does not apply across the board. There
are sandy-haired Catholics and black-haired, blue-eyed Protestants, just as there are no
doubt people who declaim Dante in Butte, Montana, and taxi drivers in Brooklyn who curl
up with a volume of Goethe. But it serves as a rough guide to religious denomination.
You can also tell the difference between a Protestant and a Catholic in Northern Ireland by
noting the way they pronounce the letter
h
. The former says “aitch” while the latter says
“haitch.”
Postmodernists tend to be uneasy with this kind of talk. It seems to play down culture
while playing up nature and biology, a realm of which postmodernism is unduly nervous.
Cultural style is allowed a part in physical appearance, but not genetics. Humanists have
always had it in for science, and this is simply the latest phase of that long prejudice. The
fact is, however, that the human body, pierce, paint and pummel it as one will, is a given.
We do not choose our bodies, and cannot trade them in as we can our trombones. For a
civilisation like the United States, which places so much value on choice, control and the
constructive will, fleshliness is thus something of a scandal. It seems to be at odds with our
self-fashioning. America is unhappy with things that are simply given rather than strenu-
ously created. They smack too much of destiny, which is not among its favourite notions.
(Providence is another matter.) This is why the nation has sometimes been reluctant to ad-
mit that the land was there before its people got to work on it. It is also why reconstructing
the body has become such a heavy industry in today's United States.
Many Americans look different from Europeans, and not just because they wear check
shirts or bright pink trouser suits. Simply by their physical appearance, Eisenhower and
Billy Graham could have been nothing but American. The same is true of Julia Roberts and
Andie MacDowell, though not, ironically, of Sarah Palin. Richard Nixon looked intensely
American, and so does John McCain, but the same is not true of Jack Nicholson, Hillary
Clinton or Harrison Ford. Mitt Romney looks more American than Mount Rushmore. To
some extent, it is possible to distinguish male Democratic politicians from male Republic-
an ones. On the whole, Republicans look more stereotypically American than Democrats,
a fact which may stoke the prejudice that the latter are less patriotic than the former. In
general, the squarer the chin, the more likely you are to oppose tax increases. A few more
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