THE CALIFORNIA GIRL

Author: Meghan Michelson

I spent the February break in my home state of California. Contrary to popular belief and assumptions related to the Golden State, I was not sunning on the beach with my blond, surfing friends all week.

There are common misconceptions surrounding California that are typically associated with 80 degree temperatures, Hollywood movie stars and beach attire. I hereby declare that these images are exactly that: misconceptions.

California, like most other states in the country, suffers from labeling and prejudices that need to be expelled. Icons in shows such as "Baywatch" and "Beverly Hills 90210" are not realistic portrayals of the state of California. I will therefore attempt to create, for those of you who have taken these false notions as truth, a more authentic description of California and in turn eliminate conventionalized ideas about other states that have consequently been formed.

Most stereotypes are created with the help of film and television industries, which often establish incorrect associations with specific locations. If we never traveled and relied strictly on television to gain perceptions of the world, we would be led to believe the delusions created by shows like "Sex and the City" to be typical of New York City. Based solely on assumptions, one would think that everyone in New York is a bad driver, everyone in Texas wears cowboy hats and everyone in Iowa lives on a farm. People assume everyone in Vermont must ski and milk cows, and everyone in Oregon must climb trees and be a vegetarian. In addition, everyone in Alabama must eat grits and fried chicken, and everyone in Montana must drive a pickup truck. But we know none of this is unanimously true, and generally it is never safe to make such broad assumptions about any location.

The same theory goes for California, which maintains a deeply engrained set of stereotypes that affect me personally on a somewhat regular basis. I frequently find myself explaining and discouraging several commonly held and widely misconstrued beliefs about California.

First of all, it does snow in some parts of California. It is not summertime year round, and it is impossible for the entire state to be oceanside. There are mountains and deserts and plenty of geographical diversity. Not everyone is blond. I, for example, have brown hair, and believe it or not, there are others in California like me, as well as those with many other hues of hair color. Not everyone surfs daily or even knows how to surf. And since they do not all surf, California residents are not all tan. There are not celebrities on every street corner, and no, I do not have a cell phone.

Not to imply that these images do not exist at all. In certain areas of Southern California, they most certainly do. There is no widespread phenomenon, however, and in reality these ideas are limited to a rather miniscule area of the large state. It is important to keep in mind that California is as large as about five states on the East Coast combined, and its size does not permit any statewide trends. Especially the ones displayed by popular television shows set in permanently sunny California.

To dispel these misunderstandings about California, we need to accept that no state should be subjected to any preconceived notions. Nearly every state engenders generalizations, but these should not dominate how people from that state are perceived. Even if there is such a thing as a typical resident of any given state, one should not be led to believe that the entire state is made up of clones. If that were the case, what is to distinguish me from Tori Spelling?