From Yahoo:
"The Worst Stereotypes About Every U.S. State"
We’ve all heard them, and we’ve all done it. Even the most politically correct among us has thought at least one of the stereotypes on this list. Not all stereotypes are necessarily bad. They’re really just generalizations about a group of people based on assumed shared qualities or behaviors. Some of the most prevalent stereotypes come up when people talk about the 50 states. Whether you ask a foreigner, or even another American, everyone has an opinion about the kinds of people who populate each of the states. As travelers, stereotypes can sometimes be helpful, but more often than not, they’re a hindrance to really getting to know the locals. Still, they’re good to know, at the very least so that you can avoid making a serious faux pas next time you land somewhere new and completely foreign to you. We polled experts, Yahoo Travel readers and residents about each state in our great nation to find out the worst misconception that the natives want you to know just isn’t true.
Alabama: Stereotype: They care about football, football, football… and NASCAR. Life revolves around one or the other.
Alaska: Stereotype: Many residents are simply burly, ice-fishing fur-wearers who club seals for sport.
Arizona: Stereotype: It’s filled with senior citizens who carry their own hot sauce everywhere and claim that finding a parking spot in the shade is more important than the birth of their first child.
Arkansas: Stereotype: “One of the most common misperceptions of Arkansas is that everyone who lives here is a “hillbilly,”
California: Stereotype: The state is filled with beach bums, bodybuilders, activists, and movie stars. “Everyone thinks we’re all a bunch of laid-back, easy-going surfers.
Colorado: Stereotype: Everyone is a stoner who loves to ski.
Connecticut: Stereotype: This state is made up of the country-club-loving, pastel-wearing, helicopter-flying part of the 1 percent.
Delaware: Stereotype: People travel here from other places just to shop and avoid paying taxes. That’s it.
Florida: Stereotype: Its population is basically made up of retirees, beach bums, and gator hunters.
Georgia: Stereotype: It’s overflowing with sweet Southern blond women and the kind of gentlemen who you’d want to bring home to mama.
Hawaii: Stereotype: Everyone surfs — and that’s it. Also, the locals hate the mainlanders, with a passion.
Idaho: Stereotype: Everyone is a potato farmer.
Illinois: Stereotype: Everyone talks like Mike Ditka and loves da Bears.
Indiana: Stereotype: People here think a tractor is the only necessary form of transport.
Iowa: Stereotype: This state is all about corn farmers and a caucus once every four years.
Kentucky: Stereotype: “Of course there are a lot of people who think we are rowdy, inbred hillbillies, blue-collar workers who don’t wear shoes, who live to fish and hunt. People think we are a decade behind regular social (and fashion) movements.
Kansas: Stereotype: “People always assume I live on a farm, am super-religious or racist, and own a gun. I also regularly get asked if I have ever been in a tornado.
Louisiana: Stereotype: Everyone is into voodoo, and it’s home to gumbo-loving partiers who treat every day like Mardi Gras.
Maine: Stereotype: Residents of Maine are seafood snobs who mostly wear plaid and can’t pronounce the letter “R” properly.
Maryland: Stereotype: “Marylanders are known for their obsession with education and politics, at least where I grew up.
Massachusetts: Stereotype: “We are self-titled Mass-holes,” says Massachusetts native Melissa Rappaport. “And most people judge the accent. Even if you are from here, it sounds terrible. But we are the most hardcore sports fans. Just don’t mention the Yankees.”
Michigan: Stereotype: Their hate for Ohio far outweighs their love of anything else.
Minnesota: Stereotype: Minnesotans love Prince and the movie Fargo.
Mississippi: Stereotype: Mississippi businessman Rick Looser actually funded an ad campaign to try to dispel stereotypes about his home state after being asked on a plane if he “sees those Ku Klux Klan people on the streets every day.”
Missouri: Stereotype: “Stereotypes I have heard about people from Missouri include the fact they are the kind to shoot first, ask questions later. Own camo furniture and a ‘good’ baseball cap for church.
Montana: Stereotype: Hunting season is more important than Christmas to Montanans, they ride horses to school, and they are total badasses. The badass bit is true.
Nebraska: Stereotype: It’s full of call-center workers who love corn and corn-fed steaks and everyone lives on a farm.
Nevada: Stereotype: Everyone works in a casino as a cocktail waitress or an Elvis impersonator. And they all have gambling problems.
New Hampshire: Stereotype: The people here are overtly happy, religion-shunning vegetable growers, whose No. 1 topic of conversation is taxes.
New Jersey: Stereotype: This is the home of the spray tan, the back-combed bouffant, the “Shore,” and steroid abuse.
New Mexico: Stereotype: This is the state where meth is made and where everyone has been abducted by aliens.
New York: Stereotype: “New Yorkers are rude!”
North Carolina: Stereotype: North Carolinians will fight you over the best way to make barbecue, and their tea is never sweet enough.
North Dakota Stereotype: “People think that we all speak with a German/Scandinavian accent like in the movie and TV series Fargo,”
Ohio: Stereotype: All Ohioans actually wish they lived somewhere else. Anywhere else. Especially during an election.
Oklahoma: Stereotype: The home of the deep-fat fryer — where people will fry everything from fish to rattlesnake, and everyone is overweight.
Oregon: Stereotype: This is the land of overly polite drivers of Priuses who live in communes.
Pennsylvania: Stereotype: “Everyone thinks we are blue-collar, Rocky-loving, loudmouths who will fight you if you dare say anything negative about the Eagles or cheesesteaks,”
Rhode Island: Stereotype: The state where everyone is all up in each other’s business. And they all sound like Peter Griffin from Family Guy.
South Dakota: Stereotype: People here are simple-minded and easily entertained.
South Carolina: Stereotype: Fireball shots for breakfast and cigarettes for lunch? “
Tennessee: Stereotype: “Stereotypes about Tennessee are all kinds of country. People think we all wear cowboy boots, jean shorts, and graphic T-shirts with Garth Brooks’s face on it. Our drinks of choice are fireball, more fireball, and cheap beer, and we eat fried chicken, hot chicken, and rotisserie chicken.
Texas: Stereotype: “That everyone in Texas wears cowboy boots and rides horses,”
Utah: Stereotype: This is the center of the Mormon universe, where it is OK to cheat on your wife with your other wife.
Vermont: Stereotype: In this state, it’s legal to inject maple syrup into your bloodstream, or should be. And everyone talks funny — about cows mostly.
Virginia: Stereotype: There are the people who live in D.C., and then there is everyone else. The “everyone else” loves to hunt. Those from D.C. are snobby. West Virginians are also huge fans of Civil War re-enactments, and they hate to be compared to, or mistaken for, their Western neighbors.
Washington: Stereotype: People who live here clearly love rain and trees and Big Foot.
West Virginia: Stereotype: Most people think Deliverance was filmed here. The state has long had a reputation of inbreeding, which isn’t helped by several suggestive Hollywood movies and documentaries.
Wisconsin: Stereotype: “Someone once asked me if we get fat in the winter to stay warm. And people think that all we do is drink beer and eat cheese. Well that is probably true in some cases.
Wyoming: Stereotype: The people here are all right-wing horse lovers who hate anyone and anything that comes from Colorado.
^ This was a fun read. The states marked in red are the ones that I have heard about. I have lived in New York and that stereotype is only true in New York City and not the majority of Upstate. I also lived in Virginia and that stereotype is spot-on. The real native Virginians think the Civil War is still going on (the capital of the Confederacy was in VA) and so the majority of native Virginians I personally encountered hated us "northern Yankees" and tried to their best to let us know at every turn. ^
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