Eurotrash

Eurotrash (literally: Euro garbage or Euro kitsch ) is an English term that originated in the United States of America , is mostly derogatory and sometimes used self-ironically by Europeans . It is used to stereotypically describe the lifestyle , behavior or appearance of Europeans or the Europeans themselves , especially if in the eyes of the person making the judgment they correspond to an affectation supposedly typical of Europeanism or display it. This includes, for example, appearing with titles of nobility , greeting with kisses on the cheek or wearing sunglasses at night in discos. Originally, the term mainly applied to French and German people.

The use of the term is particularly widespread in the metropolises of the American east coast, where since the late 1970s "up-all-night, no-office-to-go-to Europeans" (Julia Chaplin) flew in with the Concorde to be part of of the “'International White Trash '” (Anthony Haden-Guest) to celebrate wild parties. For example, Bret Easton Ellis uses the term in his novels American Psycho , Stalking and Glamorama, which are set in New York, particularly in the descriptions of the club scene. The term was later used for fashionable, semi-shaven, drug-consuming, anorexic or European expatriates who turned up late and tired for work . A dictionary lists another meaning of Eurotrash as a “post-modern, degenerate, trendy or outdated European cultural phenomenon masquerading as avant-garde art”.

The Simpsons used the term for German backpackers who behaved arrogantly and displayed a certain anti-Americanism .

Other uses

"Eurotrash" - not only from an American point of view - are:

• musical genres like Eurodance or Euro Disco
• European products (if one speaks disparagingly about them)

Trivia

• Eurotrash was the name of a column by Taki Theodoracopulos that appeared in the (now discontinued) East Side Express in the early 1980s . Taki's column coined the term.

• In the late-night program of the British TV station Channel 4 there was a comedy show called Eurotrash , initially co-moderated by Jean-Paul Gaultier and Antoine de Caunes (and by Lolo Ferrari until her death ) from 1993 to 2007 , which self-ironically targeting European pop culture and way of life and making it a cult . The show, popular with two to three million viewers a week, specialized in pseudo-journalistic considerations of “bizarre” activities by Europeans, such as continental European, especially German nudism .

• The American rock band Cracker has a song called Eurotrash Girl . There is a cover version of the same name on the debut album of Chicks on Speed . Eurotrash is also the name of an album by the Norwegian band Zeromancer .

• The search term Eurotrash in the Spiegel Online portal shows that this term is used in particular for carefree pop music, for example in the areas of Europop , Euro Disco and Eurodance , as well as in connection with the Eurovision Song Contest .

See also

• Old Europe

Web links

• List of possible Ersterwähnungen (Engl.)
• Entry in the Urban Dictionary

Individual evidence

1. ^ Julia Chaplin: A New Eurofestation. In: nytimes.com. December 8, 2002, accessed January 9, 2015 . 
2. ↑ Anthony Haden-Guest: The Young, The Rich, and Heroin ( Memento of the original from March 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Rolling Stone , July 7, 1983  
3. ^ Hans Altmeyer: Massacre with level . Book review on American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis in the portal borrible.de ( undated ), accessed on January 5, 2013
4. ^ Caroline Weiss: Stalking Bret Easton Ellis. iUniverse, 2009, ISBN 978-1-440-12074-9 , p. 54 ( limited preview in Google book search).
5. ↑ Billy Gray: Dear Guest Of A Guest: What Does "Eurotrash" Mean? In: guestofaguest.com. September 22, 2010, accessed January 9, 2015 . 
6. ^ Brian McNair: Striptease Culture. Sex, media and the democratization of desire . Routledge, London and New York, 2002, ISBN 0-415-23733-5 , p. 85 ( limited preview in Google book search)
7. ↑ Sigurjón Baldur Hafsteinsson: Phallological Museum . LIT Verlag, Münster 2014, ISBN 978-3-643-90470-6 , p. 92f ( limited preview in the Google book search)
8. ↑ Eurotrash (self-portrayal, Rapido Television)
9. ↑ Eurotrash (sample video, Rapido Television)
10. ↑ Search term Eurotrash in the Spiegel Online portal , accessed on January 21, 2012