Why are young American women considered floozies overseas?

[Anonymous]

In the Amanda Knox thread this was posted:

There is a strong mistrust of foreigners among the Italian population. Italian culture is rather misogynistic with a strong madonna-whore complex. Foreign women, especially young American and English women studying in Italy, are viewed by the general Italian public as promiscuous.

My daughter wants to study abroad in Spain next summer but I have been a little wary due to these stereotypes. Where does this American (English) girl stereotype come from? I thought Euro women were actually more open sexually and were more involved in casual sex. Is this not true?

Note: I studied abroad in Australia during undergrad so I don't really have a handle on the Euro abroad situation.

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Its just a long held cliche and it may be based on the idea of US style "dating".

If you like someone in Europe, you are with them, you aren't with lots of other people until you have a "conversation about committing".

So while quite purient in reality, the US culture seems loose and open by comparison.

I went to live in Europe in my late teens for a few years (from the US) and everyone assumed I would not be a virgin, despite the fact I very much was!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its just a long held cliche and it may be based on the idea of US style "dating".

If you like someone in Europe, you are with them, you aren't with lots of other people until you have a "conversation about committing".

So while quite purient in reality, the US culture seems loose and open by comparison.

I went to live in Europe in my late teens for a few years (from the US) and everyone assumed I would not be a virgin, despite the fact I very much was!

I'm not the OP, but I'm not sure I understand what you are saying. So you don't sleep with lots of other people until you commit to one? If that's what you meant, that would be quite interesting indeed!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the Amanda Knox thread this was posted:

There is a strong mistrust of foreigners among the Italian population. Italian culture is rather misogynistic with a strong madonna-whore complex. Foreign women, especially young American and English women studying in Italy, are viewed by the general Italian public as promiscuous.

My daughter wants to study abroad in Spain next summer but I have been a little wary due to these stereotypes. Where does this American (English) girl stereotype come from? I thought Euro women were actually more open sexually and were more involved in casual sex. Is this not true?

Note: I studied abroad in Australia during undergrad so I don't really have a handle on the Euro abroad situation.

Thank you.

Seriously, OP, is your daughter a trust-worthy responsible kid? She'll be fine. Stereotypes don't kill unless you are a black person being stopped by police in the US.

[Anonymous]

It's partly because of the drinking culture of young American and British women. Late night drunkenness leads to hookups, and this is pretty notorious in, say, Florence and Rome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its just a long held cliche and it may be based on the idea of US style "dating".

If you like someone in Europe, you are with them, you aren't with lots of other people until you have a "conversation about committing".

So while quite purient in reality, the US culture seems loose and open by comparison.

I went to live in Europe in my late teens for a few years (from the US) and everyone assumed I would not be a virgin, despite the fact I very much was!

This goes for Spain, Portugal, France, England, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland? I find it hard to believe French women are so old fashioned; I dated a French girl during college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the Amanda Knox thread this was posted:

There is a strong mistrust of foreigners among the Italian population. Italian culture is rather misogynistic with a strong madonna-whore complex. Foreign women, especially young American and English women studying in Italy, are viewed by the general Italian public as promiscuous.

My daughter wants to study abroad in Spain next summer but I have been a little wary due to these stereotypes. Where does this American (English) girl stereotype come from? I thought Euro women were actually more open sexually and were more involved in casual sex. Is this not true?

Note: I studied abroad in Australia during undergrad so I don't really have a handle on the Euro abroad situation.

Thank you.

I've studied abroad in Italy and Spain both. Italy is far worse, especially if a girl is blond or red headed

But the above quote applies to Spain as well.

Still worth it to study abroad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the Amanda Knox thread this was posted:

There is a strong mistrust of foreigners among the Italian population. Italian culture is rather misogynistic with a strong madonna-whore complex. Foreign women, especially young American and English women studying in Italy, are viewed by the general Italian public as promiscuous.

My daughter wants to study abroad in Spain next summer but I have been a little wary due to these stereotypes. Where does this American (English) girl stereotype come from? I thought Euro women were actually more open sexually and were more involved in casual sex. Is this not true?

Note: I studied abroad in Australia during undergrad so I don't really have a handle on the Euro abroad situation.

Thank you.

Seriously, OP, is your daughter a trust-worthy responsible kid? She'll be fine. Stereotypes don't kill unless you are a black person being stopped by police in the US.

[Anonymous]

The way they dress, drink, talk, do drugs, and hop into bed with someone they met less than an hour earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its just a long held cliche and it may be based on the idea of US style "dating".

If you like someone in Europe, you are with them, you aren't with lots of other people until you have a "conversation about committing".

So while quite purient in reality, the US culture seems loose and open by comparison.

I went to live in Europe in my late teens for a few years (from the US) and everyone assumed I would not be a virgin, despite the fact I very much was!

This goes for Spain, Portugal, France, England, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland? I find it hard to believe French women are so old fashioned; I dated a French girl during college.

Yeah, but you actually dated that French women. French women are uninhibited, once they've made your acquaintance.

American and English women have a (well deserved, in my experience) reputation for getting massively drunk and hooking up with strangers at a bar or club. Look at the social-drinking culture among young French, Italian, or Spanish women - their behavior is just simply more "adult" and mature than Americans. Also, European men assume that those American women who are there from overseas are less self conscious and concerned about their reputation, less friends there to pull your drunk-ass home, etc.

[Anonymous]

I'm French. My friends and I went out with only one person at a time. The American concept of dating seems strangely disloyal to me. So yes, I would say Americans as a group are rightly considered to be promiscuous.

[Anonymous]

English women are pretty slutty. American women get lumped into that,
Plus Hollywood doesn't help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The way they dress, drink, talk, do drugs, and hop into bed with someone they met less than an hour earlier.

...like the Spanish and French teens I saw clubbing in Ibiza and London when I was abroad?

[Anonymous]

Ha. I was in Italy in college and asked some Italian guys about this. They said it's because they consider American girls are not catholic, thus slutty. I told them there are a lot of Catholics in the U.S.- they were diappointed!

[Anonymous]

16:51 again - 16:48 makes a crucial point about drinking. Latin cultures tend to drink with their sit-down meal, they don't drink just to get drunk! So even though my family members drink one glass of wine minimum at lunch and dinner, they don't often do cocktails, digestifs, hard liquor in bars. Older teens and young adults sometimes get drunk at parties, but since there aren't universities with isolated campuses whose students are cooped together and who have nothing to do but party (a very dangerous concept IMO), there isn't a culture of binge-drinking among the young like in Anglo-Saxon cultures.