cultural cringe

(KUL.chur.ul crinj)

n.

The belief that one's own culture is backwards and unsophisticated compared to other cultures.

Example Citation:

The problem is essentially a British one. The French value the creative and cultural importance of their fashion industry too much ever to entrust it to amateurs, no matter how lustrous their names might once have been. That we view things differently is to do with a sense of inferiority, which induces a cultural cringe in fashion folk.

— Colin McDowell, "The eye of the beholder," The Spectator, April 13, 2002

Earliest Citation:

Australians, in those days, used to suffer dreadfully from what Hughes calls "cultural cringe."

— Paul Richard, "The 'Shock' Treatment," The Washington Post, January 10, 1981

Notes:

This phrase is used most often in Australia (and is due, one supposes, to a lingering embarrassment over their penal colony roots).

Related Words:

antirube

dumb up

flyover country

hillbillying

proletarian drift

rube-aphobia

snowbilly

Category:

Culture (General)