A pointless ramble

While less a relevant identity than being a woman, being a Californian, and being someone who is not particularly heteronormatively inclined, I do strongly associate with my teutonic heritage. Much of this is due to other people recognizing a clear ethnic stamp: I have been the subject of Brynhildr quips since before puberty. My strong features and a muscular build affect how people interact with me and this plays a large part in the my self image; internalizing the viking imagery was an empowering counter to being considered homely and unfeminine.

Like many Americans who are several generations post-immigration, my knowledge of my ancestral cultures is more based on personal research and pop-culture associations rather than familial tradition. I am not sure how much this figures into my own deep-seated sense of my own ridiculousness, but given that both of the recent viking movies have been animations best seen in IMAX 3D, there may be a link.

In any case, I found How to Train your Dragon endearing, cliches and all; my own disappointment is that all of the adults have Scottish accents. (As my cohort suggested, Danish accents sound funny, and would confuse American audiences. Apparently Sottish accents better signify "head-strong, violence-loving, anglo barbarian" <sigh>)