When surveying all the real life places on display in pop culture one quickly realizes that a few stand out as particularly evocative. Through a steady diet of books, TV shows, movies, etc. we have all built up certain images of famous places such as Paris, Rome, Tokyo, and New York City, but of all the places mass media has built up in the imagination, none hold such a commanding presence as California. Thanks primarily to the presence of Hollywood coupled with its many cultural and natural charms, California has attracted an outsized reputation the world over and it has congealed into what I like to call "the cult of California," and as a California native it's kind of annoying.
I suppose the first thing to start with on our tour of the Cult is California's culture, specifically how pop culture mutilates it, is celebrities. If Hollywood is to be believed, celebrities are everywhere walking and talking around LA and everyone sees them all the time. There really aren't words to describe how wrong this is. I shouldn't even have to mention this, but celebrities are their own people and are generally very private as are most people and seeing them is a rare occurrence even in places they frequent. Then there is what is done to California staples like In-n-Out. Don't even get me started on In-n-Out, sure the burgers there are pretty great, but the fries are just average and no one actually cares about the secret menu.
This also bleeds into to how Californians themselves are viewed. Contrary to popular view we are not all blond surfers and skateboarders with the bodies of supper models and perfect tans. While I personally am blond I am most certainly not a surfer or skateboarder. Occasionally this attention can be done in a loving and fun way. SNL's "The Californians" always comes to mind for me with parodying how LA natives talk and honestly they hit the nail on the head. If you get two LA natives together in a conversation I guarantee that freeways are going to come up and they will un-ironically discuss them at length. It's what we do and yes we do put 'the' in front of freeway names, the rest of the world is just weird for not doing it.
The other way that pop culture messes with California is by distorting the places within it. Take Hollywood for instance, decades of films would have you believe that's it's a glamorous place to see, but the reality is that aside from a couple of old theaters its honestly kind of dirty and uninteresting and just full of tourists and traffic. Then there are the beaches. The beaches of California are a mixed lot, some of them are quite lovely places and definitely worth a visit, but others particularly the (in)famous Venice beach are not. Even places where culture gets things mostly right, such as Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, don't quite live up to the hype. The final resting place of the Summer of Love is more pathetic than it is romantic.
If any thing, the part they undersell is the sheer natural beauty of the state beyond just beaches. You want rugged mountains great for biking or skiing? We got them. You want vast deserts perfect for dirt biking? We got them. You want tranquil ancient forests? We got them. You want flat, bland farms and fields? We got that too, if that's what your into. California is so much more than sun, surf, and sprawl and it's a crime that so much of that is unknown to outsiders.
I am under no illusions that the Cult of California is going to end any time soon. As long as Hollywood remains the cultural capital of the world and the natural and cultural beauty of the state continues to shine, people are going to build up in their minds an image of what California is. I can only hope they will be a bit more sensible about it and give those of us that live here a break.
