Stereotypes In Where D You Go Bernadette

Where’d You Go Bernadette? is a thrilling comedy, that shows the life of an Odd Mom Out. Bernadette Fox has recently moved to Seattle with her Microsoft-savvy-working-husband, Elgin, and their outspoken daughter Bee. Seattle is a place in the United States that everyone has a stereotype of. Some thing Seattle people are weird, some say Seattle rains all the time. Here are some stereotypes that are actually true: there’s a Starbucks on every corner, it is rainy or overcast all year round, socks with sandals are acceptable, and no one uses umbrellas even when its raining (Archer 1-2). Like every city or town, there are always those who don't like where they are.
When Bernadette and her family move to Seattle, she is not to happy to be there. Similar to Bernadette, some people cannot stand Seattle when they move their, like all the members of ihateseattle.com. One website member moved from the mid-atlantic to Seattle to go to school and he could not wait to leave. Out of all things he did not like “most of the people,” because, “there is a passive-aggressive tendency inherent in the population” ( 1). Like this website user, Bernadette’s biggest problem was the Galer Street School and the Galer

Street Gnats.
The Galer Street School is a very expensive and elite school for young children.

It is a feeder school for students to Ivy League schools. In the world today there are many expensive elite schools, like the Galer Street School. These schools are basically the same as a normal school, but for the price of $20,000 and up. One of the most expensive schools, Riverdale Country Schools, located in the Bronx is $44,600 a year. Riverdale has a Upper (Grades 6-12) and Lower school (Pre-School - Grade 5). The school has a science, technology, engineering, art and math (S.T.E.A.M.) curriculum in that the pre-school to Fifth Grade classes follow. The Riverdale has the privilege to say that two of their alums are John F. and Robert Kennedy, who attended the Lower School (Jellett

10).
Many people today have a similar personality to Bernadette Fox. She has lost touch of who she really is and is trying to get back to the person she was. Bernadette is very outspoken and she has made it clear that she does not like the Gnats. Bernadette could not deal with the “rich moms” in this new place that she was in, similar to Theresa Edwards who wrote a blog about her experience with rich Dallas moms. Like Bernadette, Theresa moved and got a house that wasn't very expensive. Like Ollie-O described in his emails, there are “Mercedes Parents” and there are “Subaru Parents.” In Theresa’s case, there were the “Acuras and Mercedes” Parents and “Honda Parents.” Theresa was “Honda Parent,” pinking up her daughter in her small Honda while being surrounded by Acuras and Mercedes. Similar to Bernadette, Theresa did not follow the dress pattern of the other parents. Theresa sports a “Ross  outfit among mothers sporting stuff from Saks” (Edwards 1-2).
Two of Bernadette’s biggest problems are Audrey Griffin and Soo-Lin Lee-Segal. Audrey Griffin is the leader of the Gnats, while Soo-Lin is her faithful sidekick. Audrey Griffin probably lives the lifestyle of a rich mom, where she pays a lot of money for her sons schooling and clothing (Feuer 1). However, her son, Kyle, is a trouble maker. Like any rich parent, Audrey does not believe that he child could do anything wrong. When Kyle is caught selling prescription medication she became a “Teacher-Hater” parent. This is the type of parent who blames the teacher or administrator for “accusing” her son or defends their child and goes against the school (Bowers 1) . Soo-Lin, on the on the other hand, has these reality checks with herself which she calls TORCH: “Time Out, Reality Check” (Semple 167). Soo-Lin’s TORCH method is similar to Whitley Giblert’s “Relax, Relate, Release” from A Different World. Whitley dose her reality check frequently with in the show when she gets stressed out (A Different World).
The novel Where’d You Go Bernadette?, is a story that is relatable to today. Society has characters like Audrey Griffin. Society has cliquish relationships like Audrey and Soo-Lin. As an audience, we can relate to Bernadette, Audrey, Soo-Lin, expensive pre-schools, or Seattle and its weirdness.