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Help[Opinions] Re: Bertha
in reply to a message by A
I personally don't dislike Bertha, but it will be a long time before it can make a comeback in the United States because of "Big Bertha." That World War I gun just cemented the image of Bertha as an overweight woman, and often also one who is loud and obnoxious, like a cannon. Bertha has been used over and over again by cartoonists and screenwriters in the USA to telegraph those traits in a character, and so far it hasn't been able to overcome it.
Ironically, the reason the phrase "Big Bertha" became so popular was because it was created at just the time Bertha was a very common name in the USA for women in their late 20s. If you look at when the peak of popularity for "Bertha" as an American name was, the American soldiers in World War I would have often had an older sister or cousin named Bertha.
Of course Bertha's problem has mostly to do with weight discrimination -- being fat is just such a bad thing in modern America, with so much prejudice against fat people, that Bertha has way more baggage to overcome than the other Victorian names like Hazel, Mabel, Emma, Ida, etc. Young people have started to be able to see Hazel as being "pretty". but Bertha's "fat" image doesn't allow that as a possibility for most Americans.
Ironically, the reason the phrase "Big Bertha" became so popular was because it was created at just the time Bertha was a very common name in the USA for women in their late 20s. If you look at when the peak of popularity for "Bertha" as an American name was, the American soldiers in World War I would have often had an older sister or cousin named Bertha.
Of course Bertha's problem has mostly to do with weight discrimination -- being fat is just such a bad thing in modern America, with so much prejudice against fat people, that Bertha has way more baggage to overcome than the other Victorian names like Hazel, Mabel, Emma, Ida, etc. Young people have started to be able to see Hazel as being "pretty". but Bertha's "fat" image doesn't allow that as a possibility for most Americans.
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