Coasties!

The great 'Coastie' divide

Ugg boots, private dorms make out-of-state UW students target of teasing

By MEGAN TWOHEY

Posted: Nov. 14, 2005

Madison - Emily Bach, a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recognized her friends' Halloween costumes immediately - jackets by The North Face, oversize sunglasses, sheepskin boots known as Uggs.

"They went as Coasties," Bach explained, chuckling over lunch in a cafeteria.

[...]

Frankfurter said it's been difficult for him to integrate with Wisconsin students.

"They look down on us just because our parents have a little bit more money, because we talk about where our fathers work. They want to feel superior to us because they think we think we're superior to them. Then we're forced to."

Frankfurter said he is often ridiculed. "Just the other day, someone in my statistics class asked me where my Uggs were. I was trying to think of a comeback."
[...]
But Bach, a Milwaukee native, said it's not just where Coasties live and what they wear. It's how they act.
"They carry themselves like they're better than everyone," Bach said, as she sat at a cafeteria table dressed in a hooded sweat shirt and jeans. "I swear, it takes them like two hours to get ready in the morning. Most girls in my dorm roll out of bed five minutes before class."

Jason Gertler, a freshman from Olympia Fields, Ill., lives in Statesider but identifies more with Wisconsin students.

"They have a spoiled mannerism," he said of Coasties. "I try to hang out with public dorm kids. They're more
straightforward and quality."

Maybe it's just my predisposition to see it this way or maybe it's the article's slant (coasties target of teasing)... but doesn't it seem like the Wisconsin-Minnesota students are the ones with the chips on their shoulders? Truly, tell me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that this article supports my claim in this apparently offensive post that "coasties" are singled out for scorn - that just being different (or stereotypical in their divergence from Midwesterners) is sufficient reason for them to be disliked.

Interesting... the article points to lots of potential structural reasons for the rift on the Madison campus... difference in class background, fact that out of staters don't have equal access to campus dorms, etc.