Orange Curtain

The Orange Curtain is a local term for the border between Orange County and Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California.[1] It is a sometimes derogatory, sometimes lighthearted term, that is used to describe Orange County's more conservative and suburban population as compared to the more liberal and urban population of Los Angeles.[2][3][4]

The phrase is a wordplay on the so-called Iron Curtain which separated communist and capitalist Europe.[5]

According to Colleen Cotter, "Because [Orange County] has a reputation for political conservatism, people from Northern California especially worry about what happens 'Behind the Orange Curtain'."[4]

Karin Aguilar-San Juan describes the Orange Curtain as being between 1890 and 1950, as "the region's controlling elite also embraced a John Birch-style ideology of white supremacy and small government.[6]

The song "Orange County Girl" by Gwen Stefani uses this term, stating "I guess behind the orange curtain it's not so bad."

References

  1. ↑ Dickson, Paul (2006). Labels for Locals: What to Call People from Abilene to Zimbabwe (Revised ed.). HarperCollins. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-06-088164-1. Retrieved 2011-02-10. The term "Orange Curtain" is being used to mark those characteristics, real or imagined, that differentiate Orange County from Los Angeles and the rest of California.
  2. ↑ Overley, Jeff (January 4, 2008). "Are we on TV too much?". Orange County Register. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
  3. ↑ http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/orange_curtain/
  4. 1 2 Cotter, Colleen (2001). Lonely Planet USA Phrasebook: Understanding Americans & Their Culture (Lonely Planet Phrasebooks). Hawthorn, Vic., Australia: Lonely Planet Publications. p. 199. ISBN 1-86450-182-0.
  5. ↑ Jennifer Lefurgy; Lang, Robert (2007). Boomburbs: the rise of America's accidental cities. Washington, D.C: Brookings Institution Press. p. 165. ISBN 0-8157-5114-1.
  6. ↑ Aguilar-San Juan, Karin (2009). Little Saigons: staying Vietnamese in America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. xii. ISBN 0-8166-5486-7.


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