The world is filled with stereotypes. Whether the glaring generalizations hit close to home or bear no resemblance to reality, widely held beliefs about people, places and things can be heard 'round the globe. We laugh at them, wrongly perpetuate them and rightly take offense at them. But they'll likely never, ever go away.
So one artist has taken it upon himself to document all of these mischievous conventions -- or, at least, 1800 of them. Martin Vargic created an entire world map recording stereotypes on every continent and in every sea. The result is a flurry of words populating each corner of the world, revealing the strange and hackneyed cliches from Russia to India to Mexico and back again.
According to The Independent, it took Vargic three months to finish his massive illustration, based on publicly available geographic data and a slew of bizarre labels, some of which you might find familiar, others not so much. Vargic places the word "Ginger" in Ireland, "Gun Nuts" in the United States and "Bratwurst" in Germany. And then there are the more absurd: "Pubes" in France, "Feral Monks" in China and "Meh" in Latvia.
You can see a complete map of Vargic's strange masterpiece here (with the option to zoom in and explore the land of misfit stereotypes). You can also preview some of the close-ups below. Enjoy, and be warned, the artwork is anything but PC.
All photos courtesy of Martin Vargic