Stereotype Myths of Mobile Homes
Stereotypes are part of life here in America. We, perhaps conscientiously, stereotype everything. The majority of these stereotypes are falsely garnered and considered stereotype myths; opinions based on false or misleading information.
We have stereotype myths for older men driving sports cars, younger women that marry older men, rich people, and poor people. All of them have some sort of classification or name that automatically gets attached to them at first sight. It’s not fair to judge anyone and more often than not, the stereotype doesn’t apply.
I would love to change the stereotype of mobile homes. Let the world know we are just like them, and our homes are perfectly fine. The stereotype I hate the most is that only poor people live in mobile and manufactured homes. I live in a single wide, and we are well above the yearly income guidelines of poverty set forth by the state. We both have some college education and make decent livings so why are we considered trailer trash?
Then again, I may be generalizing it all too neatly. Not everyone thinks alike,Ā nor does everyone care what type of homes people live in.
What Others Think of Mobile Homes
I recently asked a few friends once about what “Trailer Trash” meant to them. Their answers surprised me. They said that the words were more associated with those that just couldn’t or didn’t make improvements to their homes, not all mobile homes. They had an image of a dilapidated trailer with washing machines in the yard, not the average manufactured home that had been maintained and decorated nicely.
This is NOT Trailer Trash:
There’s been a little written regarding the stigma and how it became. One of the best is called Immobile Dreams: How Did The Trailer Come To Be A Symbol of FailureĀ and it’s a very good read. Another article that seems to understand the stereotype is at CTPost.com.
I think by simply proving the stereotype myths wrong we can get rid of it. No sense in harboring ill will against those that simply aren’t educated on the topic and that’s exactly how the stereotype perpetuates. Once we show the truth about the homes and the true potential they have, then we can make the stride in removing it, and that’s exactly why I started Mobile and Manufactured Home Living!
Thanks so much for finding MMHL.
4 thoughts on “Stereotype Myths of Mobile Homes”
I have been on here reading all day. It’s a Saturday. Thanks a lot. I grew up in a 1974 Homette 12×70 singlewide. At first, in a park–large, almost 200 home sites… then my parents moved us out in the country on 2 acres of land. My parents ripped up all the flooring in the kitchen and living room and had real plywood cut into various widths and lengths stained and nailed down. They ripped all the cabinets out, tore out the small dog-house bedroom and made that part of the new larger kitchen/living area and built a huge bar. They added a 2 car garage and off the front (former master) bedroom a 12×12 addition with its own entry… and added a tub/shower to the toilet only bathroom… and voila, two larger rooms one for each me and my brother. A nice custom deck, concrete walkway, back patio and rear access to the garage … and newly designed bathrooms took a ’74 12×70 and made it larger. But… I went on to college – I have a Masters Degree… my brother works for a private law firm as an IT specialist… we are normal people. Now… I live in 1250sq.ft townhome and all I want is a singlewide or more shocking… even a larger RV will suffice. And I want a little pop up camper to get away. I don’t need much space to be happy and it doesn’t have to be in the nicest subdivision. I grew up living simple, we didn’t have much… but we had family… and that’s all that counts in the end. When we leave earth, we only have our legacy… and the house is usually not part of that legacy. Thanks for your site. I LOVE IT. And I love being a Trailer Park kid! ;) But I was never Trailer trash. And even our next door neighbor who had 2 old cars beat up in his back yard and an outdoor washer / dryer with a tin roof over top… is a Lawyer. ;) So… “trailer trash” I don’t think it’s a term that really holds.
Great to hear from you Anthony! I have a special place in my heart for Homette’s! I really enjoyed reading your comment and you are absolutely right, there’s no such thing as trailer trash!
So glad you found MHL!
Hi I can absolutely agree with you, and I think it’s great that you are trying to spread the word about trailer parks not being totally classified in a single stereotype of “trailer trash”. I too own a single wide with one child and my husband, and we live well above poverty guidelines. With it being so hard to get approved for a mortgage nowadays and apartments can be unstable(we got kicked out of 2 different places for having a cat) a mobile home seemed like the best choice. Sure it is small, but it is not even close to a dump. I think we all have a few families in our neighborhoods that we may see the way their home is maintained and judge the whole area to be that way, but there are a lot of normal good hearted people, a lot of people in my park are retired and this was a good choice of living for them. Wherever you go, there will be drug addicts, alcoholics, abusive families, and not only in trailer parks. Some may think that trailer parks have more of these types of people, but from my experience it is like a regular neighborhood, everyone is friendly and helpful, and they don’t live back here because they are poor or scummy, and most of the homes are maintained and look nice. Of course we have a few families that are poor and don’t have all the luxuries in our neighborhood, but I think neighborhoods everywhere have seen a family similar. Thank you for posting this!
Great to hear from you Melissa! Love your comment – every neighborhood in the world has a few issues and not-so-great neighbors.
Thanks so much for commenting – hope to hear from you again!