The "shaved-headed tracksuit Slav" stereotype

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I've noticed that a lot of people seem to stereotype men from Eastern Europe as having shaved heads. wearing tracksuits, and being extremely muscular or fat. However, I've met Polish men at camp (they were my counselors - my camp had some kind of exchange program) and none of them had shaved heads or wore tracksuits. They dressed similarly to the counselors from Western Europe. Virtually all of them were skinny as well, and I was taller than most of them.

I asked this question on DeviantArt last year, and one of the answers I got said that this look was popular when Poles began immigrating in large numbers to the UK after Poland joined the EU. (I've noticed that Brits believe this stereotype more than Americans do.)

Do you think the shaved-head-tracksuit stereotype is accurate?

I've never heard of this stereotype. I never had the idea in my head that there was any special way that Poles dress or wear their hair in today's world.

Maybe this would be a question mainly for the Europeans here? Or maybe this is a youth culture thing and I'm just too old to have heard of it?

Do you mean this kind of man? Image result for "Eastern european man wearing track suits".

Ah, the old Eastern European stereotypes, made ever more popular by video games such as GTA IV:

Gopniks.

Me neither.

That's exactly what I mean.

It's a subculture common in Eastern Europe, they're called gopniks.

I found this video very amusing.

Sometimes used as a security system.

That guy looks like Paul Giamatti.

So...

you want us all to (a) learn a stereotype that we never before heard of, and then you want us to (b) UN learn the same stereotype?

I will just...not bother learning it in the first place ...if ya dont mind!

I think he's just curious about who's familiar with the stereotype and why it exists. He doesn't condemn it or condemn people who believe in it to any degree, just states his experiences don't align with it.

Hopefully explaining that it's a common subculture helps provide context to the earlier answer about it being a popular look when Poles began immigrating to the UK. The UK likely had more Polish immigration than from some other countries where gopniks were common, but the look isn't limited to Poles, nor would it be typical of Poles who aren't gopniks.

I noticed something of the kind in an inner-city district of Leicester just after a large influx of Eastern Europeans. I didn't like the look of them. They seemed intimidating, and associated with noise pollution and the excessive consumption of lager and cigarettes. In a sense it's a relief to me that somebody has created a stereotype of them. I don't mean them any harm, it's just reassuring that somebody else saw it too and didn't like it. I notice many people in Leicester that as a gut reaction I feel rather cold towards, some indigenous, some not.

I don't know why, but I really like the word gopnik.

I don't know why, but I like wearing tracksuits and listening to hardbass.