I think it’s more a way to needle the American, than true as to how they actually identify.
Hadn’t thought about that viewpoint. Admittedly, my sample was small and I was the brunt of jokes.
I was working in a power plant in Chile and heard a worker swearing up a blue streak after smashing his thumb. I didn’t know most of what he was saying, but I kept hearing “puta.” At lunch in the canteen that day, I didn’t have a fork at my place setting. One of my new “friends” told me to ask the waitress for a “puta.” I said “No, no, no!” and all of his friends laughed that I didn’t fall for it. All I knew at the time was that “puta” was most assuredly NOT “fork.”