Islands apart

While the rivalry between Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard is very real, those on both sides say the root is simply this: Everyone needs a rival, and they’re the only other thing around.

“It’s little more than the old ‘My-island-is-better-than-your-island’ thing,’’ said Luke DeBettencourt, a fourth-generation Vineyarder.

But what has changed, natives say, is how rabid the rivalry has become off the field, especially among the summer people who couldn’t care less who wins the football game but care very much about what their island choice says about them.

“I like the Vineyard because I find it’s more diverse culturally and economically and socially,’’ said Lisbeth Cooper, who has been coming to Martha’s Vineyard each summer since the 1970s. “When I go to Nantucket, I just feel out of place,’’ she said as she paused from reading “Anna Karenina’’ on the beach in Oak Bluffs, where her son now owns an inn.

“Oak Bluffs is just revolting,’’ Richard Zahm said as he rode the ferry to his preferred island, Nantucket. “It’s like the Jersey Shore. The colors are garish.’’

Both islands, of course, are summer paradises of great natural beauty. They are also very expensive, very exclusive, and very preppy. Nantucket, the broad-brush argument goes, is just more extreme in all categories. In other words, many Vineyarders say, “snobby.’’

“We totally agree,’’ Whitey Willauer, a Nantucket selectman, said to the charge of snobbiness as he sat with friends at the private Wharf Rat Club just off the ferry terminal. “They tend to be movie-starish. We tend to attract CEOs and political persons. It’s a different culture.’’

But, Willauer and others said, being “snobby’’ was precisely what made Nantucket better.