The term “hillbilly” is a stereotype for people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas in the USA. Because a stereotypical expression, “hillbilly” includes images of being violent and backward, many Americans feel offensive when they hear the word. In media, the images of “hillbilly” are miserably portrayed by diverse TV shows. For example, “The Beverly Hillbillies” shows moving of poor rural people to Beverly Hills and leads audiences to laugh at the family’s misfit into new environment in the Beverly Hills. Women feel unfamiliarity to kitchen utensils such as oven and refrigerator. They use improperly use the utensils; they use oven like a heater. Also, they maintain habits of rural life even though they moved to urban area. A man attempts
to catch a flamingo bird as he caught a chicken in rural area. Furthermore, diverse advertisements made fun of images of hillbilly. For example, an advertisement of Mountain Dew describes that a man can open a woman’s heart if only take a swig. In her article, Michelle Dean states that the “hillbilly” stereotype has been widespread in the entertainment industry’s TV shows which portray the stereotypes of the “hillbilly.” According to her article, more successful Americans believe that poverty is a choice. However, people cannot choose to be poor in the society. The poor rural people do not need to be judged negatively. Their lifestyle in rural has privilege to be respected and is not for fun. Lives in both rural and urban areas need to be respected equally. Changes in perspective in rural are required in this society.
Scattered throughout our history books, you can find countless examples of wars being fought and conflicts that boil down to simply power and who has it. As a general statement, everyone wants to have some power and ability to control their own lives, if not the lives of those around them. If the two stereotypes that we are presented with about the relationship between race and food could be reduced to their most simplistic explanation, you would be left with the idea that by treating African Americans as food or comical relief, Caucasians are stripping their African American counterparts of their power to control their own lives and showing their supposed dominance. There is no doubt that Chesnutt utilizes these stereotypes in both “The Goophered Grapevine” and “Dave’s Neckliss,” however, he goes past and complicates these stereotypes when he introduces characters that slyly take back some of the power that they are stripped of.
Brokeback Mountain is a book by Annie Proulx and was later adapted into a movie directed by Ang Lee. In Brokeback Mountain, the film conveys the life and secret love of two wyoming cowboys and shows the progression of their relationship through the years. I believe this film uses the characters Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar, the setting of the story to convey typical gay life for people before the modern era.
A main theme in this small town’s culture is the issue of gender and the division of roles between the two. Not uncommon for the 1950’s, many women were taught from a young age to find a good man, who could provide for them and a family, settle down and have children – the ideal “happy family.” As Harry states after singing the showstopper “Kids,” “I have the All-American family: A great wife, 2 wonderful kids and a good job.”
Eye witness accounts of events are not always accurate. The accounts depicted by depend on how witnesses read the situation. The same is true when interpreting the depiction of race and/or ethnicity in media productions. Because situations gain meaning through the process of social construction (the interpretation of a situation based on one’s knowledge), the same event can be viewed and internalized by witnesses who render opposing viewpoints. This analysis will compare the depiction and rejection of socially constructed stereotypes relative to race and ethnicity in three situation comedies: All in the Family, The Jefferson’s and The Cosby Show.
The culture and society of the American South can be categorized into a variety of groups through stereotypes from outsiders, politicians, music and among other things. To help depict the American South, literature and films that we have watched in class such as Mandingo, Gone with the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Color Purple, Gods Little Acre, Tomorrow, Jezebel, The Littlest Rebel and with special focus on O Brother Where Art Thou will help capture and reflect southern culture to those not accustomed to the ways of southern society.
Having to live in a culturally diverse country such as the U.S. would influence many interpretations and adaptations to lifestyles from all over the world. Due to this, it has become customary to develop a social stereotype just being in a certain part of the world. But, everyone does their own things a little differently than the next, speak a little differently, eat different foods, and live their life a different way - but it works out. Two great example of this is in In A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor, and Why I Live at the P.O. by Eudora Welty. These two short stories seek to expose myths about family relationships. Most people would assume that many Southern families are close knit and that there is a healthy relationship between every member. Welty and O’Connor challenged those stereotypes with their two short stories. It goes to show that although family relationships aren’t always perfect and these two examples show how these families fail to recognize the importance of each other.
Marshall writes, “These are the ‘rednecks’ who frosted their hair and wore camouflage…” (Marshall). T.V. shows like these praise the wealthy, non-educated rednecks who makes the rest of the south look bad by glorifying their ignorance. The show Rocket City Rednecks is another example of society using one’s culture to entertain the public by subliminally making fun of their background. Rocket City Rednecks was filmed in one of the cities that I grew up in and with personal experience I can assure you that the city it was filmed in was not full of
People in these Montana prairies had an isolated life where “Every generation relearns the rules its fathers have forgotten”, cursed nature when it threatens their livelihood, yet realized that “This land owes you nothing” [p. 60]. This was a time and region where the difference between what was expected of men and women was paramount. Children grew up working hard, knowing their place in their society and grew up quickly as a result. Being somewhat of a tomboy, Blunt could handle farm equipment and chores as well as her brother, yet was still expected to learn how to cook, clean and care for the men. As with previous generations, it was expected that she follow a planned path to becoming a rancher’s wife. But Judy Blunt always felt there was something more to this hard, bleak life and began a long journey towards breaking clean from the constraints of her upbringing.
In the play, “The Philadelphia” by David Ives took place in New York at a Restaurant. The main topic of this play was Stereotypes. The type of stereotypes in this play where not the offensive ones, it is the type where there can be a group of friends and they would laugh if it was to come up in their conversations. The three main characters where Al, Mark and the waitress. All three of these characters had a huge roll in the poem. Al was the laid back one from California, he did not realize that he was not in California till the very end. Mark was Al’s friend. Mark was the frazzled that needed guidance and assurance to where he was at. The Waitress was the one that enforced the “Philadelphia” stereotype. In order to make this a successful poem
This conversation actually took place during my first semester of college. However, being quite accustomed to the questions that I am frequently asked about the place I call home, this conversation somehow made me more upset than usual. This conversation made me realize just how blind society can be towards other groups in society. Different stereotypes are placed on groups for various reasons-race, sex, occupations, and geographical locations-just to name a few. The last of these four different classifications is the one that distinguishes me from most of society. Growing up in Appalachia has made me a minority (different from the rest of society), and also plagued me with many stereotypes. Everyone in society has heard the stereotypes. However, I would like to focus on the how's and why's of them. How they came to be. Why society does perceive...
Social prejudice was another fact of life. Roughnecks were viewed by some people as poor, trailer park trash.
In the last couple of years, the media has exploited different cultures under a veil of entertainment. As time went by it went by many names, In A Resurgence of ‘Redneck’ Geoff Nunberg says, “Many of these names are forgotten now, and others were regional nicknames like tarheels, buckeeyes and hoosiers.” Although the name has change over time from “half breeds” to “white trash” the names still have the same connotations and culture is still around. In the last sixty years a huge hit on television has been southern culture, in particular “white trash” culture. Two famous TV shows for their white trash counterparts, are Honey Boo Boo and The Beverly Hillbillys. The two shows different in many ways also share a lot in common, from their mockery of shouthern poor white to the shift
As vaudeville grew in the early 1900’s, it was mainly composed of northern performers. However, their example showed southern performers that one could make music playing in public. This realization spawned the first generation of “hillbilly” performers. The term “hillbilly” was popularized in the 1920’s after a musician by the name of Al Hopkins. He told his producer to name his band whatever he liked because they were just a bunch of hillbilly’s from North Carolina and Virginia.
The Boondocks is an animated cartoon series that premiered November 2005 and ended June 2014. The Boondocks is centered on the lives of two young brothers, Huey and Riley. The two brothers move away from their birth city to live with their grandfather in Woodcrest, a predominantly white upper middle class suburb. Huey, the older brother is very politically and socially motivated and is named for Black Panther Party co-founder, Huey Newton. Huey spends most of his time reading and getting involved with political ventures. He despises all stereotypes associated with his black culture. On the contrary, the younger brother Riley understands the stereotypes around him, yet he indulges himself in the gangsta rap and hip-hop
Throughout most of America, there are preconceived notions about the white working class in Appalachia, better known as “hillbillies”. In his novel, Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance gives the audience an inside look at the lifestyle of those hillbillies through both his own experiences and researched facts. He also utilizes his novel to convey a message of self-improvement to the hillbilly community. In the given excerpt from Hillbilly Elegy, Vance uses anecdotes, statistics and both an introspective and a didactic tone to comment on hillbilly culture.