New topic--Jungyeon Alice Lee

Hi Guys,
As discussed in the class, some media might play an important role in keeping the Southern stereotype still remaining. Hollywood might be one of the media that take advantage of the stereotypes of the South. Hollywood movies often show Southerners as being idle, uneducated, and stupid. The reason that they do this should be to attract more viewers to their movies because the stereotypes are good topics for humors to please people from other areas of the U.S. Does anyone know other reasons for this trend?

My person opinion of the South-Jungyeon Alice Lee

I came from South Korea around 2005 and have lived in South Carolina for about 4 years and a half and in Georgia for about four months. Through my high school life in South Carolina, I once thought that American (southern) students might be less intelligent, which is one of the Southerners stereotypes. In terms of academic achievement, Asians (mostly Indians and Koreans) seemed to be much better than American students. Asians, despite its small number, took a large proportion of the top 10 percent students in GPA. Also, seeing that high school students were learning basic algebra, which was covered in the early middle school years in Korea, made me think that American students might lack in intelligence.

Getting to understand American students more and more, however, I realized that the difference in academic accomplishments does not come from any intelligence difference between races but from cultural differences. In fact, what is valued most in Asian countries is getting a good grade, which might lead me to unconsciously believe that getting an excellent grade means being intelligent. In contrast, what I noticed from Americans’ (Southerners’) school life was that they have so many jobs as valuable as getting a good grade. While Korean students like me spend most of the time in studying school subjects, American students divide the time to spend on many different things such as extracurricular activities, community services, church activities, and so on. Check this video out from Youtube published by bettatrey! He is saying, "I hunt on Mondays, drink whiskey on Tuesdays, and play my Banjo on....listen to my country musics on Saturdays, and go to church on Sundays because I am from the South."

In this light, the stereotype of Southerners being less intelligent should be related to cultural differences between Southerners and Northerners. Northerners might look more knowledgeable in academics or socio-economic situations. However, such differences, if any, should not reflect any difference in intelligence but in what they value highly. Northerners, who live in urbanized settings, might put more values in knowledge about economy and science. By contrast, Southerners living in countryside might prefer to develop social skills needed to keep local communities. This difference in culture should not be interpreted as that in intelligence.

My Southern Experiences - Brian Wier

I have lived in the south for my entire life, and through my family experience, I have come to know several different facets of southern culture. When I think about what the south is, there are two rather distinct images that come to my mind because of my experience with them. There is the image of the old money south. This south, like what we see in Gone With the Wind, is a slave to appearances. This part of southern culture is dying off as the south diversifies, but among the upper class, this culture remains. Values such as hospitality are treasured, and the social scene is overly concerned with status and making showy displays.
The other image I associate with the south is that of Appalachia. The people in this region have generally been termed as rednecks or hillbillies. They live a slow and relaxed life, not worrying about the outside world. Everyone in the community knows one another and depend on one another to get by in the world. It's a relaxed place where everyone looks out for each other and life is generally pleasant. A good representation of this part of the south is The Andy Griffith Show, which focuses on a sheriff in the small town of Mayberry, NC.



Taking the whole of the south into mind, I think of a simpler, slower time when I think of what southern culture is. Sure, the world is fast paced now, but the things in the world that I see as uniquely southern are these notions of small, tight-knit communities built on high moral ground.

Personal Southern Opinion-Carter Owens

Even though the term redneck and southern are two completely different things, they are now seen as synonymous because of how the two have been portrayed in media. To add on to what Paul said about the stereotypes of southerners lacking common sense, they are also seen as sounding unintelligent and having the endless supply of shirts with cut-off sleeves. Take this video for example. Now many people say that Larry The Cable Guy is just a skit and not how the 'actor' acts in real life, but if that’s true it’s exactly what the problem is. People are parading around exacerbating the stereotypes of southerners. This sort of thing causes stuff like THIS to happen. (I personally didn't even know people thought we ate gator down here)
I was born in Georgia and have lived here all my life and can attest to the fact that all southerners are not rednecks or stupid. In fact, people believing in these stereotypes are actually showing their own stupidity. I think that northerners think these are true just so they can convince themselves that they are better than the rest of the United States.

New Topic-Personal Opinion of the South

Hey Guys,

I was thinking that we start off pretty simple and just talk briefly about what each of us think of the South now, as we enter the class. Then, at the end of the semester, we can compare our current thoughts to our new ones, if any.

Good Luck

-Paul DeVito

Southern Artifact- Paul DeVito

When thinking about South Carolina, some people may associate their ideas with this video. The complete lack of common sense that Miss South Carolina conveys in her response really tarnishes South Carolina's reputation. After seeing this video many people probably don't think very highly of the good people of South Carolina anymore.
I think the video expresses this notion pretty clearly, through her utter lack of a coherent response. She just rambles on, goes off topic, and has too many "umms" "likes" and pauses throughout. Her response is totally off topic and I don't even think she really knew what she was saying.
Personally, I know several people from South Carolina and they are actually quite intelligent, so this video isn't very accurate.

Stereotypes of Southerners- An Artifact- Alice Lee

My name is Alice Lee. The main focus of English 1102 (taught by Dr. Hoefer) is on understanding the South identity. One of the assignments for this week is to find and post in this blog an artifact that represents stereotyped Southerners.





This image and video clip were from the famous movie, “Forrest Gump.” This movie tells a story about Southern people such as the main character, Forrest Gump (from Alabama), and his best friend, Bubba (from Louisiana.) Basically, the movie is based on the stereotype that Southerners are stupid and ignorant. Forrest Gump is born to be ‘a simple person’ while his friend seems to be a normal guy, but a little less intelligent. Both of the two characters do a lot of stupid things. For example, Gump only follows his mother and his girlfriend, Jenny. Bubba keeps on saying about one topic, shrimping. He repeats the same topic all the time, eating, cleaning, and even in action in Vietnam jungles. He says, “Anyway, like I was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh,....There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp,.... That- that's about it.” In this movie, however, being stupid does not always mean being a problem but may mean being unable to focus on more than one thing. In this respect, focusing on one goal, whether it is just running or making a shrimp company, can lead to a big success. Gump, for example, makes a fortune by starting shrimping to keep a promise with Bubba. In fact, the stereotype of southerners being stupid may just reflect one side of a person’s behavior, ignoring the other side, its positive aspect.

The South in Deliverance - Brian Wier

When the south comes to mind, one may fall to common stereotypes made popular in the media such as a backward culture full of ignorant hillbillies. Deliverance, a popular 1972 film based on the book by James Dickey, presents exactly this image of the south. In the movie, four Atlanta businessmen go on a weekend canoeing trip in the north Georgia mountains, only to have their plans go terribly awry. Deliverance depicts the rural south as an incredibly backwards place, where everyone is inbred and not fully capable mentally, somehow lesser human beings to be looked down upon. One part in particular from Deliverance, the famous dueling banjos scene, captures all these images of the south at once. The characters stop for gas and to ask for help. Lewis, the leader of the group, asks the attendant multiple times in an increasingly simplistic manner for help, only to be met with vague responses. Meanwhile, a local boy starts playing his banjo with another one of the characters on guitar. During this "duet" the hillbilly boy always seems a bit creepy, appearing a bit mindless. While they play, the locals begin to dance around comically. Throughout this scene, the locals appear to be far removed from normal human behavior. This representation of the south is largely untrue, and this movie has most likely helped perpetuate many of the negative stereotypes about the south in recent years.

Southern Identity-Carter Owens

Hey, I’m Carter Owens and this is a blog about southern identity. More specifically stereotypes people think of when someone mentions the word ‘southerner’ to them. Most often these stereotypes are harsh and unrepresentative of what most southerners are. I was watching T.V. the other day, Family Guy to be exact, and it was the episode where the Griffin family goes under witness protection in The South. This particular episode is filled with stereotypes about southern ‘rednecks’. I could only find one scene from this episode, but there are many other references. Some of the main ones are how the highest score on a test in school was done by a pig, one of the local boys referencing towards Meg says, “Man, I sure hope her brother don’t got dibs on her.”, and some other references to the Dukes of Hazzard.
This Family Guy episode is not introducing anything new, but just continuing the stereotypes that already exist. It portrays southerners as being dumb, dumber than pigs in this case, and not caring about incest. I have heard people joke all the time about how you can date your cousin in Alabama.
Although the episode was hilarious, I don’t think it is an accurate description of what southerners are like. It may be the case in some backwoods trailer parks, but it definitely is not the south as a whole.

(Below is the video and if it does not work click Here)