1.
Stereotyping
In
Our
Own
Backyard:
How
we
view
the
people
of
the
Appalachian
area
Becca
Blumer
March
29,
2013

2. When it comes to stereotypes we all know at least one derogatory term, or
negative thing to say, about a certain culture of people. Many people don’t see the harm,
especially when these stereotypes are used for humor in our media. But these stereotypes
are hurtful and they belittle the people they go against (Cooke-Jackson & Hansen, 2008).
We are laughing at other people’s frustrations and pains, and while we can argue against
the bad aspects of these stereotypes, it is important to consider what the actual people
under this ridicule have to say about it. Do they not have something to say about how
they are being portrayed in our media after all?
When the show “The Jersey Shore” came out on MTV in December of 2009, it
soon came to the attention of viewers and news media that the Italian American
population was outraged by the behavior of the characters on the show. The young cast
was not very well educated, drank way too much, made very stupid decisions, and
basically lived not very moral lives. As entertaining as it was to everyone else, one can
only imagine how the Italian American population felt after people started to make jokes
about their entire population based on this show. This is just one recent example of
stereotyping taking place today, but another stereotype goes back much further than this.
For the population living in the area of Appalachia, ridicule has been going on for much
longer.
The first depiction of a “hill-billie” came in 1900 in the New York Journal,
describing a person of this hilly region as “free and untrammeled white citizen of
Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he
pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him”
(Cooke-Jackson & Hansen, 2008, Hawthorne, J., “Mountain votes spoil Huntington’s

3. revenge).” Women of the area would later go on to be described as barefoot and
pregnant, as well as living in a very poverty stricken area (Cooke-Jackson & Hansen,
2008).
Stereotypes can be described as “signifying images, tools of identity signification
through which people make judgments about other people (Massey, 2007). It is a picture
of the traits one finds most arresting and intriguing, as well as demeaning when
considering a person or a culture (Massey, 2007, Hall, 1997). When Hitler and Nazi
Germany were attempting to eradicate the Jewish population, as well as any other human
population the deemed lesser, they used a thought process just like this in their
advertising. Knowing that human nature involves much visual perception, if they
prompted the thought process and provided images for not only reference, but humor at
the expense of the people they thought to be lesser, they were able to help their own
cause through posters in a huge way. However, those stereotypes sadly still exist, and are
resented by the Jewish population worldwide. To be represented as ‘money-grubbing’
and ‘big-nosed’ is to put the Jewish people right back on the front of those posters during
WWII, labeled as ‘rats.’
My question is, if every culture had a say in what was portrayed in the media
today, would even half of the shows on television still be on air? Through this paper, I
will attempt to examine this question further, as well as the question of how certain
people feel about certain portrayals. Since the Appalachian area is, in fact, practically in
my backyard, I will ask a man who grew up in the area how he feels about the ‘hill-bilie’
stereotype, and if there is any truth to all the pictures displayed through the media today.

4. References:
• Cooke-Jackson, A., & Hansen, E. K. (2008). Appalachian culture and
reality tv: The ethical dilemma of stereotyping others. (Vol. 23). Journal of
Mass Media Ethics.
• Hall, S. (1997). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying
practices. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• MASSEY, C. (2007). APPALACHIAN STEREOTYPES: CULTURAL
HISTORY, GENDER, AND SEXUAL RHETORIC. Journal Of
Appalachian Studies, 13(1/2), 124-136.