At the start of the semester I was asked to respond to the term Appalachia, and bring some of my initial thoughts to the table. I quickly realized that I didn’t have much to go off of. The hillbilly, mountain dweller, moonshine drinker identity didn’t go hand in hand with the term Appalachian in my mind; maybe they were in the same general area, but it wasn’t what first came to mind. However this lack of perspective led to a fresh, unbiased approach to the subject. Learning about the stereotypes through the class readings and responding to the subject material in a few of my responsive artifacts, Preconceived Notions, or Lack Thereof; Hoedown Throwdown, Hillbillies vs. Rednecks; and Go Make Me a Sandwich, I developed a general understanding of the stereotypes without having been brainwashed into believing their accuracy. This allowed me to spot the errors in the stereotypes without a little voice in my head yelling about the backwards ways of Appalachia.

            My first artifact, Preconceived Notions, or Lack Thereof, addresses my initial unawareness of attitude on the subject that I seemed to lack. “I’m a white, cisgender female, raised in an upper-middle class home in the Suburbs of Richmond area, Virginia.” Living on the very borders of the Appalachian Region, I never considered the area to be of any significance to me whatsoever. Other than Hollywood produced entertainment and some “bad” music that my father occasionally listened to, I had no reason to care about Appalachia, what it stood for, of even what people thought it was. I was never a fan of those kinds of movies or television shows; I usually preferred a cheesy romantic comedy. As I began reading the individual, assigned articles and participated in class discussions, I grew to understand what the general consensus on Appalachia was and watch it quickly transform as many of these myths incited a defense mechanism in the authors we read as a class; in turn these myths and stereotypes were slowly debunked, for the most part.

There will always be, however, a seed of truth to the vast majority of stereotyping in any given situation. Perhaps it has evolved, but these beliefs had to start somewhere. And along with these roots comes a certain level of pride, and almost division between different groups. In my second artifact, Hoedown Throwdown, Hillbillies vs. Rednecks, I define the difference between hillbillies and rednecks and acknowledge the pride members of each group, despite logical reasoning for it. “Some members of each group take pride in the names, but I haven’t found much of a stereotypical argument as to why. Both terms are used to often indicate a person without an education who lives in a rural area, but other than that, can be very different.” Luckily, my lack of understanding on Appalachian stereotypes left room for a separate judgement of “rednecks.” Hillbillies don’t want to be mistaken for rednecks and vice versa. My preconceived notions of rednecks and the confederate-flag-flyin’ pride that comes with the territory gave me some perspective as I read and responded to different defenses of the Appalachian region and responses to the negative stereotypes.

Ultimately, with an unbiased approach to the subject material, I slowly understood the pride of one’s background as well as the rejection of an outsider’s perspective. In my third artifact I related Appalachian stereotypes to female stereotypes and how derogatory messages to women negatively affect me. To a certain extent, I understand the struggle, being a female at a male dominant Institute. The only reason there is any sense to finding humor in female stereotypes is because I’ve lived my life at the butt of these “jokes,” therefore I know what it takes to overcome them. It’s almost as if I have earned the right to them because I understand how inaccurate and moronic they are. However, at the end of the day, I take pride in being a female, but not being called a “bitch,” or told to go make a sandwich. “This example is obviously more general than a “hillbilly” stereotype, but if a phrase offends me from one angle, it offends me from all angles, with maybe the seldom, situational exception.” (Artifact 3) Nine times out of ten, I don’t find stereotypical jokes about my identity to be funny. Luckily enough, I had no background of finding Appalachian stereotypes funny either, so I was able to learn about the region, the stereotypes, and the pride without having to overcome ignorance that too many people are unfortunately brainwashed into.

I started from scratch in discovering Appalachia, all that means, and all it does not mean. Because of the immediate, defensive approach to the Appalachian misconceptions and myths, I had no choice but to see the truth without any time at all to develop a bias on the matter. And it was all specifically due to the native authors and their either learned or inherent pride of Appalachia.

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Sarah Elizabeth Lemon