The Water Cooler
See other The Water Cooler Articles
Title: Arkansas' Hillbilly Image Resonates Into 21st Century
Source:
REUTERS
URL Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011 ... Type=nl&feedName=usoddlyenough
Published: Sep 27, 2011
Author: REUTERS
Post Date: 2011-09-27 13:10:22 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 3750
Comments: 14
By Suzi Parker LITTLE ROCK, Ark | Mon Sep 26, 2011 9:06am EDT (Reuters) - The image of barefoot mountain hillbillies has made many Arkansans cringe for decades. But it's a hard one to shake -- even though the state produced a two-term president in Bill Clinton, a famous author in John Grisham, and one of the world's most successful entrepreneurs in Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. This weekend, in conjunction with the Old State House Museum exhibit "Arkansas Arkansaw: A State And Its Reputation," academics addressed the ongoing inferiority complex the state has always suffered, thanks to hillbilly lore. "Arkansans understand the slights, the insecurities, and that it has always been us versus them, and the 'them' are laughing at us," said Brooks Blevins, a professor at Missouri State University who guest-curated the exhibit. "And sometimes we use it to our advantage." Blevins, an Arkansas native, is also the author of "Arkansas/Arkansaw: How Bear Hunters, Hillbillies, and Good Ol' Boys Defined a State." The exhibit follows how Arkansas earned its backwoods reputation, starting in the 18th century, and continuing even after Clinton became president. After all, Clinton was dubbed "Bubba" by some, which resulted in redneck jokes and souvenirs, such as Bubba Hot Sauce. Because of its location as a gateway to the Wild West, Arkansas didn't luck into the romantic Southern moonlight-and-magnolia image. Rather, it became known as a rough crossroads where people -- and outlaws -- hid in the mountains, married cousins and sold moonshine. When George W. Featherstonhaugh, the first U.S. government geologist, visited Arkansas in the 1830s, he described the territory as a place filled with criminals and gamblers. He wrote that one woman he met "chewed tobacco, she smoked a pipe, she drank whiskey, and cursed and swore as heartily as any backwoodsman, all at the same time." UNFLATTERING That unflattering image continued in literature, art and song, starting with the 19th Century fiddling tune, "The Arkansas Traveler," said Robert Cochran, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville's chair of American Studies. The song depicts a hillbilly too stupid to fix his roof in a rainstorm. The 1936 Cole Porter song, "The Ozarks Are Calling," perpetuates "the stereotype of squalor," he said. Even as late as the 1970s, songs like "They Caught the Devil and Put Him in Jail in Eudora, Arkansas," by Tony Joe White, referred to corn meal suppers, dirt roads, and a poor jailer who may have let Satan go in exchange for a bribe. "Most popular songs about Arkansas are not positive," Cochran said. "These were commercial popular artists, wanting to make record sales, and they found the way to do it was make fun of Arkansas." Other rural states like West Virginia, Tennessee and Alabama have similar image problems, Cochran said. And Georgia may never shake the images from "Deliverance." But Arkansas has gotten an especially bum rap thanks to its own perpetuation of and profit from the hillbilly image, Cohen said. In 1968, the amusement park, Dogpatch, opened in the state, capitalizing on the hillbilly image from Al Capp's popular "Li'l Abner" comic strip, with rides and souvenirs like corncob pipes and moonshine jugs. The park closed in 1993. Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, continued to drive a pick-up truck and wear overalls long after he became a multimillionaire. In 1992, a popular cartoon drawn by Arkansan George Fisher depicted the Clintons moving from Arkansas to the White House in a battered pick-up stacked with their belongings. Even today, the Ozark School District in northwest Arkansas has a hillbilly, with overalls and a shotgun, for its mascot. While Blevins said it's time for the state to move beyond its image, Cochran fears it will remain. "The stereotype is durable," he said. "I think it is with us. It's part of our heritage and we capitalize on it." Indeed, Arkansas still does. On October 8, Clinton, Arkansas, hosts its first annual Redneck Olympics with wheelbarrow races, seed spitting and redneck horseshoes. And what is "redneck horseshoes," exactly? Throwing a toilet seat at a stake.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Murron (#0)
*PING*
Don't know why you would ping me to this article skip, I live in Kentucky. My family (history) has been called all sorts of names but the one never discussed is how my family raised their families while working the mines and fields, instilling a work ethic that most northern teat suckers today wouldn't know if it slapped them upside the head. I suppose your reason could have been just to embarrass me, but you failed. &;-)
How does this 'work ethic' translate into meth or even the old tried and true drinking alcohol production with a still? You and I know from your local forum how bedeviled by meth your area is. Why didn't working the fields or mines instill a better sense not to go there?
You and I know from your local forum how bedeviled by meth your area is. Why didn't working the fields or mines instill a better sense not to go there? You are right, we have a big Meth problem in this area, but I thank God everyday that it's not within my family. We live at the crossroads of 3 counties, and just in the last few months there have been 4 meth houses busted, the criminals put where they belong, some lost their children, and the houses burned to the ground. These labs have hit the rural areas, the meth heads think they're safe out in this area, but they are not, we will do everything in our power to shut them down.
How do you think California got to be one of the world's largest economies?
"You post articles- intellectual excrement, really- that support your inane, insipid mentality, on a regular basis. Capitalist Eric
How can they forget this? __________________________________________________________________________________________ I wish you all there the best of luck at cracking down on this scurge. We have had quite the battle locally and I know the fight is not fun or easy. many I worked with in the woods is dead because of it. That gives me strong feelings about how this problem should be handled.
Breaking Bad is my fave TV show.
"This is what economic policy in the West has become--a tool of the wealthy used to enrich themselves by spreading poverty among the rest of the population." Paul Craig Roberts
Mine too!
I sampled it, but it hits too close to home. I went to jail twice as alias my name after a crankster gangster stole my ID and used it it during his traffic stops by cops. I have also had expensive bicycles stolen because of crank related crime. I bet that idiot cooking in that fictional series because he is dying of cancer meets a bad end. But crank has tasked me on the resources of time and money without even wanting to use it. So watching the show is nothing I myself would be interested in doing, even to see this guy get what's coming to him.
You should have called Saul.
"This is what economic policy in the West has become--a tool of the wealthy used to enrich themselves by spreading poverty among the rest of the population." Paul Craig Roberts
That's just who I need if I want a mouthpiece who can't tell a public- masturbation client from someone named Badger.
Meth? Through it's production or associations or using, OR all of it?
"It's not surprising, then, they [White Pennsylvanians] get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." ~ Comrade-in-Chief Barry Hussein 0bama
The Mena Airport I think most of the Bubba/Boosh groupies can easily forget/excuse this stuff. That or they disbelieve THREE Presidents could possibly involved in....um...er...a Body Count and coke smuggling.
"It's not surprising, then, they [White Pennsylvanians] get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." ~ Comrade-in-Chief Barry Hussein 0bama
#2. To: Skip Intro (#1)
#3. To: Murron (#2)
#4. To: Ferret Mike (#3)
How does this 'work ethic' translate into meth or even the old tried and true drinking alcohol production with a still?
#5. To: Murron (#2)
...my family raised their families while working the mines and fields, instilling a work ethic that most northern teat suckers today wouldn't know if it slapped them upside the head.
#6. To: Brian S (#0)
Arkansas' Hillbilly Image Resonates Into 21st Century
ABC NEWS: [Ron Paul] added that the United States is in 130 countries and has 900 bases around the world, and added that “we’re broke.”. He was booed at a Tea-Party debate.
Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Statist and all ships at sea. Your demonization of the Tea Party has worked - you need no longer fear it! Carry on!!
#7. To: Murron (#4)
"These labs have hit the rural areas, the meth heads think they're safe out in this area, but they are not, we will do everything in our power to shut them down."
#8. To: Ferret Mike (#7)
"These labs have hit the rural areas, the meth heads think they're safe out in this area, but they are not, we will do everything in our power to shut them down."
#9. To: Godwinson (#8)
#10. To: Godwinson (#8)
#11. To: Ferret Mike, Fred Mertz (#10)
I sampled it, but it hits too close to home. I went to jail twice as alias my name after a crankster gangster stole my ID and used it it during his traffic stops by cops.
#12. To: Godwinson (#11)
#13. To: Ferret Mike (#7)
many I worked with in the woods is dead because of it.
#14. To: Get Outta Dodge! (#6)
How can they forget this?
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]