Southern Mentality...

[Tequila_Flower]

To all,

I am a southern transplat...dixie tried and true but my question is...do you notice that if you are not from the south you have a negative mentality about the south?

The reason I say this is because my husband and I are going to be heading to Arkansas where I am from for a very important family function. When people ask my husband why we are going there...it seems to be a joke and answers that we are going to Hillbilly Disney Land. He knows that I do not appreciate it and he tends to get one up side the head for the comment too.

Being up north I notice that if you talk about the "south" people seem to look down on it vs. celebrating it.

Any thought?

[marie curie]

I'm from WV, living in Pittsburgh, with my boyfriend from GA...

I think that people make associations with particualar areas. My boyfriend kind of wanted to end up in NC, but I insist on raising my children in a blue state. I just know that the conservative ideas that I grew up around are not what I want for my family, and sooooo if anyone says anything to me about the "south" I have knowlegde of the values of the majority of the voting public, and don't appreciate them, jumping to funny assumptions about "rednecks" and banjos, even though I've lived below the Mason-Dixon line most of my life.

If you were to say something about moving to pittsburgh, cleveland, or NJ, someone would probably make a crack about breathing in more chemicals than most people know exist.

If you say something about Kansas, someone will probably say, "Haha, well watch out that your house doesn't fly away"

If you say something about CA, people will probably say something about hippies or surfers...

Soooo, each area has their associations and I think we just jump to the pop-references to each place because it's what we are exposed to all the time.

[SamuraiDave]

I can understand that. We get quite alot of southerners (mostly from Kentucky) up in Ohio. I personally get along great with southerners and greatly admire Bobby Lee, though I hate the confederate flag. I live in England now where they consider all Americans to be Yankees even the ones from the south. Somerset County over here is quite a bit like Kentucky, and I love it here though there are things a few things I don't like.

[UseoForce]

Negative?

The south has a reputation for having very moral, Chritian, and conservative values.

I'm all for that.

Go Texas!

[niel0092]

Ever watch an episode of Cops? Dont most of those take place in the south? Seriously though, we all have generalizations made about where we are from. Dont beleive me? Look at my location and tell me the movie Fargo doens't enter your mind at least a little bit. Are we all hockey playing Norweigans with a penchant for saying "you betcha" and "oh sure"? Nah, not at all but that's what comes to mind right? Just relax a bit, I'm sure the comments are all in good fun.

And if it still really bothers you, just look at Kid Rock and hang your head in shame How many stereo types is that guy all rolled into one? I still cant beleive you people let him out in public...

[HumanTyphoon]

You get stereotyped wherever you go...though, being up North...you will probably here more trash talk about the South. But, I'm pretty sure most people don't really really mean it at all.

[jaymac]

Honestly, I do not have any negative thoughts about the south, but I do agree that alot of people in northern areas or larger cities tend to think that people from the south are poorer and less intelligent. They also think everyone in Fla. is over the age of 60. Personally, I think that I would have loved to grow up in Louisiana and enjoyed everything about that lifestyle. Unless there are large spiders there.