Running head: A LOOK AT SOUTHERN KENTUCKY

A Look at Southern Kentucky

Courtney Ivey
University of Kentucky

Author Note
Courtney Ivey

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Abstract

This paper explores southern culture, as well as the specific culture of southern Kentucky, and
serves to defeat the stereotypes that define it. First, using websites such as the U.S Census
Bureau that document the data of southern Kentucky, this paper examines what defines this
culture, what these people believe, and some of their social norms. Also, using words defined in
the Merriam-Webster dictionary, I show that there are actual definitions that try to define the
southern culture. Next, using articles from the web, this paper gives examples of multiple
stereotypes placed on the people of the south. Finally, two interviews conducted with members
of the southern Kentucky culture, Josh Phelps and Dustin Sexton, will be implicated as evidence
to break these stereotypes. Their first-hand experience, growing up in and being a part of the
southern culture, helps society to understand that not all the beliefs they have are true for all
people living in the south. This paper serves to demonstrate the knowledge learned about
southern culture through online research and face to face interviews with members of this
culture. By using this research and the interviews conducted this paper serves to educate the
people about this culture, and to prevent the use of stereotypes as ways of jumping to
conclusions about this and any other culture.

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A Look at Southern Culture

Stereotype is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as a widely held but fixed and
oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing (Merriam-Webster, 2011).
In society, it is fundamentally impossible to understand and be completely knowledgeable about
all the different cultures present around the world. Its nearly impossible to understand all of the
cultures present within a persons city, let alone the world. America itself is one huge mosaic of
cultures! Typically, when we think of the word culture things like religion and ethnicity come to
mind. But culture goes beyond those boundaries. A culture is really any group comprised of
individuals that share something in common based on things such as their beliefs, morals,
interests, place of living, etc. For example, I am a Caucasian, female, Christian that lives in the
Cincinnati area and enjoys running, nursing, and the University of Kentucky mens basketball
team. All of those things, plus many others, define who I am and makes me a part of multiple
different cultures. Often times we do not fully understand a culture; so, using what we do know
about some of the people within that culture, we make assumptions about the culture as a whole
and base all of our perceptions about that culture on the judgment of those few individuals.
One culture in particular that is commonly stereotyped is that of southern Kentucky, and
more generally people in the south. Those living within this culture could tell you just how
beautiful and unique that southern Kentucky really is. There are some stereotypes that arent bad
ones, and I have confirming results that say these stereotypes hold true! But, those who are
uneducated of the true characteristics that define this culture may define southern Kentucky with
cruel and harsh stereotypes such as saying southerners are a bunch of dumb, lazy, hillbillies that
have strong opinions and obnoxious personalities. Those are some brutal judgments. Although
there may be a few people in the south that really are that bad, the majority are not like that at all.

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I am here to tell you what truly defines southern Kentucky. One important part of Kentucky
culture is the Kentucky Derby. Each year this event is held at Churchill Downs in Louisville
Kentucky. It is a very high class event attended by many, but including mostly upper class men
and women - even celebrities. Below is a picture of the event:

To provide clarity, this event just goes to show that not everyone in the south is distasteful or not
classy. Kentucky is a beautiful state that even holds extravagant events such as the annual derby.
In writing this paper I hope to give insight into the culture of the south and more specifically
southern Kentucky, as well as to prove that although some stereotypes can be deemed true, not
all are accurate.
People in the south are typically perceived in two ways; one of these is that the south is
mainly rural towns full of farmers and religious, well-mannered folk. These are a few of the nicer
stereotypes I would consider to be mostly true. Most people would agree that there isnt anything
demeaning about living on a farm, praising Jesus, and being a kind hearted person!

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The Good Stereotypes

First, it is true that Kentucky has a lot of farms. According to the U.S Census Bureau, in
2010 Kentucky had fourteen million acres of farmland. Thats fourteen times as much farmland
as states up north such as Connecticut, Maine, and New Jersey were said to have. Also, even
being the most northern southern state, Kentucky was recorded to have more farmland than
states more geographically southern such as Alabama with only nine million acres, as well as
Tennessee with eleven million acres (Agriculture: Farms and Farmland, 2014). So yes, that
stereotype in particular could be considered accurate because Kentucky does have a lot of farms!
This stereotype is confirmed once again in an interview I conducted during my research. Josh, a
thirty year old male from Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, in response to me asking if he ever grew up
on a farm said, Yes I did. Theres a lot of people that live on a farm where Im from (Phelps,
2014). Out of Kentuckys 40,409 square miles, more than half of that (21,875 square miles) is
farmland (Agriculture: Farms and Farmland, 2014). So, if society wants to stereotype southern
Kentucky as a bunch of rural towns full of farms, they can without a doubt.
The second stereotype associated with the south is that southern Kentucky and the south
in general is a pretty religious region. According to a religious landscape survey done by
PewResearch, only twelve percent of people living in Kentucky are unaffiliated with religion at
all. That leaves the other eighty-eight percent, with the majority (forty-nine percent) being
Evangelical Protestant, as religious folk (Religious Landscape Survey, 2013). Although this data
confirms that the majority of people in Kentucky are religious, it is not a proper stereotype to say
that only people in the south are religious. According to the religious landscape survey, the
majority of the United States as a whole denominates themselves into a religious sector. While
twenty-six percent are Evangelic Protestant and twenty-four percent are Catholic, only seventeen

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percent were said to be unaffiliated with any religion at all (Religious Landscape Survey, 2013).
The reason that the south gets stereotyped as so religious may be due to the amount of
importance that they put on it. According to both of the men I interviewed, religion does play a
big role in their hometowns. I would say the church is a big part of our community. There are
multiple churches and a lot of people, especially the older people, which attend every time there
is service held (Sexton, 2014). This is what Dustin had to say on the matter. In addition to that,
my other interviewee told me about how involved the church is in the community. They take
part in the parade and any type of festival that goes on the church pretty much threw it (Phelps,
2014). While it seems that people in the south have a closer connection with the churches they
are associated with, people in the north may not have that close of a connection. Because of this
closer association with their churches, southerners appear to be stereotyped as more religious.
The Bad Stereotypes
While both of the above mentioned stereotypes have a lighter attitude to them, most of
the stereotypes found about southerners seem to have a negative connotation. A lot of times
people living in the south are thought of as dumb, lazy, opinionated rednecks. Most of these
stereotypes are probably formulated through the media. Television shows, from the past and
even now, do a pretty good job of depicting southerners in this way. For example, a reality show
known as Here Comes Honey Boo Boo plays on Country Music Television. This show is about a
dirty, lazy, rude family living in the south with an aspiring young pageant princess. They dont
clean up after themselves, theyre always complaining about working, and they dont have any
manners. As seen in the picture below, Alana (aka Honey Boo Boo) is seen playing with her
belly on television:

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Most parents raise their children to behave better than this. We are expected to have some
kind of filter and manners, even at a young age. So, because this show is watched by millions,
people have this kind of perception that most southerners are raised incorrectly and therefore
behave this way.
One of the most common derogatory stereotypes is that people from Kentucky and in the
south are uneducated. This belief is very inaccurate. Although, I suppose it depends on what you
personally believe is the definition of uneducated. Now a days it seems that to be educated is
to earn a college degree. But, if you dont need a college degree to pursue what you want to do
with the rest of your life then why would you waste your money? According to the United States
Census Bureau approximately eighty-two percent of people living in Kentucky ages twenty-five
and older received high school education or more (Ryan, 2012). This doesnt seem like too bad
of a number, but Kentucky actually has the third lowest percentage of people that attained a high
school education or more! Maybe that is why southern Kentucky is stereotyped as dumb. But
again, this is falsely accusing the culture as stupid. Dustin brought up a good point when I asked
for his opinion on the matter. I wanted to go to college and go into mechanical engineering. But

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other people, all they want to do is farm! So, I think it just depends on each person (Sexton,
2014). What he was saying to me was that some people dont see the need to spend all kinds of
money on getting a college degree when the career theyre choosing to pursue doesnt require
one. A lot of people in the south are farmers and you dont need a college degree for that. So,
although it is true that Kentucky has the least amount of college degree pursuers, it doesnt
necessarily mean that its people are dumb. For example, Dustin, who has a deep country accent
and comes from down in the south, said to me:
I graduated as the salutatorian of my class with a 4.3 grade point average, and I took
honors and advanced placement classes. So, no I dont think that just because you have
an accent means youre stereotypically stupid or slower than everyone else. I think youre
just as smart, it just depends on how you apply yourself. (Sexton, 2014).
I believe thats a good way to summarize the effects of that stereotype. You are as educated as
you make yourself to be. Not everyone in the south has any more than a high school diploma, but
honestly they just dont need one.
The next stereotype I hope to diminish is that of the lazy redneck. Most people probably
dont even know where the term redneck came from. I know I wasnt aware until I did my
research on southern culture! The Merriam-Webster definition of a redneck is:
A white person who lives in a small town or in the country especially in the southern
U.S., who typically has a working-class job, and who is seen by others as being
uneducated and having opinions and attitudes that are offensive. (Merriam-Webster,
2011).
In the interview I conducted with Josh, he enlightened me on the true meaning behind the term:

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Yes, people have called me a redneck. And the whole thing started with people from the
country working outside, and they would get a tan line on their neck and their arms. So
their neck would be red, so they started calling them a redneck. (Phelps, 2014).
So, getting a sunburned neck from working all day outside in the heat is where the name redneck
came from. That doesnt sound like a lazy person to me! If Josh is right in the true meaning of a
redneck, then the dictionarys definition is extremely stereotypically and probably based off of
what society has termed it to be. Maybe I am still not completely educated about the idea of
someone being a redneck, because Dustin believes in the idea. Maybe somehow the true
definition, which seems to be what Josh told me in his interview, got mixed up with what society
has now termed a redneck to be - which is what I cited from the Merriam-Webster dictionary. I
say this because when I asked Dustin what he thought characterized a redneck he told me:
I think its someone who is really lazy, to a point that they dont want to work and they
dont want to do anything. They just want to go and hangout and have fun all the time
with their friends and everything get drunk, and drive trucks, and just be obnoxious and
annoying. (Sexton, 2014).
Its funny that the person I interviewed went from being the stereotyped to the person who was
doing the stereotyping! It seems that calling someone a redneck is about perception. The
definition of a redneck is a little wobbly and so maybe its just a made up name to degrade
people in the south. Again, the whole point is to try to help prevent the use of these stereotypes.
So calling someone a redneck could be a real blow, especially if they fall under the definition
Josh said about working long hard hours out in the sun! Some southerners may be less refined
than others, but there is probably a reason behind that. Some may be extremely hard workers that

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dont find proper etiquette of great importance. Others may be poor and unable to sustain a
lavish lifestyle like some people upstate live.
One final note to make about southern culture is that they do hold very strong opinions
regarding politics, but whats so wrong about that? We all hold opinions about things. The
people in the south just come together as a culture to hold these opinions because they all believe
the same things. Kentucky is a highly conservative state. They believe in the traditional way of
doing things and limited government interference. They believe in the right to bear arms and are
against things like abortion and high taxes. In both of the interviews I conducted, Josh and
Dustin agreed that southerners are very opinionated and hold to their beliefs. But, why is it just
the south that gets stereotyped with strong opinions and beliefs? Liberals are renowned for their
movements and protesting. Its unfair for people to say that its just republicans or just
southerners that are opinionated. Everyone has a right to their own opinions, and I believe that
everyone has them. Maybe southerners just have a more provocative way of displaying their
views.
In conclusion, southern Kentucky is ultimately perceived through stereotypes made by
uneducated people that use what knowledge they believe they have from things they view in the
media. The south and Kentucky are beautiful places to be, I know from my own experience. The
people of the south are so genuine and kind, the food is delicious, and the work ethic is
unbelievable. The famous phrase you shouldnt believe everything you hear is exactly the rule
that people should follow. You shouldnt judge a culture that you arent fully knowledgeable
about. I believe that until you take the time to talk to people within a culture, or you go and
experience that culture for yourself, that you cannot make assumptions. So often I see the way
that the south gets stereotyped. Like I said once before, the south is perceived as a culture in two

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distinctly different ways the south is a place full of rural towns and farmland with kind,
religious folk, or as a place full of obnoxious, opinionated, rednecks. Even though there may be a
little truth behind each one of these stereotypes, its not what defines the culture at all. There is
so much more to the wonderful south and southern Kentucky. Society needs to quit basing their
opinions off of what they dont actually know. We should go out and experience more cultures
and become more cultured ourselves by doing so. I know that I have learned so much more about
southern Kentucky and what it means to be a southerner. I hope that the data presented in this
paper and my shared experiences help to open the minds of people with influenced opinions
about southern Kentucky. I believe that stereotypes are always going to be present in this world,
but if we continue to educate one another we can decrease the number of prejudiced views.

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References

Agriculture: Farms and Farmland. (2014, May 28). Retrieved October 19, 2014, from
https://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/agriculture/farms_and_farmland.html
Merriam-Webster. (2011). Retrieved October 19, 2014, from http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/stereotype
Merriam-Webster. (2011). Retrieved October 19, 2014, from http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/redneck
Phelps, Josh. Personal communication. Conducted on October 11, 2014.
Religious Landscape Survey. (2013). Retrieved October 19, 2014, from
http://religions.pewforum.org/maps
Ryan, C., & Siebens, J. (2012). Educational Attainment in the United States: 2009. Retrieved
October 19, 2014, from http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p20-566.pdf
Sexton, Dustin. Personal communication. Conducted on October 9, 2014.