The Reality of Some: How films have shaped the Rural Appalachian "Other"

• In Event: Theory and Application in Critical Criminology

Abstract

My presentation focuses on the creation of a typology of the Appalachian rural “other” by demonstrating how films helped create and continue to perpetuate such a caricature. Using films set in multiple genres and from various periods, I plan to demonstrate how labels and both economic and social isolation provide a clear means for the continued moral regulation over a specific rural population for nearly two centuries. Specifically, I will focus on how terms like “white trash” and “backwoods” help in the creation of such a typology as they express an underlying fear and dissatisfaction of rural whites within the broader “white” racial class. This dissatisfaction and belief of a lagging “other America” continues to allow the broader society to fear, exclude, regulate and punish rural individuals within this large swath of area in the eastern United States. Films still play a great part in this regulatory process and act as a subconscious (and sometimes conscious voice) for why such a caricaturized population should be feared, controlled and ultimately exploited.

Author

• Stephen Toppings Young, Old Dominion University