Buck Wild, Hillbilly Handfishin': America's Obsession with Redneck TV

In reading this week's article of class and gender being represented in the media, I couldn't help but relate it to our country's current obsession with what I refer to as 'Redneck TV'. This new craze of reality television focuses heavily on exploiting the biggest stereotypes about working class, blue-collar southerners. Over the past five years, it seems like many networks have started airing their own version of this southern type reality show, which usually features a group of hillbilly looking men living their peculiar lives that are made to appear 'below' average and stereotypically foreign to the average middle-class viewer. Most of these shows coincide with Butsch's theories of today's media, as many of the characters featured on these reality series play into the racial stereotypes of the blue-collar South- hardworking, hard partying men who are not very intellectual and take pride in being labeled a 'redneck'. They swear too much, like to get dirty in the mud, and never seem to fully form a full sentence. Not only do these types of shows lack a broad representation of the South, showing few people of color and giving little insight into the more developed cities of the region, it also creates a false reality of what Southern culture is actually like. Instead, major networks that claim to be "educational" (History Channel and National Geographic) are make a laughing stock out of these people and calling it 'the life of the South'. They have dumbed down the idea of the South along with these people's livelihoods in order to create a new generation comedy. But who is laughing? I say it is time for the media to stop stupefying everything that goes on air, and start to depict the actual reality of this world.