Mode of Program Participation
Academic Scholarship
Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Consuming Visions and Continual Revisions: Sexual Stereotypes and Appalachian Identity
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
In 2015, the Asya Geisberg gallery in New York presented the art of Rebecca Morgan, a rural Pennsylvanian whose portraits of Appalachians, called “Bumpkins,” feature grossly caricatured and stereotyped images alongside nudes that highlight the sexualized rural body. Around the same time, a similarly themed grotesque photo essay appeared in Vice Magazine entitled “Two Days in Appalachia.” Such continued use of grotesque and sexualized stereotypes calls to mind sociologist Wilma Dunaway’s historical research on social Darwinist theories that focused on Appalachian culture as static and degraded in order to reinforce “stereotypes of incestuous marriages and overly-fertile wives who produced large families that caused the region's impoverishment.” The purpose of this presentation will be to examine the staying power of sexual stereotypes in engagements with the region, and to argue for their connection with a continued cultural production of Appalachian “otherness.” Despite years of scholarly efforts, countering these intractable and proliferative images has proven difficult. They continue to perpetuate understandings of lurid and degenerate sexuality as a touchstone for the region and its cultural homogeneity. I proceed from Dunaway’s assumption that there was no homogenous identity for Appalachians then or now, but that many contemporary images promote this notion along with a sense of urban, mainstream superiority. It will also argue, partly along Foucauldian lines of bio-power, that the American public’s refusal to relinquish its pleasure and investment in such images (despite frequent challenges by academics) constitutes one of the main challenges to Appalachian Studies as a countervailing social force.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Janet (Holtman) Feight is an Associate Professor at Shawnee State University in southern Ohio, where she teaches American Literature and American Studies. Her work has appeared in Postmodern Culture, Southern Quarterly, American Studies, and, recently, in the Journal of Appalachian Studies.
Consuming Visions and Continual Revisions: Sexual Stereotypes and Appalachian Identity
In 2015, the Asya Geisberg gallery in New York presented the art of Rebecca Morgan, a rural Pennsylvanian whose portraits of Appalachians, called “Bumpkins,” feature grossly caricatured and stereotyped images alongside nudes that highlight the sexualized rural body. Around the same time, a similarly themed grotesque photo essay appeared in Vice Magazine entitled “Two Days in Appalachia.” Such continued use of grotesque and sexualized stereotypes calls to mind sociologist Wilma Dunaway’s historical research on social Darwinist theories that focused on Appalachian culture as static and degraded in order to reinforce “stereotypes of incestuous marriages and overly-fertile wives who produced large families that caused the region's impoverishment.” The purpose of this presentation will be to examine the staying power of sexual stereotypes in engagements with the region, and to argue for their connection with a continued cultural production of Appalachian “otherness.” Despite years of scholarly efforts, countering these intractable and proliferative images has proven difficult. They continue to perpetuate understandings of lurid and degenerate sexuality as a touchstone for the region and its cultural homogeneity. I proceed from Dunaway’s assumption that there was no homogenous identity for Appalachians then or now, but that many contemporary images promote this notion along with a sense of urban, mainstream superiority. It will also argue, partly along Foucauldian lines of bio-power, that the American public’s refusal to relinquish its pleasure and investment in such images (despite frequent challenges by academics) constitutes one of the main challenges to Appalachian Studies as a countervailing social force.
