Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
There Ain't No Queers Here: Locating Queer and Trans* Spaces in Appalachia
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
There Ain’t No Queers Here: Locating Queer and Trans* Spaces in Appalachia
By Stacy Grover
Stereotypes about Appalachia abound through reductive representations of the ‘hillbilly,’ ‘redneck,’ and ‘white trash’ icons. Everyday life in Appalachia is cast from the outside as rude, violent, dirty, generally backwards and in need of rescue. Films, television shows, and bestselling books render images of Appalachia as religiously fundamentalist, naive and violent. These images of Appalachian ignorance and violence in popular culture have had problematic implications for rural queer/trans* folk. Mainstream LGBTQIA culture has often used these images to preclude the possibility of rural queer/trans* livelihood, rendering the rural as wholly homophobic, transphobic and unlivable. Following Mary Gray, Colin Johnson, and Scott Herring this paper will challenge these negative images or rural life. Using photography and auto-ethnography, this paper will reveal rural queer/trans* life in Appalachia, to show not only its presence but also its varying forms of visibility and relations.
Keywords: Appalachian studies, queer studies, transgender studies, auto-ethnography, photography.
Works Cited:
Gray, Mary. 2009. Out in the County: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America. NYU Press.
Gray, Mary. 2016. Queering The Countryside: New Frontiers in Rural Queer Studies. NYU Press.
Colin Johnson. 2013. Just Queer Folks: Gender and Sexuality in Rural America. Temple University Press.
Scott Herring. 2010. Another Country: Queer Anti-Urbanism. NYU Press.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Stacy Jane Grover is a MA student in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Cincinnati. She studies rural queer/transgender geographies and folklife. She is a writer and translator, contributing regularly on transgender issues for InsideHigherEd and other publications. Her work can be found at stacyjanegrover.com
Conference Subthemes
Diversity and Inclusion
There Ain't No Queers Here: Locating Queer and Trans* Spaces in Appalachia
There Ain’t No Queers Here: Locating Queer and Trans* Spaces in Appalachia
By Stacy Grover
Stereotypes about Appalachia abound through reductive representations of the ‘hillbilly,’ ‘redneck,’ and ‘white trash’ icons. Everyday life in Appalachia is cast from the outside as rude, violent, dirty, generally backwards and in need of rescue. Films, television shows, and bestselling books render images of Appalachia as religiously fundamentalist, naive and violent. These images of Appalachian ignorance and violence in popular culture have had problematic implications for rural queer/trans* folk. Mainstream LGBTQIA culture has often used these images to preclude the possibility of rural queer/trans* livelihood, rendering the rural as wholly homophobic, transphobic and unlivable. Following Mary Gray, Colin Johnson, and Scott Herring this paper will challenge these negative images or rural life. Using photography and auto-ethnography, this paper will reveal rural queer/trans* life in Appalachia, to show not only its presence but also its varying forms of visibility and relations.
Keywords: Appalachian studies, queer studies, transgender studies, auto-ethnography, photography.
Works Cited:
Gray, Mary. 2009. Out in the County: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America. NYU Press.
Gray, Mary. 2016. Queering The Countryside: New Frontiers in Rural Queer Studies. NYU Press.
Colin Johnson. 2013. Just Queer Folks: Gender and Sexuality in Rural America. Temple University Press.
Scott Herring. 2010. Another Country: Queer Anti-Urbanism. NYU Press.
