What makes someone Southern??

What distinguishes you being Southern? What are some key differences that separate Southern culture from other American cultures?

These are all big questions, that require more than a stereotypical and superficial answer. After living in Washington state for 7 years South for 10 years, I truly feel that the answer varies greatly and there isn't a straight recipe on how to be Southern or Northern (which may surprise some people!). Southern-ness varies from person to person and in this new technologically advancing age, the culture is being redefined and people are widening its boundaries daily. For example, Southern music used to be slaves composing and singing religious songs because they looked sought refuge in religion and God when their lives were like crap, to put it bluntly. That's how you get the common song of "i'll fly away." The songs were sungn with a fiddle, violin. Then guitars started to come into the picture, acoustic by the way. The genres of music, blues and jazz started in new orleans in the early 1900s, by blacks. Then rock and roll and gospel had their impact on southern culture with Elvis Presley. And now more modern southern music is being shaped by rap music, again by African-Americans! But listening to a certain style of music doesn't make you Southern or Northern! If I was trying to act Southern, I would immediately switch to a redneck, hillbilly accent. But this doesn't make you one way or the other either! America is a melting pot of cultures and since the South nowadays has the largest influx of people, one's history and ethnic background doesn't make you Southern anymore. So if not's speech, music, food, religion; if these are all relative, then what makes someone Southern?

I guess the answer to this question is very elusive, but I have to conclude that the Southern identity is slowly materializing away. With the globalization of the south an the new influx of ideas and cultures, post-South doesn't really exist anymore. The idea of how the South was persists as how the South is today, but a little deeper dig underneath shows its supericiality.

Southern vs. Northern upper class food

Responding to Jason's question regarding the essence of what is known today as "Southern food."

Everybody is familiar with the traditional Southern fried food. This kind of food is seen almost too often on dinner tables in homes, fast food restaurant chains, and also in family-owned small restaurants. So I wanted to see if this idea of "Southern food" is preserved in more elegant and artful forms of food. After a short enough search on Google, I found a company called Debra Jane's Classic Gourmet Southern Delicacies. You can check it out here. It's not very functional though, because the company is more recent and I am guessing the website is as a result also very new. However, it does include several pictures of the Southern food that they offer! The most notable of which I've shown here.

The website says that this company is dedicated to "quintessential southern food." Since this company started recently (2007), I feel that it offers great insight into how traditional southern food is twisted and turned into the modern southern delicacies of fancy expensive restaurants. Although it is a modern elegant type of food, you can still see the influence of the traditional ideas of southern food. For example the very first picture is one of fried chicken (well at least I think it's chicken); my point is that it is fried and very noticeable. Also, the food in the middle pictures look so fresh, that it seems like the chef had just picked it from the garden! Again, a subtle idea of the farming and agrarian society of the traditional south. But I think the strongest sense of southern culture is that it's not like the abstract art of very elegant and fancy restaurants.

Here are some pictures showing how there is a different kind of elegant' upper class food, and it almost seems that the chef's forgot they were preparing food! It doesn't look filling at all, with all the small portions, which is in agreement with a profit-oriented and ungenerous philosophy on how to run a business, which seems to fit in with a northern city-like culture.

I close with a picture of a 'northerner' kind of upper class food from the Chicago gourmet 2009 that i got from this website.

The Golden Rule

The biggest differences in the North and the South are manners and morals. In the South, many children are taught at a young age to respect their elders, which includes referring to adults as "sir" or "ma'am". This generally carries over into a respect for all. Children are taught to share and live by the golden rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Most southerners will do anything to help others, which comes from the southern stereotype of "good ole southern hospitality". This is not to say that all northerners are rude and inconsiderate, however, southerners are usually more willing to help.


Southerners are also known for their morals. They are considered a conservative and religious people. The south is considered the "Bible belt", because church attendance is very high. Southerners are generally very strict on their thoughts of politics, abortion, interracial marriages, and sex before marriage. Not all southerners follow these stereotypes, but they are very common among the majority.

A Great Home Cooked Meal

The North and South have always had their differences. Beginning before the civil war, and still today, the stereotypes of the two can be quite ridiculous. Northerners are thought of as more rude, stuck up and better educated than Southerners. While Southerners are seen as slow, big hearted, people who eat fried food all the time. When Northerners look at the South, they see people like Shelly, the woman in this everything southern video:

In this video, Shelly is teaching her audience the way to a man's heart. She claims that by making good food that men cannot resist, you can get away with just about anything. She states that this is the game that southern women understand and know how to play. Women in the North are thought of as more independent and able to fend for themselves, less dependent on things and other people, especially their husbands. This video shows why there is a common stereotype of southerners. It claims that women are constantly making good food for their husbands to get away with either spending too much money or some other thing. The main stereotype between the North and the South here is that women have a difference outlook on the way they view men. Southern women need their husbands and Northern women feel that they don't need men in their lives, it is just an asset that they like to keep around. Although this stereotype may not be entirely true, it is a common difference associated with women in the North and South. There seems to be a higher standard set by Northerners, to be accomplished, work at a a nice job, and make a lot of money. Whereas in the South, people do what they please and seem to do it out of enjoyment.

Essentially in the South, give a man a great home cooked meal, and everything else will seem so much less important to him. A good lesson learned, taught by the original southern housewife.

The Kind, Slow-Paced, Ignorant South

Many people (especially those who do not live in the South) differentiate between the North and the South by looking at the South as a slow-paced environment filled with southern hospitality and home cooked food. The North is then seen as the reverse, filled with fast-paced businessmen living in the city. In reality, these stereotypes are not nearly as true as they once were, with the South becoming globalized and both cultures changing to a similar suburban culture.

Southerners are also seen as dumb and uneducated. While this is a very broad (and generally false) stereotype, it is partially based in truth. In US News' rankings of best schools by state, no southern state makes it into the top 10. Luckily, this is a trend that seems to be changing, as education becomes more vital in the New South.



When someone sees a video like the one of Miss South Carolina, instead of just thinking that she is dumb, they revert to a stereotype and think that this is proof that all southerners are ignorant, which is just not true.

The North and South are different?

What distinguishes being Southern? Why are there such cultural differences between the north and south, and what are some of these key differences? Try finding any images or videos to support your ideas.

The Redneck South

The term red neck was first used to describe the lower working class, because they would work all day outside and would get sun burnt. Over the years, this term became a stereotype that classified everyone who lived in the south. When I think of the term redneck, I think of a toothless white male with overalls and a mullet which is depicted in this image. However, most people who live in the south are not like this at all. Many southerners are very wealthy and live luxurious lives and are the complete opposite of this toothless redneck. Although, of course, you will find the occasional redneck who dresses and acts like the sterotype.

The media gives the south a bad reputation. Many people actually believe that all southerners are white trash rednecks. Those who have not been to the south would get a bad first impression of the south from images like this one. This could make some one not want to visit the south. Atlanta is considered part of the new south and is very sophisticated. Southerners are working very hard to get rid of this bad reputation and become known as a high class, sophisticated region.

Stereotypes in the deep south

The Office is a great TV show that was very popular when it first started. What made it so popular is the relaxed atmosphere of the business world at a paper company Dunder Mifflin. In season 6, there is an episode called "Murder" where the people in the Office have to act out a Southern accent, thus the idea of the representation of the South is extremely fresh and present in these scenarios. I found two video clips of Pam trying to do a Savannah accent after which Andy ends up saying that she is actually doing a Florida pan handle accent, quickly followed by Andy's attempt at a Savannah accent. The second clip is of Oscar trying to do a southern accent which is absolutely hilarious. Notice the reference to Forest Gump when Pam is imitating a southerner. Forest Gump is definitely remembered for his long drawn out accent in the movie "Forest Gump." These videos are categorically stereotypes of the South. One cannot imitate a Southerner without trying to speak in a southern accent!

Now the question is whether these video clips are good representations of the South. In other words, do these stereotypes still hold today? I was born in California, grew up in Washington state, and i moved to Georgia in 2000. I have to say that since moving to Georgia, the Southern accent has slowly been dying out. Right now, I do not even notice on a daily basis that the Southern accent exists. This is probably because most people that live in the South have a weak southern accent. Whenever family comes and visits us from Washington state, they say that I have a Southern accent, but when I asked my physics lab partner the other day, he said that I did not have one! I feel as if I do not have a Southern accent, but maybe the truth is that I have a very faint one. So the question still remains, "Are the video clips representing the South accurately?". If one takes into the rhetorical context of the media, one notices that these video clips are not made for historical accuracy or to inform, but are aimed to entertain. Thus, I must conclude that this is not an accurate representation of the South; rather, the video clips are playing on a reality of once was and not is. Experientially, looking over my ten years of living in the deep South, I have to admit that a deep Southern accent was definitely an exception and not the norm! I guess this is because of the globalization of the South and the great influx of various people to the South, like myself!

The "Real" South

The way that Hollywood portrays the south leads Americans to believe that everyone living in the Southern region of America is filled with hicks who deep fry everything and marry their cousins. The movie "Sweet Home Alabama" portrays a very "southern" Alabama. The trailer from the movie, click here or play below, is an accurate representation of what some very common stereotypes are. It perceives a civil war reenactment, a state filled with bugs, babies in a bar, and implies that Alabama should require a passport to travel to which leads the audience to believe that the south is a different country than the rest.

These stereotypes portrayed in the movie trailer are very common and not all entirely untrue. Civil war reenactments are common because of the importance of the war to many people who inhabit the south. If you have ever seen the movie, you know that there are many other stereotypes that stem from the movie. Eating, greasy fried food, are getting into a lot of trouble as a child are also common themes of the South in the movie.

While many of these assumptions can be deemed true for some of the South, saying that every southerner fits that profile is unrealistic. The post-modern south does not fit the profile of a minority of people in the south that this clip is perceiving it to. People who live in the post-modern south are ambitious, hospitable, good cooks, and very family oriented.

This South is not often portrayed by the media. That southern personal does not make interesting movies or shows that will entertain people. Because of this, many people tend to get the wrong impression of the south and are quick to judge every southern as the same. This can be seen by the blog of Shyla Martin, shown here. She is very quick to judge all southerners without thinking twice. I believe that people should think twice before making hasty generalizations about anyone. The south, the north, people of different races or ethnicities, every person is different, and judging people because of their background or where they come from is unfair and plainly ignorant.

Stereotypes!!

Find a Southern stereotype in a picture, video, audio, or in some other graphic element, defend your image with reasons why you believe it is a southern stereotype, and then say if it is a good representation of the post-modern South.

Southern Food in my Hometown

When I think of southern food, I can't help but think of my favorite southern restaurant near my hometown of Franklin, Tennessee. This restaurant is the Loveless Cafe, a local restaurant seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Yet, the tasty food and the way that it embraces the southern way of life has made it famous, with appearances on shows like Tennessee Crossroads, Martha Stewart, Ellen, and even Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

So what has made the Loveless Cafe so famous? For one it is their biscuits, which are truly amazing. But it is more than that. It is the way that the cafe adheres to that notion of southern food. The restaurant itself is an old house surrounded by a motel and a few country stores selling items like jams and preserves. It is also marked as southern by its delicious and homemade comfort food. This restaurant really identifies itself as an icon of southern cooking by letting you slip into the feeling of being at home.

Comfort Food

The south has always been known for its distinct southern style cooking. Southern food was influenced by both the Native American and African American people. The Native Americans introduced the first Southerners to vegetables such as corn, pumpkin, and squash, while African Americans introduced Southerners to greens such as okra, field peas, and eggplant. Through the years, southern food has developed into recipes such as fried chicken, black eyed peas, fried green tomatoes, peach cobbler, collard greens, and biscuits and gravy. The south is also known for its sweet tea. However, each region has a different flare of southern style food. Lousiana is known for its hot sauces, while Virginia is famous for its Smithfield ham, apples, and peanuts, and Tennessee for its country ham. Most states have their own style of barbecue. Georgia is called the peach state and is also noted for its pecans, peanuts, and vidalia onions. Southerners can find a way to fry just about anything, making southern food not just the most fattening, but the most delicious cuisine.
In my opinion, Mary Mac's is the best place to get an old fashion homecooked meal. Their menu features all the best country food such as country fried steak, meatloaf, and fried chicken. They also have the best vegetables around, and there are so many options of sides to pick from such as cole slaw, fried okra, collard greens, mac and cheese, cream corn, dumplings, cornbread, sweet potato souffle, and steamed cabbage. You will never leave still hungry!

Food is one of the many things that the south is very well known for. From anything fried to the mashed potatoes, the corn bread, green beans and cole slaw, the South has a very unique style of food. When people travel to the south, they want to experience the fried chicken, macaroni and cheese and corn that comes along with it. Where else do states of countries fry bananas or pickles? Anything you want fried is available.

Southern life is very revolved around working and doing things yourself. The food that southerners eat is very similar, it is all food that you can find in the south. Given, there are always going to be restaurants that serve exotic or non-native foods. But if you are looking for deep south cooking, you are going to find things that are grown and harvested in the South.

Styles of food vary from culture to culture. Southern food has developed over the years and adapted some different cultures' styles. Tex-Mex, a blend of American cuisine influenced by Mexican food and culture, has started to move across the south. It is an Americanized version of Mexican food, and is most common in the Southern states, especially in Texas. This version of Mexican food is not common in the northern states of America, and the further away from the border of Mexico, the worse the tex-mex.

Southern food has originality that began many years ago. But this food culture that the south has become known for was taken from the Afican American people and Native American people who lived here in the early stages of America. As the years go on, the food develops, but the reputation for food in the South is undeniable.