Southern Beauty

If you haven’t noticed so far this semester, most people relate southern identity to being ignorant rednecks. Don’t get me wrong; rednecks laugh the hardest at redneck jokes. But I wish more people saw the beauty, hospitality, and charm that the South and southern culture have to offer. I’ve always been curious about how people truly saw southern culture from the outside. Considering how and where you were raised, what were you taught about the South and southern culture? Did you make your own observations and opinions, did media persuade you to believe certain stereotypes, or did your family interpret it for you?

I’ve lived in the middle of nowhere in the South my whole life and have seen first hand the glamour it presents. I’ll admit I’m kind of stuck in a Gone With the Wind fairytale land that I wish the South really was. I am fascinated with big, beautiful plantation homes, farmlands, barns, etc. Have you seen communities or homes that are Gone With the Wind Tara-esque and weren’t destroyed by the Civil War? Have you seen buildings, homes, etc. that try to bring back that southern plantation feel and design, and why do you think the designers chose to make it that way?

I found this website for Tara- A Country Inn in Pennsylvania. I thought it was strange but also interesting that there is such an extravagant “country inn” mirroring the Tara Plantation with “an embodiment of the Old South” located in the North. If you look around the site, they show their different room styles available, each cleverly named after something very southern or from Gone With the Wind.