down on the bayou

The worst and commonly used southern stereotype that bothers me the most is the idea of the southern swamp dwellers. the image that movies of the people living in the south is that they living in small shacks on the swamp bank with the other animals dwelling the swamp. It shows the image of a more destitute community living off of the swamp land. this combined with the twang of the southern dialect gives this group of people stereotype of begin less intellectual. The movie "Water Boy" displays all aspects this stereotype. The main character lives on the swamp with his mother and she cooks squirrel for dessert. He has a harsh stutter that he gets picked on for, is home schooled by his religious mother who things that even the women are the devil, and drives a lawn motor to College. Aside from that the town he lives in also gives the same uneducated, swamp community feeling. The professor he has looks like Colonel Sanders, his football coach has an incredibly incompressible dialect, and there's a town idiot who drops in for tangents throughout the film.
I'm not sure where this image of the south has derived from, but i do think it' an awful misconception. The people that live by the bayou in the South are not ignorant hicks they just grew up in an area where they were more exsposed to the natural environment they live in.

thuy