The growing backlash against Southern kitsch
Jaime Weinman
October 12, 2015
... Today’s culture of call-outs has many different targets, but one of the most consistent among them is Southern kitsch: the many once-inescapable clichés associated with the U.S. South before and during the Civil War. TV chef Paula Deen got in trouble when it turned out she had hired what she called “professional black men” to serve at her plantation-style wedding. This year, student organizations at the University of Georgia banned hoop skirts from school events, effectively putting an end to the tradition of young women pretending to be Southern belles ...
A lot of this may be a product of the U.S.’s newfound interest in the seamy side of its cultural myths. And no myth has a seamier side than that of the chivalrous, genteel South ... Now that questioning these symbols has gone mainstream, there’s an almost endless supply of these messages to deconstruct ...
In the last few years .. the South has become almost totally Republican. This not only allows liberals to be harder on Southern icons; it may also have allowed Republicans to ease up on them a little ...
http://www.macleans.ca/society/life/the-growing-backlash-against-southern-kitsch/