West Virginian Stereotypes

"We should be tryin to win that science fair instead of sittin around here like a bunch of hillbillies!" said Homer. "I got bad news for ya Homer, we are a bunch of hillbillies," Roy Lee replied. This tidbit of dialogue from October Sky tells filmgoers much about West Virginia stereotypes and West Virginians' identity. Hillbilly, redneck, hick, inbred, ignorant, etc. are words associated with people from my home state. In two sentences, this movie tells not only what people think of West Virginians but what West Virginians think of themselves. Stereotypes in films encourage a bad image for West Virginians and may encourage a negative identity for its citizens.

Perhaps the beginning of stereotypes about W.V. occurred after Eleanor Roosevelt's trip to the state in the 1950s. The trip was into the mining towns and its purpose was to make the nation aware of the poverty that devastated the state and bring about a change. The media, as it sometimes does, turned the First Lady's positive purpose into a joke displaying all the bad connotations for citizens of West Virginia. They displayed pictures of run-down shacks, people going barefoot, starving children etc. and that image has remained intact--in movies and in people's impressions of W.V.