[Anonymous]

I would say Kentucky is no more ridiculed than, say Arkansas, Mississippi or West Virginia. The Hatfield and McCoy feud of the late 19th and early 20th centuries made big news while it was going on. Reporters from the New York Times travelled to Pike County, Ky., and had the families pose for pictures holding their guns. These photos were then published in the newspapers for all the world to see. This feud, a very small one as far as Kentucky feuds go, was over-sensationalized to the rest of the country. This, I think, ingrained in people's minds the perception of Kentuckians as being backward, low-class, violent, etc. Having said that, I must also say that while the majority of Kentuckians are not that way, many are. I know this from the experience of having grown up in Eastern Kentucky.

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Name : Anonymous, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Age : 42, City : Louisville, State : KY Country : United States, 

[Sam]

All my life, I have noticed a general disregard for Kentuckians as ignorant and backward, in the media as well as from personal experience. This is very misleading and untrue. It may be the most ridiculed state in America. Why?

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Name : Sam, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 21, City : A smalltown, State : KY Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[Amy31608]

West Virginia gets that, too. As do Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas. Those 'feed the dirty, hungry children in Appalachia' commercials (probably filmed in California) don't help, do they?

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Name : Amy31608, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Baptist, Age : 28, City : Charleston, State : WV Country : United States, Occupation : Lab Tech, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Steve27686]

And just think ... Texas was settled by mainly washed-out Kentuckians! Mostly all states get it somehow: California = weirdos; Mississippi = illiterates; West Virginia = hillbillies; Flordia = geezers; Wisconsin = Susan on 'Survivor'; Louisianna = corrupt; Utah = bigamists; Idaho = Unabombers; New Jersey = Newark; Arkansas = Clintons ... and onward. To be honest, I would rank Kentucky in the lower third of states I hear made fun of by national comedians.

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Name : Steve27686, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 44, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : Corporate Cubicle Kind of Guy, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[David S.]

Try living in South Carolina. Of course, lately we have brought most of this negative publicity on ourselves. To answer your question, though, I believe this is a matter of perception influenced by proximity. I have lived in the South my entire life and have traveled this country extensively. I really haven't heard anyone ridiculing Kentucky any more than any other Southern state. You may be more sensitive to the jibes because you are from Kentucky. The South gets a bad rap in general - and truthfully, some of it is probably deserved, but largely I think it is because people outside the South don't understand the culture and relate to the South only in terms of the stereotypes portrayed in the media, i.e. Deliverance, The Dukes of Hazard, any Billy Bob Thornton film, etc. This can become a vicious cycle of misinformation. Don't worry about what others say about where you live, worry about what they say about you.

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Name : David S., Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 30, City : Columbia, State : SC Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, 

[Dan27171]

I'm a California boy, born in Los Angeles and bred all around it. There's a running joke I keep hearing about California (nobody get offended please, I didn't make it up): 'Why is California like a bowl of cereal? Take out all the fruits and nuts and all you have left is flakes.' I get furious whenever I hear it, and 99 percent of the time it comes from someone outside this great state. Nobody escapes it. People think of New Jersey and garbage, the mafia and mallrats all in the same thought. People think of Klansmen, dirt-poor swampfolk and unofficial segregation when they think of Mississippi. People think of flannel-clad yuppies who live off granola and tofu when they think of Oregon. These stereotypes can never accurately describe any of the 50 states, and usually come from ignorance and narrow, limited experience.

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Name : Dan27171, Gender : M, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Religion : Pentecostal, Age : 21, City : Los Angeles area, State : CA Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[Craig]

If you have a stereotype of what a state and its people are like, but never go there, your belief goes unchallenged. Most people have read Lil' Abner; seen the Beverly Hillbillies, the Hatfield and McCoys and Hee Haw; and read about the pride of the Confederate Flag, which is associated with slavery, so there are misconceptions. But most people think New Yorkers rude (I found them overwhelmingly friendly), Californians to be surfers or hippies (which are a minority), Alaskans to wear parkas all year 'round (a friend from Juneau complained about how cold Minnesota was), and Midwesterners to all live on farms, naive to the world. I understand the ridicule. I watched Fargo, which was filmed here, and thought: 'That is so exaggerated. We don't talk like that,' and then I overheard someone on the phone say, 'Yahhh, yahhhh, I knoooooow. Say, I gotta gooo. Ooookey dooooke. Buh-bye now.'

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Name : Craig, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 37, City : Minneapolis, State : MN Country : United States, 

[Tom]

My family comes from the Carolinas, Arkansas and Missouri, and I would say growing up there that almost every stereotype made of the South is 100 percent true and more so. I think a person who has lived mostly in the northern half of the States and perhaps Canada could never truly understand the culture of the South. After high school, and during college, I traveled north into Chicago, Wisconsin, Minnesota and now Iowa, and I would say the difference in culture between North and South is probably more evident if you come from a Southern perspective originally. You notice the average person is more friendly, honest and usually more intelligent than the average person in the South. I don't why that is, but it definitely exists as a difference. I don't mean all the people in the South are stupid, I mean the southern half simply has more stupid people - thus throwing the average person you would meet toward the lower end of the IQ spectrum. Historically, the cause of this is most likely climatic; you simply cannot be stupid and survive in a place as cold as Minnesota - especially in frontier times. And the frontier times really aren't that many generations behind us, so the difference is still there.

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Name : Tom, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 26, City : Iowa City, State : IA Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, 

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