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I don't think it's the "South in general." I think the "hillbilly" image is specific to the "Mountain South" area. So mostly Arkansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia. North Carolina I think has veered away from that a bit due to things like the "Research Triangle." When the rest of the South is negatively stereotyped I think it's more "racist white-trash" than "backward hillbillies." At least traditionally that was the way. I think some of the "Old South" states, like Georgia and Virginia, received more of the "Moonlight and Magnolia" romantic image.
And it is right that Arkansas people will sometimes go with it. I originally came from the area that actually had some "hillbillies", the Northwest, and there was some feeling that what "foreigners" thought wasn't that important so if "playing hillbilly" got them to spend money it was worth it. Although the "hard-cursing/hard-drinking" thing wasn't really that common where I was at. People tended to be really intense Baptists and Pentecostals who drank way less than the Midwesterners I've known most of my life. White Midwesterners are some of the drunkest/most-alcoholic people in the nation, but I guess because they get drunk on beer they don't get the "Moonshine and chew" image or anything.
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