Rednecks gay
“Queer Rednecks”
“In the predominantly working-class and sometimes rural spaces where Powell’s straight and homosexual characters cavort together, shoot the shit, or knock each other to the ground, homophobia can exist alongside friendliness and hospitality toward gays, and anti-homophobia can reinforce patriarchy.”
Padgett Powell has a habit of saying provocative things, and one such line that struck me was, “I am gay in every way except the sex.” While an undergraduate at the University of Florida, where Powell teaches creative writing, I thought he was trying to charm people like his colleague David Leavitt and myself (we are both same-sex attracted, including the sex). Powell’s life and fiction are hyper-masculine and southern, and it is sensible to argue that they are not considered paragons of gay culture. At the university, he is known for filling stews with the squirrels and raccoons that attempt to infiltrate his chicken pen. Typical, his first story collection, is built on references to dogfighting, whorehouses, chewing tobacco, trucking pulpwood, “miscegenational pimps,” guys drinking beer while picking loot out of floodwaters, and characters who consider all women are
Restless Rednecks: Gay Tales of the Switching South
The narrators and protagonists of the stories in Roy F. Wood’s Restless Rednecks: Gay Tales of the Changing South are loners. They are aware of the limitations, and dangers, of living in rural Georgia, but their attachment to the territory is deep. The word “restless” in the title doesn’t signify that the gay men in the stories will go crazy if they don’t manage off to the big city. Many of them absorb to make grave adjustments in command to live beat lives. Some of them do just that and with a vengeance! The order in which the stories show in Restless Rednecks is superb. Several of Wood’s stories are sensitive and literary, while others are unabashedly one-handers.
“Next Time,” the first story in Restless Rednecks, was originally published in Gay Sunshine Journal in 1982. It begins with a detailed description of rural Georgia, which also sets the stage for the succeeding stories. “Next Time” is the story that has stayed with me the longest. David Benson, who is thirty years aged and works in real estate, “trekked back south after graduation, having learned enough to understand he should quit the
Mann, Stephen L.. "5. Rural “rednecks” and urban “bluebloods”: The (in)compatibility of sounding gay and sounding southern". Cityscapes and Perceptual Dialectology: Global Perspectives on Non-Linguists’ Knowledge of the Dialect Landscape, edited by Jennifer Cramer and Chris Montgomery, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, 2016, pp. 73-96. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614510086-010
Mann, S. (2016). 5. Rural “rednecks” and urban “bluebloods”: The (in)compatibility of sounding queer and sounding southern. In J. Cramer & C. Montgomery (Ed.), Cityscapes and Perceptual Dialectology: Global Perspectives on Non-Linguists’ Knowledge of the Dialect Landscape (pp. 73-96). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614510086-010
Mann, S. 2016. 5. Rural “rednecks” and urban “bluebloods”: The (in)compatibility of sounding same-sex attracted and sounding southern. In: Cramer, J. and Montgomery, C. ed. Cityscapes and Perceptual Dialectology: Global Perspectives on Non-Linguists’ Knowledge of the Dialect Landscape. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 73-96. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614510086-010
I was at the inaugural annual Intercollegiate Adventist GSA Coalition (IAGC) meeting the first time I saw Seventh-Gay Adventists, a film that documents the lives of three couples who identify as members of both the queer community and the very conservative Seventh-day Adventist faith community.
A year and a half later, I have seen the production in eight states across the nation.
I own helped with every reviewing I’ve attended by manning the booths and characterizing IAGC. During these screenings, I have become seal to the dynamic husband-and-wife duo who produced and directed the film. Stephen Eyer and Daneen Akers are part of my family now.
It has been such a blessing to witness firsthand the transformative power of this documentary. At every screening, the crowd reacts differently, falling on unique points in their understanding of sexual orientation, gender, faith, values, race, and backgrounds.
It is always a special encounter, but them most recent screening I attended was certainly my favorite. Collegedale, Tennessee, is known for entity a primarily Seventh-day Adventist town. It is home to Seventh-day Adventist owned corporations such as Little Deb