Summary

The term redneck continued to change throughout the 1990s. The so-called “stampede toward white trash and redneck chic” (427) is referred to as slumming. A growing number of Americans seek to scrub the term redneck of its negative qualities. Instead, rednecks are regarded by this bunch as agriculturalists. Ambiguity remained in the definition, however; rednecks saw themselves as hardworking, fun-loving, and independent. The middle and upper classes saw rednecks as loud, obnoxious, bigoted and shallow. Breeding remained paramount in considerations of identity. One could not simply claim to be a redneck; it was an ingrained part of one’s identity and heritage.

Redneck transformed into a mutated gender and class identity, and women played a prominent role in the term’s transformation. Isenberg focuses on two authors, Dorothy Allison and Carolyn Chute. Both women offered unsparing accounts...