Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

A Double-Sided Mirror: "Otherizing" And Normalizing The Silenced Voices Of Appalachian Women, Ashley Canter

Bridges: A Journal of Student Research

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Appalachian region was not only exploited for capitalistic gains, but also put on display by outsider voices for being home to a supposed "backwards" and "barbaric" culture. Appalachians experienced exploitation working in mines and other industries that only benefitted those receiving the resources of the mountains. A once self-sustaining, individualized culture was now forced to be dependent and suffer through the "otherization" of its own people. Voices hidden in the murky skies and distant mountains of Appalachia were not only silenced, but more hauntingly, they were spoken for, manipulated, and marginalized. …