The Appalachian family has been the subject of countless media outlets portrayals of how ‘others’ live for the past half decade. Uneducated, poor, and isolated from populated societies (Cooke-Jackson and Hansen 189), the people of Appalachia and the hillbilly stereotypes associated with them are often depicted through the media as a source of entertainment for the rest of Americans. Television shows such as Duck Dynasty and The Beverly Hillbillies are successful examples of how the hillbilly stereotype gets portrayed to America. In reality television, film, and other sources of media, gender stereotypes and the family makeup are often the center of the way the hillbilly stereotype is portrayed (Cooke-Jackson and Hansen 189). 

American filmmakers have documented the lives of people from Appalachia, offering a detailed look into the household of Appalachian families. In an Appalachian home, the women are more than just the homemakers. For example, in the documentary American Hollow that follows around the Bowling family, the woman of the family carry a large burden. Along with performing household tasks like cooking and tending for children, the women are depended on to perform daunting manual labor jobs for extra cash and are in charge of the family finances (Kennedy 1999). The women of Appalachia are not afraid to get their hands dirty, and take pride in a proud history of hard working, family oriented woman who have helped overcome some tough times.

With a rich history of being both hard workers and homemakers, media outlets often like to portray the characteristics that Carissa Massey describes in her piece Appalachian Stereotypes. Massey writes, “the hillbilly woman is aggressive, overly fecund, and masculine. The Appalachian woman is often rendered as at least as unnatural or uncivilized as the man…”(Massey 130). Media outlets often glorify and overhype these traits for comedic proposes. For example, Barstool Sports, an Internet media platform that owns an amateur boxing organization, often uses woman of Appalachia as a marketing tool for their “hillbilly boxing league.” Barstool’s amateur boxing group, Rough N’ Rowdy, host fights in the rural cities of the Appalachia region. The women who fight in the events are asked to make promo clips that show the true grit that women of Appalachia posses. In the clips posted, one can see how media selectively choose stereotypical women of Appalachia for entertainment purposes.