In case you don’t know by now, I’m not buying what Reese Witherspoon is selling. She’s selling this really hokey, fake version of “Southern culture” which has little to no bearing on what it’s really like to live and work in the South. Even though Reese is from Tennessee, it often feels like her vision of the South is just a Hollywood stereotype. It bugs, and she bugs. Anyway, Reese covers the latest issue of Southern Living because she’s promoting her sad Draper James line – clothing and lifestyle accessories for those who want to celebrate Southern stereotypes. That’s a Draper James dress she’s wearing on the cover and it is hideous. Some highlights:
Her family lies all the time because they’re Southern: “In my family, we say, ‘It doesn’t have to be true to be told.’ At lunch, my mom was telling a story about when I moved out here and how she found my apartment and paid for it. I said, ‘Mom, you know none of that’s true, right?’ I found my own apartment, and she did not do any of it! But most of the time, I don’t even bother to interrupt…I think there’s nothing better than a Southern person as they age. The stories get better and better and less and less true.”
Working with the ladies on ‘Big Little Lies’: “We learned more about each other at night over wine. We didn’t rehearse; we’d just go to dinner! I think people saw themselves [in the show]. I think men discovered how women really feel about marriage and relationships and each other. I mean, when was the last time you got to see women really talk about complex issues?
Why she started Draper James: “That’s a great question. I don’t really know. Other than sometimes I get a wild hair and an idea that won’t leave me alone, and this is one of them. I love it. It’s also good for my brain to do something other than be in a movie. I’m 41 years old, I’ve been making movies since I was 14, and I needed something else. I love what I do, but sometimes you need to meet different kinds of people. It also brought me back to my roots—I get to travel all over the South. Also, don’t you get tired of everything fashion related being based in New York and Los Angeles? There are people all over the country who are interesting and interested in fashion, and I thought, “Why not create great designs that mirror and value those kinds of lives?” I like telling these American stories.
She’s releasing a coffee table book about the South too: “There’s so much curiosity about the South right now. And it’s not the same South that you and I grew up in. It’s more inclusive. I think our region has transformed into much more of a place filled with new cultural ideas and attitudes. But Southerners still come together and take care of each other; there is such a great sense of community. I think the South is also a quintessentially very funny place—people don’t take themselves too seriously. The ability to laugh at yourself is a real survival instinct.
You guys… why? Why does she act like “the South” is this monolithic entity that can be generalized about in this way. The way she’s talking, it’s like she’s two seconds away from quoting Sarah Palin and calling the South “the real America.” The South IS more inclusive these days, but I doubt that will be reflected in her dumb coffee table book. It’s inclusive in that it’s just like the rest of America!! There are people of all races, religions, socioeconomic backgrounds, etc living in the South. There are LGBTQ people living in the South. And yes, people have been designing clothes in the South this whole f–king time. This, to me, is like a dog-whistley version of Blake Lively’s “Allure of Antebellum.” While Blake was rightly called out for her obvious nonsense, what Reese is trying to perpetuate is this idea that the South is a monolithic white fantasy of manners, sass, humor and sugary beverages. Like the Dukes of Hazzard, but with white gloves and cotillions. It’s total f–king bullsh-t.
Photos courtesy of Southern Living.
She sounds a bit exhausting
WTF? I’ve only EVER been southern and my truth is what’s gotten me in trouble my entire life. I can’t lie, and if I try and you’re near, my facial expressions give everything away. And I’m older (only getting older) and my truths have only become unapologetic. I can’t stand people making “bank” on their so-called southerness because it’s always a liquified and diluted mess of sickening stereotypes. Frak off Miss Draper James… you are 100% phoney baloney, completely out of touch and an embarrassment for those of us who are actually southern, don’t accentuate our accents and don’t corral people into preconceived, pigeonholed ideas of what life is like in the sweltering south. Thx y’all.
And in contrast, my cousin from New Jersey is of the mind “why let the truth get in the way of a good story?” As my mama used to say “she’s full o’ bull.”
Your comment is everything. I’m completely American by Birth, Southern by the Grace of God. Where does this idiot come off speaking for us? And I get homicidal whenever I watch tv shows that employ bad voice-over people to speak with a “Southern Accent.” Southern accents vary by location. Texans don’t sound like Alabamans don’t sound like Tennesseans. I wouldn’t pay for 5 cents for this book if it was the best tinder available.
I am Canadian and I have an honest question. Why do they keep all those plantations still and why do they still have slave quarters? I am truly ignorant on this issue and I wanted to know what makes people be okay with them still being there. Thanks for not yelling at me.
I don’t understand how this lying this is supposed to be funny. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I’m figuring out that a lot of what passes for “Southern hospitality” would just be straight up thought of as rudeness in a lot of other places. I know most people don’t like it when people are abruptly straight-forward either, but if that means that I don’t have to second guess every interaction I have with someone in order to make sure that I’m not being made fun of on the sly, I’d take that over this stuff any day of the week.
You’re talking about sorority sisters, not an entire geographical swath of people. You’re doing exactly what you you say you don’t like.
@Mabs A’Mabbin, I’m confused, I’m not sure where I generalized the entire South as being the same way? I know not everyone in the South is like that, lol, but I do dislike how people seem to stress this whole concept of “politeness” as integral to Southern hospitality when most of that “politeness” is just snide rudeness masked up with nice words. If people are somehow implying that this sort of “hospitality” is the universal norm in the South, that’s on them, but that’s not what I’m discussing in my comment. I’m just taking issue with the way people like Reese Witherspoon are rebranding something like telling a tall, obviously untrue tale as something that’s cutesy and emblematic of the South when any reasonable human being would have just given her a weird look and not invited a person like that to lunch any more.
Thanks for clarifying A, I confess to getting touchy about southern perceptions lol. Ten years of college education, never owning a pair of cowboy boots or seeing a tumbleweed, and hating ambrosia and tuna casserole are but the tip of a huge iceberg of stereotypical tropes I’ve been metaphorically lugging around for decades lol.
@A – Same here.
Her way of interacting with people does sound exhausting too. I prefer kind and genuine.
The stereotype about the expression “Bless your heart” used to shade someone… no thanks. I’m with you, be straight forward. Insult people if you’re trying to do that. You don’t get points for doing it “with class” when we all know your intentions are anything but classy.
That whole “bless your heart” bullshit pisses me off too. It’s certainly not without merit, I heard it as a kid, but as an adult I rarely hear it unless we’re making fun of our own stereotypes. Even if it did come from a kind place, it certainly doesn’t sound like it.
I live in Nashville. What she says about the South true and it is NOT inclusive. Yeah, it is if you live in a small progressive pocket of the town. Even within the city, and anywhere outside of city limits it is racist and homophobic and not inclusive at all. Also, the southern hospitality is just people saying nice things to your face and talking sh*t behind your back as soon as you turn around. Nothing in genuine at all. No thanks
If it was revealed that she is an unapologetic racist, I would not be in the least bit surprised. I’ve always just gotten that vibe from her, and her romanticizing a certain “south” adds to the feeling.
Where? When? I don’t like Reese especially since she was arrested but where is the evidence, receipts, etc. that’s she’s an unapologetic racist? I think she’s superficial, annoying, pretentious, bitchy, etc. but racist in the sense that she holds prejudice views against Asians, Brown Hispanics, and Blacks, where is the evidence of that?
Odette stated “If it was…” She didn’t say she is. Conditional sentence.
What MelB said.
Mel B
I got it.
There are rumors of her being racist, like the time she refused to have a black man as a co-lead, so they got someone else. I’m not sure if it’s true, but given her glorification of the south, maybe it’s not too hard to believe.
@Brian, as a young starlet, she starred in a movie called “Freeway” in which she played a troubled girl with a black boyfriend, so I doubt the story about her objecting to having a black male co-lead. I’m not even a full year younger than Reese and used to love her early films, especially “Man in the Moon.” Then, her whole persona changed after “Legally Blonde,” and she became the kind of cheesy rom com star I loathe.
On a different note, my mother, who’s black, is from Tennessee and has sworn our family has known the Witherspoon family for years. I know for sure that one of my aunts knows Britney Spears’ father. So, yes, these people may not be racists at all. I married into a white family, and my husband’s parents, who live in Arizona, were totally racist towards me while his extended family in Georgia, including his octogenarian grandmother, were not. I really don’t think Southerners are necessarily more racist than Northerners. Their bigotry just comes out in different ways, like a liberal Yankee assuming I must have grown up poor because I’m black. That sort of thing.
@WTW — From what I understand from someone I know who works in the biz, she used to do movies with non-white folks, but changed her tune as she got older. Not that she won’t work with people of color, but…. And she knows she has a rep, in this regards, so makes public overtures that are just PR tools. Now, this, of course, is just gossip — and I suppose I am apt to give it some consideration because she pings my racist radar.
@Odette,
You have not seen the movie, The Good Lie, the story of the three Sudanese male refugees who are chosen to come to live in America? It stars Reese Witherspoon. It came out in 2014.
There are enough outright racists in this world we need confront . Calling people racist that do not exhibit this behavior by using baseless claims that aren’t true (she has starred in movies with people of color in the recent past), is simply spreading untruths.
I would be more surprised if Elvis stepped on my porch than if Reese revealed herself to be racist. I get that vibe from her.
so she’s just making sh*t up now to justify her own garbage then?
Yeah whatever, Laura Jeanne.
Reese comes across as very fake these days. She like to sell the perfect southern family narrative but her family is full of terrible people. Her brother was arrested and I think convicted of sexual assault. There was the craziness surrounding her father and bigamy charges.
To be fair, doesn’t her father have Alzheimer’s and the woman in the bigamy/marriage issue was a caretaker taking advantage, tried to borrow or steal significant sums of money?
Brother is a piece of work though; I remember something about him being arrested for voyeurism or being a “peeping Tom.”
With the father it is possible he has Alzheimer’s but the parents marriage was strange. Her parents are or were married at the time the bigamy story same out, they hadn’t actually lived together since the mid-1990s. It sounds like the family should have placed him in a memory home and not left him open to to con-artists.
Her brother wasn’t convicted and she isn’t responsible for his actions. Using what happened with her dad against her is low. First, he is a grown man and she is not responsible for his actions either but that was a really difficult time for her. Her dad began to show symptoms of his dementia and depression and needed and emergency conservatorship. He married a woman who took advantage of him who he didn’t know and didn’t remember marring. He was a successful ENT doctor and his daughter is an Oscar winning actress so she tried to take advantage of an easy target suffering from dementia. Reese was there to help when she was made aware of what was going on.
No but she hasn’t condemned her brother’s actions either. If Nicki Minaj is expected to condemn her brother, then same expectation should fall on Reese.
And with the father, Reese should have been properly vetting who was caring for her father.
Her father and brother also struggle with alcoholism. Given Reese’s arrest and her constant pics on social media of her drinking, I wouldn’t be surprised she has a problem, too.
@Merritt
I don’t like Reese but I’m not sure why you’re blaming her for what happened to her dad. It’s an unfortunate situation but not her fault at all. Don’t think it’s necessary for Reese to condemn her brother; Nicki was criticized for bailing her brother out of jail. But either way they aren’t responsible for the actions of another adult.
He wasn’t convicted of that so I don’t know why she should be forced to extrajudicially condemn him, especially when like her the incident sounds alcohol influenced so it’d be a a. None of our business and b. Come of more than a little holier than than than and hypocritical. Any comment she made would raise awareness of her brother’s legal issues, not good for a real estate agent, and drudge back up her stuff and invite tons of criticism for something she isn’t at all responsible for.
The father’s care taker I believe is the one who manipulated him so she was trying her level best to take care of him. If you’re not with someone everyday serious cognitive decline can kind of sneak up on you especially if the caretaker is hiding signs of dementia for personal gain. However, even if he was an outright bigamist, it again isn’t her responsibility to police her father or a reflection upon her as a person.
Her arrest, her decision to mouth off to the officer and the disrespectful mugshot are her responsibility and reflect on her as a person. The way she treats and speaks about and to others are her responsibility and reflect on her as a person.
I may be from Savannah but I don’t buy her sweet n low bullshite.
Yeah, this does not square with my experience of “The South.” Sounds like her family just lies a lot…?
That’s what I thought, as a Southerner. I have never heard anything like this before (or have I?)…
Perhaps its not that her mother is “southern”, perhaps her mother is a compulsive liar. I mean, as southern stereotypes go it is not the worst, but, no. A world of no.
What was the last year she actually lived a place that is considered the South? Or is this just a place that exists in her imagination?
Ugh. She is not helping this world.
OhEmGeeeeeeeee those Draper James clothes are hideous and WAY overpriced !!!!
So, Reese, then you must be, what, at least 95 years old?
I lived in the south. Her “Southern” image is real – it’s just not the majority of people anymore. It’s older generations. You see that sort of thing in the Nashville suburbs, but of course, a lot of the South is not really definable in one way anymore. In any case, I know a lot of people who do still identify with the south that way (not just white people, which is kind of funny) who LOVE draper james and were really excited for it to open in Nashville. It hits a very specific market (kind of overlapping with like, Lily Pulitzer probably). I think her stuff is cute at least.
Yep. And that is the exact area and type of people she knows and grew up around. People are acting like they’ve never heard of tall tales before.
I live in the south, too, and a lot of women do dress in that Lily Pullitzer/Draper James style. It’s mostly rich, white women, but the market does exist. She’s clearly figured out how to tap into that and she’s probably making a ton of money on it, as the price of the clothes is pretty obscene IMO. Hence, the Southern Living cover. Definitely an aspirational mag for rich, white, Southern women. *shrug*
THIS. And if I see one more damn Tory Burch logo I will scream. Every customer I have is very close to what she describes, but IT is NOT all of us! Maybe we are all supposed to be Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil characters?
LOL. Honey, please, I lived in the South. It didn’t take age for y’all to start lying. Southern hospitality is probably the epitome of two-faced dealing, and Southern belles are probably the worst offenders.
I’ve known that Reese is a horrible person for years. Not even putting her shameful arrest in there, she’s constantly rude to everyone she meets (she frequents the same streets I do shop on), she loves to praise herself on social media, and she puts down anyone who criticizes her as “sexist”.
this- i like her work. she is talented but she is very preachy. and I always want to say practice what you you preach!
plus her clothes look like southern talbots. not necessarily a bad thing but they are not anything special either.
In St. Louis suburbs–where the racism is overt–the Lily Pulitzer look is EVERYWHERE. Including 50 year old women, who look ridiculous in the bright and tight strapless dresses.
The cotillions, the winter galas in which the “girls” are presented in society–yeah, huge here.
Downtown is dead because the affluent would rather golf, wine and dine in one of the several private country clubs dotting the metropolis.
And they monogram everything to the point that it is not an unlikely scene to see a very blonde (always) woman with an monogrammed bag while wearing a monogrammed top (Lily, VV or Tory) and topped with some sort of jewelry bearing their initials.
Names that you actually really do hear include: Binky (most notably of the Orthweins of the Busch clan), Fluffy, Milly (short for Molly Bc so many Mollys), who marry at the age of 22 the names of Trey or Tripp.
I am not exaggerating at all. And the racist conversations like steering their children to play tennis or golf as opposed to basketball because it is too urban gets said OUT LOUD.
It’s bad. I cringe and am grateful I left.
OMG. I just met a Jewish woman from the St Louis area, and she said she’d never live there again. She’s now in NYC. She’s encouraging her parents to relocate as well. After Ferguson, I heard a lot of negatives about the area in terms of segregated schools and traffic stops of blacks, but I didn’t know the city’s culture was like this. I’m from Chicago, and I have been to St. Louis, but not recently. This sounds awful.
My SiL lives in the south and most of her wardrobe is over-priced Lilly Pulitzer. Everything she wears starts looking the same.
I’ve said this several times and will say it again. I know several people who ran in her family’s social circles, and I know a retired teacher who knew her when she was at Harpeth Hall, a very hoity-toity private girls school in Nashville. She is full of it. I doubt Reese has ever known anyone in Tennessee who was not a member of her parents’ Belle Meade social set.
The teacher told me several years ago that Reese was known to be a typical Mean Girl and was intensely disliked. When they had her class reunion years ago, there was serious debate about whether to invite Reese because she had gotten pregnant before marriage. Reese is not a golden child among the Nashville elite. They were shocked and rather disgusted that she didn’t bother to get married before conceiving a child. I don’t know what they think now. I also don’t know how long she was at Harpeth Hall.
“Mean girl” rumors ring true for me.
I want to admire her for building a successful career, but I can’t help but feel she is a deeply unpleasant person. She strikes me as a mean-girl achiever. Her ambition & achievement feels a bit ugly to me for that reason.
I can never really separate her from that character she played in Election, Tracy Flick.
ooo yes, I thought Election was hilarious and it wasn’t a stretch at all for Reese to become Tracy Flick!
By sheer coincidence, I spoke to my retired English teacher acquaintance from Harpeth Hall earlier this evening, and Reese Witherspoon’s name came up. Well, actually, not Reese but her father…but anyway…..my friend laughed and said that if Reese ever tried to give money to Harpeth Hall she would be laughed at and it would probably be rejected. That was her term as a retired English instructor there (with a PhD): “We would probably throw her money out the window.” They still remember her pattern of aggressive and mean-girl behavior even though many teachers who knew her have now retired.
She needs to wear more midriffs to show off that tattoo on her stomach.