Outside Looking In: Mary Rizzo looks at Baltimore beyond the charm and the harm
What do outsiders imagine when they think of Baltimore? Mary Rizzo ’s absorbing new book, Come and Be Shocked: Baltimore Beyond John Waters and the Wire (JHU Press, 2020), examines what she considers the two primary portrayals of the city. Rizzo, an Assistant Professor of History at Rutgers University, looks at several of the more well-known cultural productions that have depicted Baltimore over the last sixty years, finding contrasting themes that have emerged from a highly segregated city. According to
On the one hand, we have “Charm City,” a vision of Baltimore which stars “the Hon,” a fun stereotype of white, working-class, Southern womanhood that is “friendly, quirky, charming, and sassy.” This is an image that fits well with city promotional efforts and so has been bear hugged by the powers that be. The irony that an image drawn from working-class culture would be used to attract professionals and capital to a city whose working class had been devastated by the destruction of blue collar jobs in a p
Shocked and Amazed! | The online home of James Taylor’s Shocked and Amazed! On & Off the Midway
Atomic TV | "A Media Maxi-Pad absorbing the continual flow of Pop Culture"
Atomic TV | "A Media Maxi-Pad absorbing the continual flow of Pop Culture"
Accelerated Decrepitude
Mobtown Shank
Shocked and Amazed! | The online home of James Taylor’s Shocked and Amazed! On & Off the Midway