Hi! This is the sixth entry into my series about the casting archetypes found on The Challenge (in addition to other reality shows like Real World, Road Rules, Big Brother, and Survivor). Previously I’ve harped on about:

These articles are not meant to reduce cast members to one aspect of their character. It is not synedoche, but rather identifying roles that casting directors will try to fill on any season. How they edit the competitors also plays into this. Previous entries explain the NBs more, if you’re curious.

So anyway, I’m on vacation this week (currently living it up in Costa Rica), so this will be a shorter article, about the Southern “Gentlemen.” The quotes indicate that for many of these people, they are not as gentle or chivalrous as their upbringing and “traditional moral values” would suggest.

Southern “Gentlemen” is pretty self-explanatory — men from the American South who talk about the importance of respecting women but who don’t always live up to that. They are often laid-back and speak more slowly, but when they get angry, watch out. Their edits are frequently favourable, and they are almost always Christian and heterosexual.

The Survivor allegory is the “Good Old Boy,” like Colby Donaldson, JT Thomas, Nick Wilson, Gavin Whitson, etc.

Here we go.

Southern Gentlemen