observations on midwestern identity

it has occurred to me that, in an era where one’s self-identifications appear to be becoming increasingly important, american regional identities are slipping more and more into the public consciousness. prominent among these is “midwestern identity” - things are now “midwest-core” or “midwest-coded.”

i have seen, on repeated occasions, aesthetic image posts (tumblr/instagram/et cetera) clearly taken in New England/Deep South/Frontier West. and among the top comments is ALWAYS, without fail, some desperate individual saying “omg this is so midwest core”

it fascinates me. no other continental US region feels such a need to proclaim “yes! that’s so me!” quite in the same way midwesterners do - and i have suspicions as to why.

i think there’s a midwestern inferiority complex of sorts. the midwest, being so large (and, frankly, empty), has very little overarching regional identity of its own. what identities it does have are not regional, but inter-state (ex: wisconsinites love cheese, etc).

each region of the US has countless contributions to our country’s lexicon of americana - save for the midwest. there are very few meaningful cultural contributions the midwest can claim that another region cannot claim better.

the midwest has no confederate states to look back on - no flannery o’connor to tell of how “God-haunted” they are. it has no mythic history of freedom-seeking colonization in the same manner as new england. it has no southern drawl and no bombastic brooklyn accent. on the contrary: the midwestern sound is the standard american accent.

what is there that midwesterners can truly claim? chicago blues? i’d argue that belongs more to chicago than it does to the midwest as a whole. what about those famous wild west towns: deadwood and dodge city? both towns are hardly 50 miles away from wyoming and colorado, respectively - so how midwestern are they, truly?

what the midwest does have is novelist willa cather. that is its greatest contribution.

midwesterners’ efforts are wasted trying desperately to claim southern, western, or northeastern identities. their focus should instead be on what cather so frequently wrote about: the desolation of the region. the vast endlessness of the plains and merciless brutality of its winters. that is compelling. that is midwestern. its regional lack of identity is, ironically, identity enough unto itself.

i am interested to see how midwestern identity develops in the coming decades, and i hope it learns to become its own thing rather than trying to be everybody else.

willa cather famously said that “anybody can love the mountains, but it takes a soul to love the prairie.” i think that should be reflected upon more frequently.