"Interregional" relationships

[vandy_violet]

I know the concept of people from two different areas of the country dating isn't radical, but I get the feeling that there are still some issues about it in certain areas. I guess it's not the whole regional thing in general that's really an issue at all, but a friend and I were talking about this the other night. She's from Colorado, and she dated a guy from SC, from the type of social circle in which he was frequently serving as an escort for many young debutantes. He was a great guy, but she said that his mother was terrible to her, presumably b/c she wasn't a Southerner. It wasn't really a socioeconomic thing, b/c her family is wealthy enough, she's just not a deb. Other friends from the Deep South have told me of parents trying to set their sons up with debutantes from their hometowns and such, and I was just wondering how pervasive this kind of obsession/prejudice against outsiders is, if any of you think it really exists. At Vanderbilt, a lot of the most eligible guys (especially the ones I like) are wealthy Southern guys, and it bugs me to think that if I were in a serious relationship that my boyfriend's parents would have a big problem with me b/c I'm not Southern/or a debutante. Do you think a Northern transplant can really ever fit into some of the exclusive circles of the South? I know that I might be perpetuating a bunch of stereotypes with this question, but I would be glad to stand corrected if this isn't the case...