Let's try something...

[misanthrope]

...tell us what your personal interpretation of the word "redneck" is, where you are from and your age.

No value judgments of others' answers please; I just want to see what corollaries or patterns may/may not appear.

[DemInDistress]

1. a redneck is someone who screws his sister or

someone who supports bush blindly and faithfully..or someone who has a redneck.

[rzemanfl]

4. Rednecks don't screw their sisters, they screw their cousins,

screwing their sister would be incest.

[TankLV]

7. Their mother, sister, love interest is all one person.

We know what incest is, and so do they - really well. (insert vegas drum roll here)

But that would be the stupid ugly version of the definition.

OK - I apologize to rednecks everywhere - that was uncalled for.

A more appropriate version would be same as "blue collar" - a hard working, lower class (not necessarily even middle class), not extremely school educated but life-experience educated person - ie "the common man".

[rzemanfl]

8. Only later, they start out with the livestock. n/t

[DemInDistress]

13. rotf...touche'

your right.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[rzemanfl]

2. Transplanted to Florida from Wisconsin, age 58, white male. I

know one when I see one. Area North of Crystal River and South of Tallahassee is full of them. Up North I think we just called people like that "assholes."

[panader0]

3. Redneck should not be a bad word

The expression means someone who works outdoors, as I do (a bricklayer), and gets too much sun. My neck is deeply tanned. I don't think redneck should be a demeanining term, any more than "blue collar".

[blockhead]

21. Hey brother

I'm a bricklayer also.

[rucky]

5. someone from the South who loudly and proudly displays...

his or her ignorance and prejudices.

[NMDemDist2]

6. hmmm,

a redneck is just a guy who works outside, likes his beer and isn't the sharpest tack in the box, not as dumb as a box of rocks, mind you, just not the brightest bulb in the candelier

WF 50, Texas and California

[rzemanfl]

9. I JUST FIGURED THIS OUT FOXWORTHY! Get your own

goddamn material or hire a writer, we are not going to do this for you for free!

[Kansas Wyatt]

12. Good one!

:rofl:

[Road Scholar]

10. I am 62, Male from NC. This probably isn't what you asked for,

but I know that "redneck" in some circles is derogatory.I've used it myself
referring to beer swizzling worthless hot dogs with a confederate flags
and a "W" on their window and wouldn't work in a pie factory.Ready to fight with anybody who doesn't agree with them.All are bigots.They have no problem having their wife work during the day to buy their "deer huntin' ammo".
Some also consider it a compliment, because it represents working hard in the fields. I've used that too to some for which I have a great deal of respect.

[SPKrazy]

11. Redneck Comes From The Fact That People That Work Out On The Farm

Or Ranch, or in the fields got sunburned and had red necks.

Rednecks are depicted usually as stupid, or simple, country folks that are behind the times and see the world in black and white.

True rednecks are hard working people that labor hard in the sun to eek out a living.

Being from the South I somewhat resent the term redneck as it has come to mean somewhat of a country bumpkin with no idea about reality.

My relatives are probably rednecks, but every one of them worked hard. My Dad picked cotton in the Oklahoma sun as a child. He is the first of his family to have gone to college. He excelled in college and got a scholarship to Stanford. He later got his EdD and worked in College Administration much of his adult life. But his family of origin, are what the world would call rednecks.

[1620rock]

14. A redneck is a southerner who drives a pickup...

...with a confederate flag on it and a gun rack in the cab. He usually lives in a broken down trailer with trash and junk and old cars in the dirt yard. He hates blacks, gays, liberals, yankees, and people in general from the north-east. He is a bible thumping bigot with a sixth grade education an he LOVES Bush and everything he stands for. He loves guns, wars, and violence, and he smells bad because he doesn't wash very often. He hates anything foreign and scratches his ass and balls in public.
Here in Michigan we call them Republicans!

[SPKrazy]

17. Such a stereotype

I explained in my post where the origins of Redneck come from

You can have your opinion but you are WRONG!

[DeadManInc]

19. You forgot a car in the yard

with the wheels off sitting on cinder blocks

[TahitiNut]

22. I'm a Yankee male in his 60s and that's exactly how I understand the term.

It's one of those "language things" where ya gotta figure out what the person who's saying it means.
"Democrat" is another one of those terms. :evilgrin:

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. My neighbors

I live in red state hell :)

And I am old.

[proud patriot]

16. someone who works in the sun

getting a redneck

[SPKrazy]

18. Exactly!

Hard working Americans are where the term came from.

[Virginian]

20. Female, over 50 here -- My image is...

Funny, I don't think of my relatives who grew up on a farm and worked hard in the fields as rednecks, I don't think of rednecks as being particularly hardworking and these people absolutely were. Maybe it is because these farm kids had a strong work ethic that many of them turned out to be Democrats. Rednecks don't become Democrats.

One of my cousins married a redneck. Let me describe him.
If he earned enough, he would drive the pickup with the confederate flag and gun rack, but he doesn't have that kind of work ethic and my cousin doesn't earn enough to buy him one.
If she hadn't bought their house, with the help of her parents, they would live in a broken down trailer with trash and junk and old cars in the dirt yard. He hates blacks, gays, liberals, yankees, and people in general from anywhere but where he lives. He is a bible thumping bigot who never goes to church, but knows that God hates people who aren't like him.
He did graduate from high school, but just barely and has never wanted to educate himself any further. He ridicules anyone who has more education than he does as wasting their time with books.
He rules the roost, but doesn't pay for it. My cousin pays the bills. What little he makes is for him to spend on himself. If he is having a bad day then everyone has a bad day. I fear he is abusive when others aren't around.
He hunts, so, of course, liberals want to take away his guns. With his temper, he really shouldn't have guns.
He is irresponsible. He never helps out around the house with anything.
They have sons. He helps out with coaching their sports teams. He is one of those angry coaches; the kind that won't let kids be kids.
My cousin asked me not to talk about politics. I think it was because she didn't want to see him explode when he found out I didn't love Bush*.
We don't visit them much. We are afraid of the combination of his temper and his guns.

[LWolf]

23. Ok; I didn't even glance at others' answers:

I was born in the midwest, but moved to the west coast when I was 7. I've been here ever since. I'll be 46 in a couple of months.

A "redneck" is an under-educated, semi-literate, sometimes illiterate, white man who hunts, fishes, and enjoys his status as a sexist and a racial bigot, a gun nut and a "patriot." He loves all things sports, country music, bars, bad beer, and fights. He is a blue-collar worker, or he may be a farmer or a rancher. He can live rurally, in the suburbs, or in the city. He may or may not practice smacking "his" women and lesser subjects around to assert his power. His female counterpart is all of the above, including embracing her subjugation by males.

That's my personal interpretation of the word "redneck" as taught to me by my truck-driving father, a self-proclaimed redneck. As a matter of fact, his CB handle, well-known in his region was "The _______ Redneck" <insert name of large midwestern city>. I was not raised by my father, and didn't spend much time with him. I did have to live with him for 3 months as a 16 yo. I got to observe him, and his happy redneck buddies, and my stepmother and step siblings, in action 24/7.

Another version of "redneck" is the rural person whose neck is red because he/she works outside under the sun. That's the less personal, culturally-charged version.

[Laelth]

24. Redneck = Angry Democrat

A redneck is somebody who ought to be voting Democratic, but who is a victim of either Republican race baiting or gay baiting or "latte liberal" baiting.

But they're natural Democrats, and they ought to be treated with respect and not scorn.

imho

-Laelth


Edit:Laelth--spelling.

[misanthrope]

25. What I was looking for...

...was your personal connotation of the word "redneck."

Most of us are aware of its origins but context and connotation are what I was interested in hearing.

The reason being that I think the definition and application has changed somewhat with the passing generations. I wondered also what proximity to rural environs might have to do with individual connotation.

Personally, my familial and geographic proximity to rural areas means that I well understand the term's history, however I don't necessarily call anyone a redneck as I believe it to certainly have a negative connotation.

For the record, I'm a 42-year-old male, native Alabamian to whom the word is foremost encapsulated by an embrace of ignorance, not someone's place of residence or socio-economic status. I know plenty of rich preppie rednecks. I've also been known to refer to some African-American folks as rednecks, too, to the befuddlement of others.

[yurbud]

26. lower class with no upwardly mobile ambitions

There is no shame in being poor or working class, but it makes me uncomfortable to see people who don't encourage their kids to make more of their lives. I grew up with working class white people, and a lot of them have this attitude.

[yurbud]

27. willful ignorance

[mdmc]

28. hillbilly...newburgh,ny....35

"redneck racist" or "good ol' boy" (positive / negative)