{"id":5683,"date":"2019-12-25T13:39:47","date_gmt":"2019-12-25T17:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=5683"},"modified":"2022-03-17T15:51:28","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T19:51:28","slug":"hillbilly-fights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/hillbilly-fights\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillbilly Fights: How to Defend Your Honor in Appalachia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How are hillbilly fights different than others? Do hillbillies fight by a different set of rules? How is fighting built into the hillbilly culture<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ll cover some of the hillbilly fights in the life of JD Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy<\/em>, and look at how the region’s culture of honor<\/a> encourages them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Rules of Hillbilly Fights: Toy Store Brawl<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In one illustrative example, Vance recounts a story that subsequently became family legend. His grandparents were in a department store in Middletown<\/a> with their son when the boy started to play with one of the toys on display. 
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When the clerk asked the boy to put the toy down and leave the store, Papaw and Mamaw<\/a> went berserk: smashing the merchandise and physically threatening the clerk, saying \u201cIf you say another word to my son, I will break your fucking neck.\u201d
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This display of violent anger and utter disregard for social norms<\/a> was shocking to the Ohioans who witnessed the scene, but it was a matter of basic pride for Vance\u2019s family. <\/strong>This was the norm for hillbilly fights. The parents were merely defending their son against a stranger who had slighted the family\u2019s honor by telling him where he could and couldn\u2019t go. This was just what any <\/em>self-respecting hillbilly would do when an outsider messed with their child. This was obvious for those who followed the rules of hillbilly fights.
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Shortform note:<\/strong> This scene of violence and anger in response to a relatively mild slight may have its roots in what historians and sociologists have called the \u201cSouthern culture of honor.\u201d It\u2019s characterized by an extreme unwillingness to tolerate personal insults of any kind and a high propensity, particularly on the part of males, to defend one\u2019s reputation with violence. 
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Honor cultures are common in places where the rule of law and the control of centralized authorities have been historically weak: like the remote parts of the British Isles from which the hillbillies\u2019 Scots-Irish ancestors came. These values were easily transplanted to the remote, rugged world of Appalachia. In turn, the hillbillies brought these values with them when they migrated to other regions of the United States. Cultures of honor are the foundation of hillbilly fights.
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Hillbilly Justice<\/strong> Using Hillbilly Fights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is illustrated quite vividly by JD\u2019s early education in the concept of \u201chillbilly justice.\u201d<\/strong> During visits with his grandparents back to Jackson, Kentucky (where they still maintained close ties of kin and community), JD would be regaled with stories of the legendary and lawless exploits of his extended family and the world they came from. 
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