Young Writers Society

Ok, to be blunt I am a redneck from a tiny town in New England, and am a northern country girl.

American rednecking tends to include mudding in your truck blaring country music, cowboys hats, BBQs in blue jeans and plaid, swimming in a secluded waterhole, singing around a campfire, a home-cooked meal, mechanical bulls, deep fried everything, and having a beer drinking contest with your fiance's grampa. (Some of this is stereotyped, but I'm redneck and proud to say all those statements are true for me.)

Yes I am proud, but I'm curious if across the sea you guys have fun like we do. I'm from a tiny town in New England and am engaged to a cowboy from Colorado. Country is defiantly country wide over here, is it as wide spread there, or are rednecks slim and few? Give me some examples of your country living across the Atlantic!

Well I've been overseas and lived there for most of a year and I can tell you that no one where I stayed was redneck like that. In fact everyone was a little more snooty. Do you know what I mean? They were the hard work no play kind of people, although when there was a soccer game or something they'd fill the streets and parade around like wild people. But then again, it was only a small town, so I don't know if that applies anywhere else.

The kids didn't go places they didn't know, they wouldn't even touch the kitty-cats that roamed the streets. I was practically an outlaw there. In saying that, it was a very nice community, and they were all very welcoming but there was no rednecking. Now here in Australia you have some of your bogans but otherwise in Europe not so much. In Australia it's a little more like America because going to lake on Australia Day, cooking on the barbeque and being all around lazy slouching in front of a couch with a glass of whatever is what we do. It's who we are. Not to mention stuffing your face with brownies and wearing blue, white and red colours.

Now I know that isn't much but I hope that helped. Maybe someone else will reply that is a little more useful. Good luck!

Well. I'm from Scotland and can I say that what you're asking is very vague. Me personally, I like: reading, playing computer games, chatting to my friends, and going to house parties. However, I know for a fact that my brother likes playing rugby, football (Proper football you see) and going to nightclubs. What you enjoy doing differs from person to person, and certainly from country to country. Asking what people from Europe do for fun is like asking if everyone in North America has a pick-up and a handgun. It's way too broad.
Yes, in Britain we tend to be slightly closed off, but as the settlements get larger, the people get more open. Over in France, a friend of mine told me he witnessed some kids having a game of volleyball on the beach, and random people would go over and join in, then leave when they got bored. You can't just limit your answer to, "Everyone in Europe is snooty and boring." It depends. The upper classes will do different things for entertainment compared to the lower
The closet thing to rednecks I can think of (Exclusive to Scotland) would be neds. They are your stereotypical getting classes, but in Britain, the one pastime we all share is piss-taking. pregnant at 15, drinking, fighting dirty, wearing tracksuit bottoms and tracksuit tops, crime committing arseholes. However, I'm not comparing them to rednecks, I'm just saying that they're the ones that everyone knows about.
(I do not wear a kilt all the time by the way. It's our equivalent of a tuxedo. Special occasions only)

Well here in Scotland we have the basic kind of equivalent for a few things. The only music blaring i've ever seen is either people with annoying show tec music going off loud enough to deafen them in while driving through a town or village and people just shoving their radio on. No cowboy hats that aren't worn ironically. BBQs are generally restricted to the middle of summer and then it's usually small and between some friends or something involving a few families in someone's garden. The only swimming i've ever done outside of a pool in Scotland was in the local river and then as well, only in the hight of summer. Never seen singing around a campfire unless at least half the people there were pissed and in my entire life i've never seen a mechanical bull.
And of course we have drinking, it's part of our national image. In Scotland we're supposed to be grim, violent people with a little bit of a drinking problem, and for the most of us that seems to be the correct image. There's generally a house or field party ever couple of weekends or so, though rarely do grandparents get involved.

Are you asking about country folk where we live, or just folk in general? There are hundreds of social groups in the UK/Ireland and really the definitions between each are blurred. If you're wanting to know about country folk where I live (we call them culchies here) I'd be more than happy to tell you. I happen to be from the country.

And Roost, neds aren't exclusive to Scotland. That's a Scottish name for what the rest of the UK would call chavs.

Are you asking about country folk where we live, or just folk in general? There are hundreds of social groups in the UK/Ireland and really the definitions between each are blurred. If you're wanting to know about country folk where I live (we call them culchies here) I'd be more than happy to tell you. I happen to be from the country.

And Roost, neds aren't exclusive to Scotland. That's a Scottish name for what the rest of the UK would call chavs.

I'm confused by what you mean here by redneck. I come from the States, so I know what redneck here, and the activities you described definitely lend themselves to the redneck image, but you also tied in two other terms. And so I'm confused.

You mentioned rednecks. You mentioned cowboy/ranch culture. And you mentioned country living. And while all of these can go together, all of them are very much separate. Except for perhaps the rural lifestyle and the ranches, but even that's not a given.

If you mean redneck as defined as a multitude of country songs, then I think you're out of luck for a European equivalent. That sort of thing is US through and through. Because, for one thing, the US has space, which European countries don't have. There are huge parts of the US where you can drive for hours and not reach civilization (not that redneck has anything to do with that). In Europe, all the available land is pretty much snatched up. And, on top of that... well, it's just an American thing.

Cowboy life is also a fairly USAmerican thing. See comment about space.

Now, as for rural life in Europe... villages here in Germany have local festivals called Schuetzenfest.

But, yeah, I don't entirely know what you mean