What I Learned From the Dukes of Hazzard

The past week my Facebook feed is being blown up once again, this time by the Confederate Flag opposition and support. Now, in this household, we are lovers of the Confederate flag. Because we’re racist? No, that’s nonsense. Because, to me, that flag symbolizes all things country. I’m not going to go into that debate here, but all I will say is flying a flag doesn’t make you racist any more than wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day makes you a supporter of the IRA Pub Bombings. It’s simply an unfair generalization that was fueled by another media firestorm.

This girl right here proudly carried a Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox to school.  And guess who had all of the Dukes of Hazzard action figures?  Of course, Bo and Luke married my Barbies while Daisy stood in as maid-of-honor.  And yes, they spun out and drove away in my Barbie car.  How many of you just thought “Ohhhh, that explains a lot about her”?  

And with that, I give you the top 5 things I’ve learned from watching The Dukes of Hazzard.

Family comes first, always!

The single-strongest theme of the show was the strength found in the bonds of family. The Duke family was clearly fractured, as they were all cousins who lived with their Uncle Jesse. (Gy Waldron, the creator of the show, states on the DVDs that their parents were killed in a car wreck, but it was never mentioned in the show). Throughout the show there was a familiar thread woven.  No matter if you were raised in a “nuclear family” or not, or whether you’re even blood-related, those you call family are the people you should protect and keep closest.

These shows that we watched growing up helped form our morals and values.  They worked alongside our parents to teach us life-lessons.  One of the biggest lessons for me was your friends are your family, and family is to be held closest your heart.

A lady is to be respected and treated right.

Even if she wears shorts that are waaaaaay too short. I mean, come on, we can’t really say that Daisy was extra on modesty. But her cousins, her family and the men in her life would have never allowed her to be disrespected or treated badly in any way. As a girl who grew up watching that, it gave me high expectations of the men around me.

You know we’ve all heard at least once in our life “she was asking for it, just look at how she dresses”.  For decades women have fought against this belief.  And while I am a firm believer in modesty, I am also a firm believer in no means no.  No woman deserves to be disrespected, or worse, simply because of the clothing she wears.  

I can’t tell you that while I was growing up my shorts were always long enough, my shirts were always high enough and my jeans were always loose enough. But that certainly, in no way, meant I was asking for anything.