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Sensible cowboy hates being stereotyped

cowboy_thumb.jpgAppalled by the latent prejudice he encounters everyday, ranch-hand Jimmy “Montana” Pitt has launched a one man crusade against those who vilify cowboys. “The word ‘cowboy’ has come to be associated with slip-shod, hot-headed work. But most of us are hard working folk, and today ranching is a very valuable part of the economy,” said Pitt, pausing to spit tebaccy in front of assembled reporters. “If it weren’t for us, this country would be in ten-feet high o’ horseshit (‘scuse me ladies). Why, it done been estimated that rustlin’ alone costs the US Government a $10 million a year. Contarnit.”

Appalled by the latent prejudice he encounters everyday, ranch-hand Jimmy “Montana” Pitt has launched a one man crusade against those who vilify cowboys. “The word ‘cowboy’ has come to be associated with slip-shod, hot-headed
work. But most of us are hard working folk, and today ranching is a
very valuable part of the economy,” said Pitt, pausing to spit tebaccy
in front of assembled reporters.

cowboy_main.jpg

Pitt on the look out for lurking stereotypes or injuns

“If it weren’t for us, this country would be in ten-feet high o’ horseshit (‘scuse me ladies). Why, it done been estimated that rustlin’ alone costs the US Government a $10 million a year. Contarnit.”

Pitt says that cowboys still face humiliation on a daily basis. “Any time a cowboy walks in a bar, the place goes quite, and they bring out their bottle of rot-gut whiskey,” said Pitt. “Well as it happens I don’t like rotgut whiskey, sir. Just the other day I had a man walking a steer cross the road to avoid me. He thought I was going to lasso it, ride it or wrassle it to the ground. Either that or he was yeller.”

The media, it seems, is squarely to blame. Studies have shown that cowboy characters on television are seven times more likely to be shown playing a harmonica than non-cowboy characters, and they are eighteen times more likely to be depicted eating beans by a fire.

“I ain’t surprised folks believe all cowboys are hot-headed drunken layabouts whose work consists chewing straw and shouting ‘yee-haw!’,” said Pitt, one foot resting on a bail of hay. “The media is still portraying us that way.” Pitt says he hopes a nominated actor will send a posse of cowboys to collect their Academy Award as a protest at the negative images of cowboys, which he attributes to Hollywood and “city folks.”

But critics of the organization say that the media only reflects the reality of cowboy culture. Rates of assault with a chair, for example, are still many times higher among cowboys than among the rest of the population, second only to renegade cops. Pitt has responded to the criticism by challenging his detractors to a public debate, to be held in Main Street at high noon.

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