Who would win in a fight between the average American cowboy and the average American greaser? A time machine can be used for this, a la Bill & Ted. Basically, you have your generic, garden variety cowboy and greaser pitted against each other - no real rules unless the stereotype’s person code is considered.
Cowboys - I have known a bunch of real ones. They are very good at fighting even as a hobby and they all have crazy high pain tolerances. Normal people don’t screw around with powerful animals for fun. Try staying on the back of a rodeo bull or bronco for 8 seconds even once.
Yeah, my vote is with the bull riders, too.
I would say cowboy but not because they were any tougher. I think a working cowboy would have access to more and better food, a cleaner place to work, and limited opportunity to engage in vices.
Who ever is most likely to have a gun.
Greasers always care switch-blades. And combs.
Can someone define greaser? I’m thinking Ponyboy, Sodapop or Two-Bit don’t stand a chance against a genuine cowboy.
West Side Story, or The Fonz.
I looked for the definition of a greaser at Google and the first I found was:
“an engine mechanic or an unskilled member of a ship’s engine-room crew.”
A later definition was"
“a contemptuous term used to refer to a Latin American, especially a Mexican. Slang . a swaggering young tough, especially a member of a street gang.”
Definately some regionalism there with defining greaser.
Ponyboy et al was second on the list of possibles when I read the op. I definitely cringed, thinking country boy vs city boy would have been a better way to title the thread, maybe.
In answer to the OP, it depends. Cowboy might be physically tougher, or in better shape, but a gang member, for whom life or death fights are a normal part of life, brings a different attitude to the fight than Bronco Billy would, I think, and that might just give him the edge needed to win.
Who would you want to have your back?
John Wayne or John Travolta?
The Earps & Doc Holiday or the Sharks?
Shane or Fonzie?
Jesse James or James Dean?
Johnny Cash or Elvis?
The Highwaymen or Sha Na Na?
Gabby Hayes or Horshack?
Smile when you say that, greaseball.
Indiana Jones or his son, Mutt?
Okay, that one’s easy.
Depends - OK Corral or Broadway?
Soda and The Fonz are Hollywood greasers, not the real thing. I have a friend who grew up here in the 1950’s and 60’s. The guys she describes as greasers used to go at it with chains, she says, so presumably they’re not kidding around.
My understanding of the “Greasers” as best I can understand them, is they were sort of a sociocultural “grouping” like later era “goths” or etc. While some greasers went on to be in violent motorcycle gangs, I think a lot were just teens and young men who liked the look/attitude/style. Sort of like how a lot of say, hippies of the 60s like the dress, casual sex, and etc but not all became commune-dwellers and not all were really big into political activism etc. Hippie encompassed a lot of behaviors within a sociocultural group defined by outward stylings etc.
So greasers would then vary wildly in their capacities for violence.
Cowboys also would have a lot of variation, but damn near all cowboys will be “fighting fit”, because it’s just a grueling manual labor job. Probably a greater proportion of cow boys will also be men aged 25+ with actual experience shooting guns, which if weapons are allowed would be a major factor. A lot of the greasers “grew out of it”, unless we take cowboy to mean anyone who wears a cowboy hat and boots, cowboy is an occupation title so cowboys tend to be a more cohesive group we can extrapolate more about.
Would the Hell’s Angels meet your definition of greaser?
I vote for the Baseball Furies, because of…well the bats.
I wouldn’t think so.
Where I live, “greaser” is a pretty insulting ethnic slur directed at Latinos (presumably because of the Hispanic penchant for greasy food), on the order of “wop,” “slope,” and the n-word. I guess that’s not the case everywhere, eh?
Aside: I grew up (til junior year of high school) on the east coast and my mother was from Pennsylvania. The word “wop” was as bad as the n-word and NOT to be used–ever. Here in south Texas, there’s not the large Italian population that one finds elsewhere, so that isn’t a common word/slur. I’ve been going to an Italian sandwich shop here for years, and they have a salad called the “Wop Salad.” :eek: The owners are Italian, and I guess they see it as a joke. To this day, I cannot order the salad out loud, any more than I could go into a Soul Food restaurant and order the “N----r Special.” (Which I doubt you would ever find on any menu.) I like the salad, but I have to point to it on the menu. If I said it out loud, I think my mother’s hand would reach down from heaven and slap my mouth.
The word “greaser” fits in that category for me, too.
Carry on.
That’s funny, because I was reading the thread intending to post mentioning my NW Chicago youth where the Gaylords would rumble with the Latin Kings. 
The local branch of the Gaylords used the name of my grade school. Had many as good friends, and my sisters’ BFs. I’d put my money on the cowboy in a 1 on 1 fight - just because I presume doing ranch work makes you tougher that working on cars, smoking cigs, and combing your greased hair. As a rule, the greasers were tough because you rarely had an issue with 1 of them alone…
The greasers were tough in their ability to take punishment. For example, their initiation involved having the rest of the gang beat the shit out of the initiate. And it was not uncommon for guys to show up at school the worse for wear. But, I’m sure messing w/ livestock and other ranchy tasks toughens you up plenty.