Farmer's Daughter

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
I just can't figure out why those city fellows want to stay at my daddy's farm instead of that nice hotel down the road...

Cuz just when I thought it couldn't get no hotter
I caught glimpse of the farmer's daughter

—Rodney Atkins, "Farmer's Daughter"
A farmer's daughter is a match for the eldest son of the best lord in the land, and perhaps a better match than his father would chuse for him, because she will bring good and wholesome blood into the family
—The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the year 1803

A Farmer's Daughter is an innocent-looking girl, typically from rural settings - in the US, Midwestern America, the Deep South, or Sweet Home Alabama; but they're also known to live in rural settings in Britain, France, and Iceland. Farmer's daughters often dress in short sundresses or gingham halter tops and shorts ("Daisy Duke" shorts after The Dukes of Hazzard became popular), and either wear boots or go barefoot. She's sometimes an Unkempt Beauty, but She Cleans Up Nicely. The American variety will often have a very pronounced Dixie accent. Often they are very tomboyish and aggressive. They're typically pretty handy with heavy machinery, having to repair tractors and such from childhood. The character type is often used in Country Mouse settings.

At least in the Ozarks, Farmer's Daughters are usually kept at home under very strict rules and know very little about the "ways of the world" - or at least pretend they don't - and therefore tend to be overly curious about sex. Watch out, though; their dads will have a shotgun and will try to shoot you if you try anything with them. And if you get them in trouble, you're in for a Shotgun Wedding. Often they'll be a ditz; but sometimes they'll be a lot smarter than they look. There are two types: One who is drop-dead gorgeous, the other has an okay body... but her face... (and she is usually the more aggressive type). These farmer's daughters tend to be the downfall of the Traveling Salesman (or, when they're found in Britain, the Peddler – which shows how old this trope is).

The Other Wiki has a page about these young ladies.

Examples of Farmer's Daughter include:

Comic Books

  • In the "Welcome To The Bayou" Punisher story, Frank runs into one of these (on a gas station in the middle of nowhere, but the idea is the same), who is a) dressed in far-too-revealing clothes and b) "crazy as a shithouse rat". She also turns out to be part of a family of inbred cannibal hicks.

Film

Fine Art

Literature

  • In The Wheel of Time, Rand and Mat run across a couple while making their way to Caemlyn. Else Grinwell quite clearly has a crush on Rand, but nothing happens. In an alternate timeline that Rand catches a glimpse of, he marries her and settles down, dooming the world.
  • Spider Robinson's short story "Did You Hear The One About..." (in Callahan's Crosstime Saloon) plays with the trope. A time-traveling con artist poses as an "intergalactic travelling salesman", until his scam is revealed by time cop Josie Bauer. Not only is "bauer" German for "farmer", Josie mentions that her father is a noted science-fiction author, and at the end of the story lets it slip that he's writing a new Riverworld novel. So she is indeed a Farmer's Daughter. Philip Jose Farmer to be precise.
  • Buttercup from The Princess Bride appears to be one at the start of the book (and film) -- she lives on a farm and is apparently able to boss around the Farm Boy who works there with impunity.

Live-Action TV

  • Daisy Duke on The Dukes of Hazzard is probably the Trope Codifier for the American version of the trope... considering the shorts are named after her.
  • All the girls on Hee Haw dressed that way, and acted the part to one extent or another.
  • Elly May in The Beverly Hillbillies.
  • In an episode of Seinfeld, Newman gets stranded by a cornfield at night, and eventually finds a very friendly farmer who will prove him hospitality on one condition: Newman doesn't mess around with his attractive daughter. Later on in the episode, he is seen being chased out of the farm by the farmer.
  • In an episode of Hogan's Heroes, a beautiful Russian ally of the prisoners convinces Klink that's she's a "farmer's daughter" snatched up by a German general at the Eastern Front in a ploy to convince him to seek a transfer there. It works.
  • Richie and Fonzie encountered two such girls in an episode of Happy Days. The farmer caught them with his daughters and said there was no alternative but marriage. The girls were enthusiastic about the prospect, but Richie and Fonzie countered by saying they were already engaged - to Laverne and Shirley. Cue Crossover episode...
  • An early Andy Griffith Show episode revolved around a farmer's daughter who ends up receiving a makeover by Andy's girlfriend at the time, much to the father's chagrin.
  • Saffron from Firefly was like this. Except it was an act.
  • Similarly, Winifred "Fred" Burkle is this crossed with Southern-Fried Genius.

Lilah: "I'm good and pure and science turns me on, and-and one day, if I pray hard enough and eat all my vegetables, I might just have hips."

  • In one episode of 1000 Ways to Die, a farm hand is caught banging the farmer's daughter and suffers a Karmic Death by being accidentally Buried Alive in manure.
  • One "Let's Make a Date" game in Whose Line Is It Anyway? has Ryan Stiles as a "shotgun-wielding farmer tracking down the man that slept with his daughter". Chip Esten as the guesser didn't get it at first, leading to Drew bringing up the Traveling Salesman as well.

Chip: "...He would be the Farmer's Daughter's... Father... ...He would be the farmer!... Do I even get one point for that?
Drew: "Nope."

  • The backstory of Mary Ann Summers from Gilligan's Island says she's a farm girl from Kansas. She sometimes wore her hair in pigtails and wore a gingham dress, and her dialog hints that she lived with her aunt and uncle. Does this sound familiar?
  • Betty Jo Bradley, Bobbie Jo Bradley, and Billie Jo Bradley, "Uncle" Joe's daughters from Petticoat Junction. This being a show from the 1960s, they're good girls, and Betty Jo sometimes drove the local steam train.

Music

  • The country song "Farmer's Daughter" by Rodney Atkins is about a farmer's daughter.
  • According to The Beach Boys in "California Girls," the Mid-west farmer's daughter really makes them feel alright.
  • Chicks Dig It by Chris Cagle:

The police came and called my father
But I met the farmer's daughter

Newspaper Comics

  • Daisy Mae and Stupefyin' Jones from the Li'l Abner comic strips might be the Trope Maker. While there were farmer's daughters long before this, Al Capp created what would become the definitive look people today recognize.
    • Sadie Hawkins would be an example of the Butter Face version.

Oral Tradition

  • The Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar, one of The Icelandic Sagas from the thirteenth century, includes a story of a farmer's daughter and a fugitive warrior without her falling for him, making this an Unbuilt Trope there.

Professional Wrestling

  • Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling had a few: Babe the Farmer's Daughter, Sally the Farmer's Daughter, Amy the Farmer's Daughter (presumably a Suspiciously Similar Substitute situation, as each left the organization). According to The Other Wiki Babe is the current owner of the G.L.O.W. brand.

Recorded and Stand-Up Comedy

Theater

Video Games

Western Animation

  • Family Guy - Chris befriends one who's such a tomboy Chris mistakes her for a boy, ending up with quite a bit of confusion on Chris' part when they kiss.
  • Futurama: Fry, Leela, and Bender are forced to take refuge at a farm on the moon. The farmer lets them stay, so long as they stay away from his robot daughters. Guess what Bender doesn't do...
    • Let the record show that he didn't touch the Crushinator. A lady that fine, you've gotta romance first!
  • The Tex Avery short "Little Rural Riding Hood" has a particularly homely version. There's also another Tex Avery short with Red in the Farmer's Daughter role.
  • The Batman: The Animated Series episode "Critters" had Batman fighting against Farmer Brown and his daughter Emmylou Brown, and thanks to some "Beef Steroids," she doesn't go down easily.
  • Applejack from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is basically a pony version of this.
    • Her Little sister, Applebloom, will most likely become this when she’s older.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Farmer%27s_Daughter?oldid=1933123"