hixploitation

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noun

A genre of exploitation film that relies on the stereotypical (and often negative) depiction of rural whites of the American South and Appalachia.

Scrabble 25

Meanings

nounhixploitation (uncountable)

alternative hicksploitation

  1. uncountablebroadcastingA genre of exploitation film that relies on the stereotypical (and often negative) depiction of rural whites of the American South and Appalachia.

    The apotheosis of the hixploitation movement was Smokey and the Bandit (1977), the directorial debut of Tennessee-born veteran stuntman Hal Needham, who actually cast Mel Tillis, Foster Brooks, and Ruth Buzzi for unironic effect.

    2006, David Kamp, Lawrence Levi, The Film Snob*s Dictionary: An Essential Lexicon of Filmological Knowledge, Broadway Books, →ISBN, page 48
    2 more examples

    While Black Snake Moan seems to unfold in a realm of synthetic fantasy—a hybrid of hip-hop's Dirty South, a bluesman's back roads, and the Dixie of '70s hixploitation flicks—it's actually set in a corner of Tennessee where a white girl named Rae (Ricci) holds the title of town slut.

    2007 February, Troy Patterson, “Chick Flicked”, in Spin, page 92

    Historians of what Scott Von Doviak dubbed "Hick Flicks" in his 2005 book by that name, point out that a "Southern" genre of film never emerged to compete with the western as such for a national audience, though there was a rise of hixploitation films in the 1970s whose success hinged on and ultimately died with the demise of the drive-in regional theater (French, Von Doviak).

    2011, Tara Powell, “'You Taste of America': Talladega Nights, Deliverance, and Southern Studies”, in Andrew B. Leiter, editor, Southerners on Film: Essays on Hollywood Portrayals Since the 1970s, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 220

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

hixploitation. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hixploitation

MLA

“hixploitation.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hixploitation. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hixploitation,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hixploitation.

Source: hixploitation on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.