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If you think Texas isn't responsible for projecting its culture onto the whole country via GWB and endless "whole nother country" ads with cowboys in them, you're delusional.
Texas as a state most definitely has done its share of "whoring" itself out to the world, but that's mostly been the work of the backwards good ol' boys and bubbas. That's still no excuse for the media stereotyping and marginalizing the state the way they do. Unless you're suggesting that it's perfectly fine for someone to make sweeping generalizations about a place of more than 20 million based off of the actions of a few characters that have "represented" us in the past.
They highlight people like George Dubya and Rick Perry, and say "This is Texas", because that's the entertaining, stereotype-laced Texas that the world likes to see. Beyonce is another powerful figure who's from here, but you won't see many people associating her with the state, because she's not a "believable" Texan.
Would you be fine with everyone in the world assuming that all Louisianans looked and acted like Lil' Wayne?
Yep, Beyonce is from Texas, but her beauty doesn't fit the mold of what everyone's media-created fantasy of Texas is. They rather have Jessica Simpson be that representative. Or GWB(Who isn't that evil of a guy to begin with). Many different Texans of different backgrounds.
But now looking through this thread its obvious that we have a why range of opinions here. For example, I get the impression from your post, that you see the Southeast as a cultural thing. While I see the entire South as a cultural thing and the Southeast (and South Central) as more a geographical thing.
Same here. While it can be debated if Louisiana is part of the Southeast (I think it's a little iffy, but won't debate someone if he/she asserts as much), there's no denying that it, along with east Texas, is part of the deep South which has more cultural overtones.
If you think Texas isn't responsible for projecting its culture onto the whole country via GWB and endless "whole nother country" ads with cowboys in them, you're delusional.
You have a certain good point there, I admit. BUT...the real delusional image of Texas being a "western and cowboy" state originally stemmed from the Hollywood "western movies" (which I love as much as anyone, but were actually filmed in Arizona and southern California).
As much as anything, that cinema really started this whole false imagry of Texas being a "western" rather than what it is and always has been. That is, essentially Southern. The real delusion is any notion that Texas history and culture is not a product of the American South. Texas is Southern, all in all. Its commonality -- historically or culturally -- with a Colorado or Arizona in the sense of being "West" are little to nothing. Texas is a "western" state in the same way Kansas is a "western" state. Meaning, only it is not "eastern". A comparison I can think of that fits well is Texas is a western state with Wyoming in the same general way Alabama is an eastern state with Ohio.
Just on a related tangent, and while I realize personal experience doesn't count for empirical fact...my fiance, who is a native Colorado gal, said she noticed the difference immediately when moving to Texas how it was obviously a Southern state. The accents, the mannerisms, the whole culture was completely different than where she came from. To repeat it all, Texas is absolutely not a western state if by that definition it involves a culture and history in kinship with the West of the Mountains and interior SW. It has never been true and the whole notion that it is stems from Hollywood myth, not reality. Texas is Southern not Western.
Of course the cattle and cowboy icon is very real, but at the same time, how many know that the prototype of the original Texas cowboy was not the Mexican vaquero...but the Old South cattle drover type? Which only makes sense as the real cowboys of frontier Texas WERE mostly southeasterners who came west to get a new start?
Same here. While it can be debated if Louisiana is part of the Southeast (I think it's a little iffy, but won't debate someone if he/she asserts as much), there's no denying that it, along with east Texas, is part of the deep South which has more cultural overtones.
You hit the nail on the head. "Deep South" is not interchangeable with "Southeast". The former is a reference to culture, while the latter term should be purely about geography.
"The East" is historically and currently regarded as that part of the country that is east of the Mississippi.
To me, Alabama is definitely Southeastern because it's east of the Mississippi. You can't really use time zones as a factor; some Midwestern states are in the CST zone and some are EST. I've not seen any definition of Southeastern that doesn't include Alabama. It's pretty much a given.
Alabama as a whole is the state that is the farthest east and still is completely within the central time zone. Really, in my opinion, Alabama should be in the eastern time zone, like much of Indiana and Michigan, which is on a comparable longitudinal line.
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