Texas' Stereotypical Image; do you see it changing? (Houston, Dallas: home, movies)

[brock2010]

Texas has always been portrayed in films/tv and even media as cowboy/ranch central, a southern wasteland or home to backwards uneducated people. My question is with all of the big strides this state has made in business, education and growth, will we ever shake these stereotypes especially the more negative ones?

[wxf848]

Stereotypes aren't really about their subjects, but about culture. Geographical stereotypes give us things like settings. I've seen some old western movies about places in Texas, and I've been to those places and know that they don't look like what's in the movie. A lot of the real places portrayed in Texas cowboy movies could easily be mistaken for Nebraska. We need stereotypes to give us a unique sense of a place, and this need is increasing as the world becomes more universalized.


We need igloos in Alaska so we can tell the difference between Alaska and Texas in a movie. It makes the setting feel more real. We need people from Texas wearing cowboy boots and riding horses so we'll know that it's Texas and not Michigan. Culture needs stereotypes. How do you know that Hank and his gang in "King of the Hill" are drinking beer in an alley in Texas and not Oregon? It's the overportrayed accents, the low level of education, and the ridiculous amount of cowboy and hillbilly culture. How entertaining would "The Beverly Hillbillies" have been if the Clampetts hadn't been portrayed as southerners from a century earlier?

[DtX4415]

Not any time soon, just look at the political environment of the state. If anything the negative stereotypes have gotten worse.

[WVNomad]

Originally Posted by DtX4415

Not any time soon, just look at the political environment of the state. If anything the negative stereotypes have gotten worse.

Agree

[KathrynAragon]

People still ask me sometimes if I rode a horse to school. No lie.

[Arkay66]

The number of people who've asked me about those huge rock formations in the "Texas desert" are legion. Explaining that those movies were filmed in Monument Valley, Utah rarely computes. Sigh.

I got the riding a horse to school question more than once. I was able to truthfully answer "sometimes." Hey, rural schools were flexible on getting the kids there...

No, we never ate steak every day, durn it.

[Foamposite]

Most stereotypes are way outdated so I don't pay attention to them. That being said, there are perhaps some comparatively newer parts of the Texas image like its Houston hip hop culture or Austin hipster culture.

[tcualum]

My parents loved to travel when they were younger and got tired of people assuming the city Dallas was like the TV show.

[tijlover]

Originally Posted by DtX4415

Not any time soon, just look at the political environment of the state. If anything the negative stereotypes have gotten worse.

Without a doubt in my mind, Texas is headed back to being a Blue State once again: Lloyd Bentsen/LBJ/Ann Richards. Just watch and see!

[elnina]

Originally Posted by brock2010

Texas has always been portrayed in films/tv and even media as cowboy/ranch central, a southern wasteland or home to backwards uneducated people. My question is with all of the big strides this state has made in business, education and growth, will we ever shake these stereotypes especially the more negative ones?

Always?
Depends who you ask. Educated and we'll travelled people will have different opinion than people in poor, remote, rural, backward areas.
Some people never crossed their county lane, have no internet and still watch old movies on B/W tv's.
Approximately 32 million adults in the US can't read, according to the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that 50% of U.S. adults can't read a book written at an eighth-grade level.
I wouldn't expect that they know better.