The view from abroad: The Texas Season
My mother-in-law sent me this clipping (a bit out of date now but still a historical curiousity) about a Channel 4 (UK) documentary The Texas Season. The blurb reads, “Channel 4 provides a unique look at the strangest state on earth.” If someone from England steps back aghast when they learn you are from Texas, it could be they watched this show.
Christopher Hitchens “casts his incisive gaze on the Lone Star State to see what Texas stands for, what this says about America today and what it means for the rest of the world.” The show included episodes such as America’s Fattest City. No, not Austin. Houston. The Texas Solution in which Bush halved crime rates by upping incarceration and execution rates. Turning Muslim in Texas: When Christian fundamentalism just isn’t strict enough, Texans find solace in Islam. Texas Teenage Virgins: teenage birth rates and STDs soar in our state where it’s illegal to teach about birth control in our public schools and kids believe you can have oral or anal sex and still be a virgin–well enough to pass God’s law on a technicality.
Good grief! I’ve always wanted to go to England – hope they’ll still let Texans in by the time I get the chance. There seem to be quite a few people from England living in Austin, and the ones I’ve met are happy to be here.
Annie
Those were all pretty good documentaries although the narrator occasionally let his ignorance of the subject matter show through. They were more like travelogues than actual documentaries. They played them all on the Trio network back when that still existed.
As a Brit living in Texas, I get all sorts of weird reactions from people back home, especially if I haven’t spoken to them in a while. I started wearing cowboy boots and saying y’all so they’d know I wasn’t going to indulge them in their shit.
Jess, my husband, also a Brit, has cowboys boots and at one time owned a pick-up. He doesn’t have the hat yet. When his sister came from Manchester to visit, we took her to a shooting range to indulge in some gun porn–a real Texas experience.