George W. Bush Cardboard Cut-Out

Freshman year in high school I went to my family reunion for the first time. My father never told me that I had family in the south until high school. When we went to the family reunion, just outside of Paris, Texas, I have never been so shocked.

I went and met my grandparents, and the first thing I saw was this large cardboard cut out of George W. Bush, standing in the dining room.

Regardless of how odd it was it made me think about the culture in Minneapolis (where I was born and raised) versus the culture in a small town in Texas. There are about a million examples I could give to try to start and explain the differences, but this cardboard image does a good job.

The first thing that went through my head when I saw this cutout, was what type of position is this having me take? Either a person absolutely loves it and also believes in George W. Bush, or is completely taken aback. Right next to this cardboard cut out was my little cousins toy four-wheeler. These objects started to look like definitions for the way their culture was.

From seeing this cutout and objects I started to think about if they fall into the category of republicans, and what that all necessarily entails. Just from this cardboard image I was able to interpret their political and religious values, as well as their family and work values. There are so many meanings and theories that are in each object or sign for a culture that can be analyzed. From knowing about George W. Bush and his political standpoint I was able to decipher a lot.

Something that was fascinating to me was the difference in cultural styles and fashion sense between men and women compared from Minneapolis to Texas. Docile bodies, mentioned by Bordo, is someone’s body that is forever changing and being updates due to fashion or other external energies that are seen as improvements. In Minneapolis, I see a lot of self-modification and evidence of docile bodies influencing the culture of women: tattoos, piercings, hair and makeup, fashion sense, and so on. In Texas, men seem to be more subject to docile bodies. These men, my family included, are consistently spending a lot of money on new cowboy boots, cowboy hats, trucks, tractors, and other things to modify the way they look. It is very important to these men to be seen as the best caretaker, worker, making the most money, and so on. In Minneapolis, women are constantly changing their appearance for different reasons, but each situation is evidence of docile bodies. Each culture is unique and has different objects and subjects.