Sunday, January 04, 2004
A couple of good programs on telly tonight, Channel 4 is starting a series on Texas. They started with State of Texas in which Chris Hitchens (oh joy...) tries to 'discover the spirit of Texas' but how far can you get in an hour? Despite that, it does make some interesting points. I think over here there are two different things that a word like 'cowboy' means, one conjures up the heroic frontier spirit of the films, the other is the dumb stereotype that is used to describe people like Dubya. This program does help to suggest that there are positive aspects to being a cowboy which is possibly what Dubya supporters are tapping into. The 'Farm Rescue' team at the end are scary, especially the woman who points out that her gun has armour piercing bullets because penniless Mexicans trying to get into the USA looking for a better life obviously wear bullet-proof body armour.
The other show was America's Fattest City about Houston and it's inhabitants views about being overweight. Most of them, like the cook-out chefs, are more about enjoying their food than worrying about their weight, there's the guy who looks for restaurants that offer free food, normally in connection with their biggest dishes, and has been banned from two all-you-can-eat restaurants. There's the forty-four stone woman who did try surgery to help her diet and it failed, causing medical complications that led to the state she's in now. But there's one woman on the show, who's about twenty-two stone and over the course of the show is preparing to go into hospital to have her stomach stapled to help her drop down a few dress sizes. However, as she's waiting we see her at home with her son, who's too heavy to join his school's American football team, and what do they do? They order big pizzas, one each, and large size soft drinks, then spend the night in front of the TV. This woman seems to think there's an external answer to her body dissatisfaction, not that maybe she should look at her diet and lifestyle. Although the guy going to restaurants probably isn't that healthy either, at least he does seem to lead an active lifestyle.
The other show was America's Fattest City about Houston and it's inhabitants views about being overweight. Most of them, like the cook-out chefs, are more about enjoying their food than worrying about their weight, there's the guy who looks for restaurants that offer free food, normally in connection with their biggest dishes, and has been banned from two all-you-can-eat restaurants. There's the forty-four stone woman who did try surgery to help her diet and it failed, causing medical complications that led to the state she's in now. But there's one woman on the show, who's about twenty-two stone and over the course of the show is preparing to go into hospital to have her stomach stapled to help her drop down a few dress sizes. However, as she's waiting we see her at home with her son, who's too heavy to join his school's American football team, and what do they do? They order big pizzas, one each, and large size soft drinks, then spend the night in front of the TV. This woman seems to think there's an external answer to her body dissatisfaction, not that maybe she should look at her diet and lifestyle. Although the guy going to restaurants probably isn't that healthy either, at least he does seem to lead an active lifestyle.
