I love my state, and for three years out of every four I don't mind being one of the very few blue dots in this very red state. Unfortunately, we are in that one year of the cycle where the state drives me nuts. I have a few Obama t-shirts that I wear, and, aside from the occasional stare, people seem to just ignore it around here. And I tend to do the same for pro-McCain t-shirts. But this I cannot abide.
Texans are notoriously proud of their "small town values", but here in College Station, Texas, (home of Texas A&M University) all of the worst small town Texan stereotypes converge into one offensive city. The are known for their self-righteousness, and their humor would make Ann Coulter chuckle inside (if she is human, still unsure of that). They pride themselves in being the only university in the country to name another university in their fight song (we are playing Kansas and I hear "Good-bye to Texas University. So long to the Orange and White.").
So on one hand, when I first saw these t-shirts for sale at our local college bookstore, I wasn't surprised, but gradually my anger grew. From left to right, my feelings are as follows. Stupid, but relatively innocous. Offensive, and probably sexist. It seems to me they are saying that "voting like a girl" means ignore the issues, don't think about things, and go by appearances. Maybe I am over-reading it. But the last one... oh oh the last one. I want to hit everybody I see wearing the last shirt. In fairness, on the back it says "Gig 'em McCain!" (Gig 'em is our school motto). And also in fairness, "Beat the Hell outta T.U." (we call University of Texas TU because A&M was established first and they refuse to recognize another school as the university of Texas, stupid I know). And it angers me when I see it about UT, but there is a difference between talking about beating the Hell out of a sports team, and then doing it to a person. The only thing I can think is, considering where I am, it could have been so much worse.
As I see man and women wearing this shirt around with pride (I see 5-6 a day, which is 5-6 a day more than I see Obama shirts) it gets my blood pressure rising. What do you guys think? Am I over-reacting?