I took a trip to Colorado this summer and it was the first time in my life I ever really left the south. It just blew my fucking mind. I love where I’m from, but there’s just so much fucked up shit that I just thought was how it was. I’m a white cishet, so I’m not vulnerable to the worst of the south, but it absolutely blew my mind seeing somewhere that you didn’t just have a background level of distressing shit in view at all times. The most striking thing was how there weren’t any ruins around. You get used to seeing overgrown, dilapidated buildings dotting the side of the road pretty much everywhere you go. It was wild to me how rare that was, comparatively, once you get to the other side of Texas. There’s a million other things, but honestly I didn’t spend enough time there to really know if all of them are the norm or if I’m just making shit up. As shitty as I feel saying it, it would also be nice to try dating somewhere there weren’t quite so many ““country”” girls.

My only regret would be leaving behind all my friends and family. That’s just such an insane leap to me, and I have no faith that I’d be able to find new friends elsewhere now that I’m out of college. I know I’m experiencing a massively cliche impulse and all that, and that there’s lots of problems that will follow you wherever you move, but how do I know if I’m insane or not? Does anybody have advice for trying to find a job somewhere you don’t live? I’m sick of all these damn pine trees.

  • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    37·
    7 months ago

    As shitty as I feel saying it, it would also be nice to try dating somewhere there weren’t quite so many ““country”” girls.

    As a non American, in very curious to know what this means.

    • SerLava [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      58·
      7 months ago

      The stereotype he’s referring to is someone who is enthusiastically unsophisticated, politically conservative, and staunchly religious, who has the radio tuned to a guy serenading his Ford F-350 Super Duty.

      And if you want to lose to a woman in a toxic masculinity contest, she’s your best bet. This lady will have you pulling the straw and lid off your soda cup in the car and drinking from the rim. If you know how do the wrong household chore she might call up her sister, mom, half sister, aunt and best friend, sobbing-

      Don’t get me wrong you can be country and a radical communist, but that image is what he’s talking about.

    • SkeletorJesus [he/him]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      41·
      7 months ago

      Consciously country girls fall into one of two categories: Abby Shapiro and “One of the boys.” The Abby Shapiro types are similar to “trads” in that they’re generally religious conservatives who spend lots of time on domestic tasks and are very comfortable in the 1950s female gender role. The second type fit into the country guy stereotypes, but the difference is that they have a bright pink Jeep instead of a pickup truck. Both expect a very classically masculine southern man: you have to hunt, go mudding in a pickup truck, be conservative, stoic/angry all the time, and a laundry list of stuff that I’m not interested in. They’re not all bad people or anything, but they’re 100% people that I do not feel comfortable around.

    • Florn [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      30·
      7 months ago

      It’s like the aesthetic of rural conservatism. I’m from a place where it’s pretty stricly an aesthetic so idk how different it gets in the South itself.