She’s never been to Cavender’s or the Boot Barn. She only knows about Tony Lama from that song on Tik Tok. Her boots are from a vintage store in Bushwick. And the most egregious offense: she doesn’t even know that the Battle of the Alamo was a historic resistance against Santa Anna’s army to fight for the state of Texas’ independence.
I know she looks like she knows what she’s doing when she wears those cowboy boots to line dancing in the Underground, but it’s all a farce. Not even that bolo tie and copious amounts of denim can hide who she really is: a coastal elite. She hasn’t experienced the epic highs and lows of being forced to go to the Alamo on a 7th grade field trip. She didn’t have to deal with the boys in her class buying BB guns and Davy Crockett hats at the Alamo gift shop and then terrorizing everyone on the many-hour bus ride home.
She probably thinks James Bowie is the guy who sang “Under Pressure.” If she even knows that the Alamo is in San Antonio, she probably pronounces Bexar County with the x. And if she does know something about the Alamo, hopefully she knows that the battle was over the right to own slaves and remembering the Alamo also means remembering that Texas is unfortunately, and frequently, evil.
As much as my Texan heart hates to see the indiefication of westernware, I would never hate too much on a woman wearing cowboy boots. At least she isn’t a man with a crossbody bag.