I have a Texas accent

   I'll admit it.  I drawl a little bit, though not much.  I speak quickly for a Texan, but that's a personality thing that doesn't necessarily come across in other parts of the country.  Southern accents are handled strangely by the mass media; they are either charming or a sign of ignorance depending on the circumstances.  They are almost never a matter-of-fact issue. 
   Mark at Language Log deals charitably with what seems like really prejudiced assessments of certain accents by a Christie Vilsack, who is speaking at the Democratic Convention tonight.  She kind of implies that Southerners all sound drunk:

"When I ask for directions, I can't understand the slurred speech of southern Americans, who are so polite and eager to please," Vilsack said.
 
   Gracious be!  Okay, kidding.  Texans actually don't have the stereotypical heavy drawl of Southerners, ours is more lilting and we enunciate pretty clearly.  Still, the stereotype of the ignorant Texan has so much power that people I know who have pretty solid accents themselves cringe when the Shrub demonstrates how much he can sound like a good ol' boy from Midland.  "He makes us sound so ignorant!" people will say.  I mostly just scoff--his accent is way too thick, he's playing it up for votes.
   But the accent I defend.  There is nothing wrong with having a Texas accent--we rule, what's the problem?  Anyone who considers our accents to be a sign of ignorance is ignorant himself.
   Texas accents are one of the fetishized ones, either being adored or castigated.  Whenever I leave the state, my accent draws attention that is generally positive.  And often highly sexualized.  Apparently, some men have a "thing" for a woman who says "y'all" and "fixin' ta".  Sometimes I do wonder if men realize that they are just as likely to meet the brassy Texas broad as they are the humble, Laura Bush-type, but then I feel mean.  Of course they like the brassy Texas broad--who doesn't?  Texas men don't do so well.  They are stereotyped as rednecks, and the Shrub's endless photo-opping only reinforces this stereotype.  I can assure you that Texas men are no more or no less dumb or mean than men anywhere else.  That is to say, you get your assholes and your nice ones. 
   We're fine the way we are--pick on our laws, our politics, whatever, but leave the accent alone.  And I feel the same about New Jersey and all the other places and people that are stereotyped because of their dialect.  If we all sounded the same, it would be perfectly boring.  People fret all the time that TV is somehow ruining our localistic cultures.  One of the best ways to support local cultures is to celebrate, not denigrate the diverse accents.