1st Post

Real Cowboys - Minneapolis, MN
It is from the archive/ is by Wing Young Huie
Lake Street USA (1997-2000)

The picture has an older, well dressed man with a cowboy hat on. He looks like he is a bit over weight. The picture is black and white, and it could be an older picture. The billboard in the back says, “What’s your flavor?” and looks like it is a cigarette advertisement. The car on the left side of the picture looks at least 20 years old and possibly older. Also, the style of the signs for the “Super Subs” restaurant looks older, possibly from the ‘70s or ‘80s. The man is standing alone in the middle of a parking lot.

The fact that the man is well dressed could show that he is well off or rich. The fact that the man is standing alone in the middle of a parking lot makes him stand out and seem different from his surroundings. The man has an uninviting facial expression that makes it seem like he has been through a lot in his life and that he is hardened. The old style of the restaurant behind him, the cigarette billboard (which is a lot more uncommon today) and the old style car makes it seem like the picture was taken a while in the past, but those things could have been included in the picture on purpose to give it that feel.

Huie definitely seems to be showing the man the man in the photo as an “other”. One way that this is shown is through the title of the picture, “Real Cowboys.” This makes the man with the cowboy hat in the picture seem like the cowboy that Huie is referring to. Because of the title saying real in it, it makes it seem like the “cowboy” in the picture is one of the few real cowboys left. Even though the picture is set up to look older, the man still looks out of place because of his nice attire and because of his location in the parking lot. This might be a way for Huie to show that this man is or would be even more out of place today, since he doesn't even fit in back then. This seems to be a different form of "othering" compared to Atwood’s way of showing it in The Handmaid’s Tale. Some “others” that are shown in the book could be the unwomen because of how they are shunned in society and even forcefully removed. These are different concepts of “othering” because of the fact that one is a picture and the other is written, causing some major differences. Atwood could not describe every minute detail of a person or situation in the same way as what can be seen by a picture, which can restrict or result a different types of interpretations. Also, the perspective of the reader is limited to Offred’s point of view, which is very limited and full of her own assumptions and interpretations.