Fenders are cool in part because of the mass-produced quality (stay with me here, this may yet make sense). A serious Gibson looks like a damn sculpture; they're just such beautiful guitars, how could you get good and drunk and stagger around with one of those things on a tiny stage in a bar, with mike stands, cymbals, etc.? Jesus, I could never do that with a Les Paul -- but a Telecaster is designed to collide with things! It was born to be a blunt instrument! This is rock'n'roll! Allegedly, Leo Fender didn't even know how to play guitar; he was an industrial designer.
I could probably throw my Telecaster down a flight of stairs and it would stay in tune, though I might ding the finish (might, mind you; the finish on that guitar is not fragile). I'm not gonna try it, but it's good to know that if the need arose that thing will be there for me.
Actually, Gibson has made relatively ratty-ass guitars, like Les Paul Juniors (or whatever they're called) and so on.
The great tragedy of life is that by the time we can afford a really, really nice guitar, most of us have degenerated with age into the kind of boring people who'll treat it properly.