Abstract. Reviewg what beme a mon cril rponse to Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mounta (2005) as "not a gay movie," this chapter ntts the prevailg rea
Contents:
- AT MEXI'S GAY WBOY NVENTNS, MEN NNECT WH EACH OTHER — AND THEIR UNTRY'S GGED PAST
- GAY ROOS ARE QUEER SPAC RAL PLAC
- GAY COWBOY
- THE REAL GAY WBOYS
- CONFSNS OF COWBOYS THE TEXAS GAY ROO
- THE FANTASY OF THE STRAIGHT WBOY: HOW GAY ROOS UPEND PRUMPTNS ABOUT LIFE RAL AMERI
- GAY ROO AND THE SUBVERSN OF WTERN CLICHéS
- WHAT’S THE BEEF WH FUNNY GAY COWBOY JOK?
AT MEXI'S GAY WBOY NVENTNS, MEN NNECT WH EACH OTHER — AND THEIR UNTRY'S GGED PAST
As Pedro Almodóvar's gay wboy short film starrg Ethan Hawke & Pedro Pasl, Strange Way of Life, premier, we're lookg at the history of queer wboys pop culture. * gay cowboy culture *
Ask anyone who’s seen Brokeback Mounta (2005) to characterize the film three words, and you’re almost certa to hear some variatn of “gay wboy love-story. Detractors, largely spearhead by right-wg and relig groups, quickly and fervently emed the film’s pictn of a homosexual uple immoral, evince of an attempt to femize men, and even anti-Amerin.
GAY ROOS ARE QUEER SPAC RAL PLAC
Each sprg, hundreds of gay wboys gather Zates for a nventn that celebrat sexual eedom and romanticiz Mexi's ral past. * gay cowboy culture *
” Other crics acced filmmakers of phg an “agenda” onto Amerins, wh one wrg that “Hollywood screenwrers and producers thk that ’s their duty to teach Ameri that homosexual nduct and cross-drsg are normal behavrs that should be affirmed Amerin culture.
In light of this ntentn, I will explore the reali of homosexualy and homosocialy amongst wboys the Old Wt, argug that they were accepted and monplace. In this way, Cooper has embedd an acknowledgement of same-sex love the very heart of Amerin myth, directly ntrastg claims that homosexualy is an unnatural and/or morn ventn.
GAY COWBOY
The Gay Cowboy trope as ed popular culture. The mythos of the Amerin Old Wt, wh s ra of ggedns, danger and adventure, has appealed to many … * gay cowboy culture *
Furthermore, the homosocialy scribed Cooper’s work is not purely imagative, but actually reflective of historil rerds ditg the prence of homoerotic relatnships among wboys the ontier wt, keepg wh Cooper’s assertn that the stori were spired by tal he had been told by actual wboys. This is also nsistent wh fdgs like those Aled Ksey’s notor 1948 study, Sexual Behavr the Human Male, which reported the hight equenci of homosexual timacy to be among men ral farmg muni; probably, Ksey nclud, much like their pneer forebearers the ontier wt.
One such source, a limerick that allus to homosexual timacy between wboys, was found by historian Clifford Wtermeier and published his 1976 say “The Cowboy and Sex.
As Peter Boag explas, “to intify a homoerotic re s myth about the supremacy of whe Amerin masculy is to imply that Amerin dienc want their ontiersman to practice nonnormative sir as part of their rol natn-buildg” (12).
THE REAL GAY WBOYS
It’s a Sunday afternoon and three overlords of the Texas Gay Roo Associatn — which is exactly what sounds like — have ngregated to drk about “A Texas Tradn,” their big annual chary roo this weekend Denton. * gay cowboy culture *
In other words, if there is somethg natnal about the wboy and if there is somethg homoerotic about the partnerships he forms the wilrns, then there is somethg homoerotic about Amerin natnal inty.
This would be somethg seemgly ntradictory to the rercement of homosexualy as Other and anathema to the Amerin/mascule ials the wboy was supposed to reprent. In forcg the dience to regnize a eper nnectn between the two protagonists, one that may reflect feelgs held by many other Amerin men, the dience is pelled to acknowledge the artificial boundary between homosocial and homoerotic that is imposed by homophobia and rerced by the Hollywood Cowboy. As Eric Patterson ncurs, “By lotg love between men wh the inographic system of landspe, clothg, and activi that are fundamental to the Wtern, Brokeback Mounta oblig rears and dienc to beg to regnize how the Amerin natnal fantasy of Wtern adventure and particularly the ialized wboy hero have distorted history and endorsed a homophobic nstctn of masculy” (117).
Based on a 1967 book by closeted gay novelist Thomas Savage, centers on ranch-owng brothers Gee (Jse Plemons) and Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch), who sets on a missn to torment Gee’s wife Rose (Kirsten Dunst) and stepson Peter (Kodi Sm-McPhee). There’s stash of gay physique magaz, longg gaz over a cigarette, nu bodi of whands sprawled across a riverbank, and even a late mentor named Bron Henry who Phil n’t let go of — all symbols of gay yearng.
CONFSNS OF COWBOYS THE TEXAS GAY ROO
A photo exhib asks viewers to ponr whether, reclaimg the ia of the wboy, gay roos renounce vlence or revt ." name="scriptn * gay cowboy culture *
Queer micians have also sported yeehaw looks, om Lil Nas X his famed pk wboy outf for the 2020 Grammys to Omar Apollo for the ver of GAYLETTER.
THE FANTASY OF THE STRAIGHT WBOY: HOW GAY ROOS UPEND PRUMPTNS ABOUT LIFE RAL AMERI
* gay cowboy culture *
And although not out as queer, gay ins Mski and Solange also took to wtern fashn the late 2010s durg their Be the Cowboy and When I Get Home eras, rpectively. From Wterns and micians pictg queer relatnships to illtrated eroti of queer-d outlaws, the overlooked gay figur have existed for s.
GAY ROO AND THE SUBVERSN OF WTERN CLICHéS
(Image cred: Alamy)The actor Sam Elltt's ntroversial recent ments cricised The Power of the Dog's 'allns to homosexualy', but queer readgs of wterns stretch back s, and Zachariah is a prime example, wr Sean the ialistic 1960s gave way to the cynil 1970s, US cema began servg up creasgly nihilistic and psychologilly plex stori, all wh sour endgs to match.
Zachariah ptur the overlap between anti-Vietnam War, rock mic, sexual liberatn, femism, the emergence of gay rights, civil rights, environmentalism – they're all alcg – Gary NeedhamZachariah's screenplay was rewrten many tim. In all s Firign-fuelled youth-culture provotn, Needham tells BBC Culture, the film "ptur the overlap between anti-Vietnam War, rock mic, sexual liberatn, femism, the emergence of gay rights, civil rights, environmentalism – they're all alcg" wtern was a predomant mo through which mascule performance was tght, pecially to young whe Amerin menThe boys' embrace at the end of Zachariah, then, is an earnt rebuttal of the toxic, vlent mascule mor on which the wtern genre was built. Wh Don Johnson gracg s ver, the March 1971 edn of The Advote, the US's olst LGBT publitn, featured a review wh the headle "Are they gay?
WHAT’S THE BEEF WH FUNNY GAY COWBOY JOK?
On the homosexual implitns of the iendship, he wrote, "I'm aaid that's all is – iendship, " addg that the film's script leads to the brk of homosexualy only to back away before be explic. In his book Idol Worship: A Shamels Celebratn of Male Bety the Movi (2003), Michael Fergon refers to Johnson at this stage of his reer as "an stant h wh gay dienc", and "sold as chicken feed and pecked at wh light".
When Zach first approach Matthew, he’s shirtls and sweaty, wearg ltle but a blacksmh's smock, Fergon wrote: "the homoerotic possibili of this exchange [might] turn to the first gay wtern sce Andy Warhol's Lonome Cowboys (1969)". Red River (1948), a film laced wh nuendo which John Wayne and Montgomery Clift, a closeted gay man, admire each other's firearms, was labelled a queer touchstone – alongsi Calamy Jane (1953) and Johnny Guar (1954), which also upend genr rol – Vo Rso's 1981 book The Celluloid Closet: Homosexualy the Movi, and the documentary of the same name (1995). "The wboy has always had a lot of currency gay eroti and eventual pornography, " says Needham, who pots also to gay-liberatn films such as Song of the Loon (1970), and gay porn featur such as The Savag (1971), as exampl.