Contents:
- THE REAL GAY WBOYS
- GAY COWBOYS? SURE, PARDNER.
- GAY ROOS ARE QUEER SPAC RAL PLAC
- LE GILFORD’S TENR PHOTOGRAPHS OF GAY ROOS
THE REAL GAY WBOYS
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.
” 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 COWBOYS? SURE, PARDNER.
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.
GAY ROOS ARE QUEER SPAC RAL PLAC
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). 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.
LE GILFORD’S TENR PHOTOGRAPHS OF GAY ROOS
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.