Acceptance of gay people in nineteenth century america

How was sexuality actually viewed in the Old West? And why does challenging this mythologized image of the cowboy spur such a vitriolic response? In this essay, I will examine these questions first by defining the mythologized image of the American C owboy. I will then use contextual evidence to explain the significance of the cowboy myth in contemporary American society.

Next, I will trace the origins of the cowboy myth down to its literary roots. Supported by secondary sources, I will argue that this myth is rooted in homoerotic relationships, a reflection of historical fact.

Send feedback

In light of this contention, I will explore the realities of homosexuality and homosociality amongst cowboys in the Old West, arguing that they were accepted and commonplace. Finally, I will return to the negative reception to Brokeback Mountainwhere I will argue that the reason why the image of two cowboys in a romantic relationship was so hard for some Americans to understand was because it challenges conceptions of American masculinity tied to the cowboy myth that position themselves in direct opposition to queer identity.

Ultimately, I will conclude that Americans need a better myth, and that Brokeback Mountain is a promising alternative. In order to understand the nuanced sexuality of the historical cowboyit is important to first dissect the mythologized version. Myths are particularly effective ways for learning and understanding history, and in American culture, few myths are as recognizable as the c owboy.

In this way, myths serve to define a culture, and more importantly, how proponents of that culture want to be defined. But who is this mythologized cowboy, the figure that critics like those mentioned earlier are so eager to preserve? Icons in their own right, they represent the mythologized image of the American cowboy as a symbol of ideal masculinity who embodies the most precious values of the country.

With the performances of these men, Hollywood has functioned as the creator and keeper of the modern cowboy myth. In this way, the Hollywood Cowboy, a term I will use interchangeably with mythologized American Cowboy, has come to be inherently associated with conceptions of masculinity for American men.

Hollywood, however, is not where the myth of the American Cowboy was first developed. Cooper pioneered the acceptance of gay people in nineteenth century america of distinctively American scenes and images as central motifs in his fiction, contrasting the European fare that had defined popular American literature until that point.

His influence on American literary and popular culture is difficult to overstate. First with The Pioneers inand later with The Leatherstocking TalesCooper established the frontiersman as a folk hero and the literary forefather of the Hollywood Cowboy.

Cooper was, according to D. Lawrence, writing myth, an original American myth. He created the first frontiersman in order to say something about white masculinity in nineteenth -century America. Enmeshed in these stories, parallel to the sagas of exploration, adventure, and American e xcellence, are deep explorations of male-male relationships.

Over the course of the five novels that make up the overall saga, the two men consistently reject women in favor of maintaining a relationship with each other and come to share their wealth, their beds, and their bodies, even adopt ing children together.

Theirs is, in no uncertain terms, a marriage, but one that is also radically different from heterosexual relationships of the time. Their bond does not presuppose gender-based dichotomies. In this way, their relationship can be seen as one inherently threatening to the modern conceptions of heterosexuality and masculinity that are defined by strict gender roles.

Their bonds are in part erotic, but without the constraints of sexual categories that limit thinking about sexuality today. These men depended on one other to survive the hostile environment of the frontier. These partners did everything together, from eating to sleeping, and developed strong relationships.

In turn, many sought out sexual intimacy from their few companions on the range Garceau