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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles The Cowboy and His Shadow: Queering Masculinity in the Reagan-Bush Era A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Culture and Performance by Peter Joseph Carpenter 2013 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Cowboy and His Shadow: Queering Masculinity in the Reagan-Bush Era by Peter Joseph Carpenter Doctor of Philosophy in Culture and Performance University of California, Los Angeles, 2013 Professor David Gere, Chair Ronald Reagan’s appropriation of cowboyness as a defining factor in his successful bid for the presidency in 1980 intersected with complementary trends in popular media. In the wake of mainstream enthusiasm for the frontier, gays and lesbians formed their own country-western dance spaces. This cowboy renaissance has been discussed as a reclaiming of American conservatism that helped heal wounds inflicted upon the U.S. imaginary in the wake of failures in Vietnam; through this lens, gay dancing cowboys can be seen as acquiescing to assimilationist impulses. However, this study argues that queers find numerous recuperative possibilities in Western-themed choreographies, frequently subverting heteronormative nationalism by taking on a cowboy swagger. Through ethnographic fieldwork at a gay country-western bar in Los Angeles and analyzing dances on the concert stage, the author theorizes cowboyness as an articulation of masculinity, Americanness, and queerness. The introduction posits President Ronald Reagan’s performance of cowboyness as foundational to connections between normative ii masculinities, the legacy of Manifest Destiny, and the homophobic rhetoric and polices that marked Reagan’s presidency. The first chapter looks at the political potency of female cowboyness in the two-step at Oil Can Harry’s—a country-western bar in Los Angeles—and in a dance by Marianne Kim and Lee Anne Schmitt called Making a Disaster: The Many Deaths of John Wayne, Part II (2005). Chapter two analyzes Cowboys, Dreams and Ladders (1984) arguing that choreographers Fred Holland and Ishmael Houston-Jones usurp the assumed whiteness and heterosexuality of the Hollywood cowboy, creating a utopia of queer possibility. The third chapter looks at The Shadow as a choreographic incursion upon the two-step that speaks to sex practices of gay men in an atmosphere of neoliberal permissiveness sans equity for queers. Chapter four looks at the line dance “Walk the Line” alongside Joe Goode’s The Maverick Strain (1996) to show the potency with which camp can disrupt heteronormative claims to nation. The concluding chapter compares the film Brokeback Mountain (2005) with Adam and Steve (2005), showing how the latter used the cowboy as a symbol of queer possibility in ways that the critically lauded Brokeback Mountain failed to imagine. iii The dissertation of Peter Joseph Carpenter is approved. Blake Allmendinger Susan Foster David Roussève David Gere, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2013 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................. vi Biographical Sketch ......................................................................................................................... viii Introduction: Cowboy Shadows/Queer Moves .......................................................................... 1 Chapter One: The Two-Step Glides and Making A Disaster ................................................. 44 Chapter Two: Cowboy Risks and Queer Utopia ...................................................................... 87 Chapter Three: The Shadow’s Imperfect Choreography ................................................... 127 Chapter Four: Mapping Cowboyness ........................................................................................ 168 Conclusion: Jack and Ennis/Adam and Steve ........................................................................ 214 Notes ..................................................................................................................................................... 252 Notes to the Introduction ................................................................................................. 252 Notes to Chapter One ......................................................................................................... 257 Notes to Chapter Two ........................................................................................................ 261 Notes to Chapter Three ..................................................................................................... 266 Notes to Chapter Four ........................................................................................................ 272 Notes to the Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 277 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I had the honor of working with an exceptional committee for this project, and each member has made valuable contributions to my work here. Blake Allmendinger gracefully guided me in broadening my exposure to contemporary approaches to the literature of the American West and concepts of the frontier in preparation for my qualifying exams. Susan Foster provided extensive feedback on early drafts of material that now lives in chapter one and chapter three; she also helped me in the development of my archive by suggesting that I watch Fred Holland and Ishmael Houston-Jones’ Cowboys, Dreams and Ladders, which is the primary focus of my second chapter. I received the additional benefit of serving as Foster’s teaching assistant for a full year of my doctoral course work, and her influence marks my current pedagogical practices as well as my scholarship. Since 2001 David Roussève has been a supportive choreographic mentor and contributed impeccable feedback on the choreographic explorations that comprise foundational aspects of this research. David Gere, who served as my advisor, has been a mentor and guide par excellence. From his gracious mentorship when I worked as his research assistant, to his encouragement during the latent stages of my writing process when my work slowed to a crawl, to his insightful and timely suggestions for revision at the end of my process, I have felt exceptionally grateful for his presence. Other faculty that significantly influenced my work during my time at UCLA include: Victoria Marks, Dan Froot, Cheng-Chieh Yu, and Peter Sellars. I was also fortunate to work with Marta Savigliano during my time at UCLA, and I credit her with providing foundational guidance on early ethnographic essays. The important presence of my graduate classmates at vi UCLA are too many to name here, but astute feedback from Harmony Bench, Carolina San Juan, Cindy Garcia, Claudia Brazzale, Kristen Smiarowski, Sri Susilowati, Marianne Kim, Esther Baker-Tarpaga, Sandra Chatterjee, and Kevin Kane have especially shaped the pages that follow. In 2005 I received financial support from the UCLA Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Program. This allowed me to travel to New York from Los Angeles to conduct research at the New York Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center where I became acquainted with the sizable collection on Ishmael Houston-Jones and Fred Holland. Also in 2005 I took a tenure-track faculty position at Columbia College Chicago. There I entered a rich environment of collegial support from colleagues Bonnie Brooks, Richard Woodbury, Darrell Jones, Lisa Gonzales, Raquel Monroe, Dardi McGinley-Gallivan, Margi Cole, Taisha Paggett, Pam McNeil, Onye Ozuzu, and Carmello Esterrich. Further, Columbia College sponsored my attendance at numerous conference presentations from 2006-12 where I was able to gain precious feedback on this research. Finally I am grateful to friends and family who helped nurture me through this long process. Both of my parents found numerous ways to support me during my graduate work and my sister, Amy, functioned as an especially accomplished sounding board to many of my ideas here. Though a list of friends risks leaving out important allies, I must mention Lynn Johnson, Allison Kenny, Suzy Grant, Jyl Fehrenkamp, Jonathan Keiser, Matthew Dontje, Edward Alvarez, Donnell Williams, Atalee Judy, Lowell Jaffee, and the many women and men with whom I danced at Oil Can Harry’s. Thank you. vii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Peter Carpenter is a choreographer whose dance and physical theater performances have often intersected with critical theory, queer politics, and activism. He received his undergraduate degree from the Theatre Department of Northwestern University in 1992. While there he studied with Lynn Blom (choreography), Dwight Conquergood (non-fiction performance), Timothy O’Slynne (modern dance technique), Paul Edwards (performance of literature), and Frank Galati (performance aesthetics). Upon graduation he worked in the storefront theater and independent dance scenes in Chicago, maintaining company affiliations with XSIGHT! Performance Group and Street Signs Theatre Company. His work as a choreographer for theatre earned him a Joseph Jefferson Citation in 1992 and his collaborative with work with XSIGHT! Performance Group was awarded a Ruth Page Award in 1997. Carpenter earned his M.F.A. in dance from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures in 2003. While there he studied choreography with Victoria Marks, David Roussève, Dan Froot, Cheng-Chieh Yu, and Angelia Leung; he also took courses in