Sam Shepard's Kicking a Dead Horse, Neil Labute's Reasons to Be Pretty, and Sarah Ruhl's Late: a Cowboy Song Scott C

Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2010 Locating American Masculinity with(out)in the Male: Sam Shepard's Kicking a Dead Horse, Neil Labute's Reasons to Be Pretty, and Sarah Ruhl's Late: A Cowboy Song Scott C. Knowles Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF VISUAL ARTS, THEATRE & DANCE LOCATING AMERICAN MASCULINITY WITH(OUT)IN THE MALE: SAM SHEPARD’S KICKING A DEAD HORSE, NEIL LABUTE’S REASONS TO BE PRETTY, AND SARAH RUHL’S LATE: A COWBOY SONG By SCOTT C. KNOWLES A Thesis submitted to the School of Theatre in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2010 Copyright © 2010 Scott C. Knowles All Rights Reserved The members of the committee approve the thesis of Scott C. Knowles defended on April 1st 2010. __________________________________ Elizabeth A. Osborne Professor Directing Thesis __________________________________ Irma Mayorga Committee Member __________________________________ Dan Dietz Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS With great appreciation for: Dr. Christine Frezza, for her support and mentorship; Michael Eaton, for his love of theatre and constant inspiration; Professor Richard Bugg, for acting as an intermediary between myself and Neil LaBute; Vanessa Banta for her constant support and encouragement; Ginae Knowles, for pushing me to accomplish all of my goals; Dr. Mary Karen Dahl, for her constant questioning, dedication, and mentorship; Dr. Irma Mayorga, for her guidance in writing and thinking; Professor Dan Dietz for his support; and, Dr. Elizabeth A. Osborne, for her constant encouragement, insight, and mentorship. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................ v 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1 2.“FUCKING HORSE”: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF AMERICAN MASCULNITY IN SAM SHEPARD’S KICKING A DEAD HORSE ................................................................................................ 13 3. NEIL LABUTE’S RENEGOTIATION OF MASCULINE MISOGYNY: REASONS TO BE PRETTY AS REASONS TO POSSESS IT ................................................................................................ 35 4. SARAH RUHL’S LATE: A COWBOY SONG: “A GIRL / WHO RIDES LIKE A MAN—” ................................................................................................ 59 5. CONCLUSION............................................................................................... 77 APPENDEX: IRON HANS................................................................................. 80 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................... 87 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ............................................................................... 93 iv ABSTRACT This thesis focuses on the representation of the crisis of masculinity and how that crisis, real or imagined, both calls for and automatically creates a renegotiation of the masculine identity. Specifically, it interrogates three different formulations of masculine subject creation as depicted in Sam Shepard’s Kicking a Dead Horse, Neil LaBute’s Reasons to Be Pretty, and Sarah Ruhl’s Late: a cowboy song. This document will focus on a specific theoretical formulation of masculinity found within each play. Respectively, I will utilize the theories of the mythopoetic men’s movement, Michael Kimmel’s contemporary theory of Guyland, and feminist reconfigurations of gender such as Anne Fausto-Sterling’s Sexing the Body and Judith Halberstam’s Female Masculinity. The first chapter will explore traditional, patriarchal masculinity as represented by the character of Hobart Struther in Kicking a Dead Horse. The play presents an instantiated masculinity that falls short of providing a life outside of the work force and fails to allow for a renegotiation or reestablishment of traditional masculinity. The second chapter examines the journey of Greg in Reasons to Be Pretty as he attempts to renegotiate his misogynistic male identity. Greg’s desire to change and his ability to retool his subjectivity leaves the dual possibility of real progress, or a softer manipulation and oppression of the feminine gender. Finally, Late: a cowboy song presents myriad different sexualities and genders as the play asks the audience to skew or alter the way they view traditional binary gender system. It allows the location of the masculine to be considered distinct from the male body, and encompasses differently sexed and gendered individuals. I am interested in the ways that these renegotiations create or negate the possibilities of the masculine identity with regards to the crisis of masculinity in our contemporary society. These three plays represent case studies in a much larger spectrum of masculinity, ranging from the traditional, patriarchal forms of masculine subjectivity found in Kicking a Dead Horse, to the progressive and fluid construction of gender subjectivity expressed by feminist scholars and located within Late: a cowboy song. The presentation of these differently v constructed subjectivities within theatrical representations allows for an interrogation of the masculine subject and gestures toward the constitution of a new masculine identity. vi INTRODUCTION I have a younger brother, named David, who at the age of eighteen, in his haste to take life by storm, was married, in debt, and without any means of supporting himself. Because of my brother’s poverty it became a common occurrence (much to the whole family’s surprise) for David and his partner to stop by for Sunday dinner, not for socializing or family fun, but to endure a free meal and leave as quickly as possible. After a few weeks of these short and hungry visits my youngest brother, Kyle, began to rail at David for his lack of responsibility, specifically to that of his wife. He spoke directly and constantly for about five minutes and ended the entire diatribe with words that have haunted my thoughts ever since: “You’ve got it all wrong! She’s not supposed to be take’n care of you! You should be taking care of her!” Kyle was teaching his older brother what it was to be a “man.” A man, according to him, was supposed to take care of his wife, provide her with money and security, and always already be the pinnacle of responsibility. At the age of ten Kyle knew exactly what he was to become and how he was supposed to act as a gendered individual: he would be a patriarch, a breadwinner, and a distant, but loving father. He learned it from my father, just as I had, by both example and outright instruction. Patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity are truly in no short supply (as my own family so sharply and constantly remind me) and yet much of the scholarly work on American men claims that the male identity is in crisis. 1 Victor Seidler’s Man Enough: Embodying Masculinities claims, “in the West heterosexual men have responded to the challenges of feminism and gay liberation in different ways, but they have left many men feeling uncertain and confused about what it means ‘to be a man’”(1). In fact, books about masculinity that don’t treat the concept of crisis in some way are few and far; whether they agree that men are in turmoil over their identity 1 When I say “American men” I’m actually speaking about U.S. American citizens. For the sake of simplicity I will simply use the term American to denote this group. Also, I would like to stress that my project does primarily reside within the realm of white heterosexual men, not to diminish the importance of race or sexuality but as a means to investigate the large body of American Theatre that is primarily about white heterosexual men in the continental United States of America. Further research and exploration into the racial groups that reside in America and how their male identities intersect with white concepts of manhood offers a multitude of sites for investigation and analysis, but remain out of the scope of my current project. 1 or not.2 I argue that the perceived loss of power that seems to accompany the idea of the crisis of masculinity is at the heart of most of the scholarly discourse. Conversations in scholarly discourse can be separated into two distinct categories, those that attempt to resurrect some sort of male/masculine supremacy and those that attempt to find new, less hegemonic, plastic, masculinities that will allow a shift. Thus, I will first investigate the instantiated masculinities that refuse to acknowledge a need for change. Then I will explore the negotiations of the men who recognize the inequality they are a part of creating. And, finally I will locate masculinity within the female sex in order to dislodge the masculine from maleness and explore the location of masculine power. The formation of the masculine identity in contemporary American plays provides a site in which we can trouble and interrogate the supposed crisis of masculinity. My thesis will provide a critical look at the masculine identities presented by three contemporary American plays, Kicking a Dead Horse (2007) by Sam Shepard, Reason’s to Be Pretty (2008) by Neil LaBute, and Late: a cowboy song (2003) by Sarah Ruhl, each of which has received little scholarly attention.

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