literary works that filled
Blacks in the Wild West
I recently had the opportunity to participate in one interesting discussion on Facebook on the page of a famous film critic. One of my friends complained about the dominance of political correctness in the new westerns – here in the trailer of the new “Gorgeous Seven” a black character appears, as in many previous westerns of recent years, where “racial diversity” is almost a prerequisite. Without the “black cowboys” nowhere. Although we know that real cowboys should be white, and “Afro-cowboys” have the same relation to historical truth as, for example, the black knights at the court of King Arthur – that is, no one – but they help to attract African-American audiences to the cinemas and protect against criticisms of the liberal public that “the problems of cisgender white middle-aged people no longer bother anyone.” Continue reading
What did the cowboys do for fashion?
Recognizable image
He put on a poncho and jeans or boots with a narrowed cape and a wide leather belt, a hat and a shirt with braid, a bandana or a bolo tie (aka a cowboy tie) – and it’s immediately clear: this is a cowboy style. In order to become like the hero of a western, it is not necessary to dress up in a full-fledged costume: the inhabitants of the West and the filmmakers have done enough to ensure that each individual part of the wardrobe sends the viewer to the familiar image of a rider jumping along the prairies. Continue reading
Europeans were still more attracted by Indians
Cowboy did become a frequent hero of tabloid novels and large-circulation newspapers in the 1870–80s, but, as Lonn Taylor convincingly showed, his image, although heroic, was not uniform. In the 1880s, he turns out to be more antisocial: “a rude, dangerous, recalcitrant and daring individualist,” in any case, when fate confronts him with a sedentary urban population. The new image was created by the middle class of Eastern America, where farming was very strong, and this image was very literary. This can be seen not only from a comparison of the cowboys with the medieval knights of Thomas Malory and the popularity of the one-on-one duel at exactly noon, like a knightly duel, but also from the European origin of some “western” topoi. Continue reading
