Who Gets to be a Cowboy? Lil Nas X, Old Town Road, and the Erasure of People of Color and Queer People from Cowboy Mythology

WHO GETS TO BE A
COWBOY?
Lil Nas X, Old Town Road, and the Erasure of People of Color/Queer
People from Cowboy Mythology
MAY 18, 2020
BELLE HUBERTY
COJO 328: Communication of Race, Class, and Gender

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Old Town Road and the Surrounding Controversy
On August 3, 2019, Lil Nas X’s hit “Old Town Road” became Billboard’s longestrunning
#1 hit in history. It had spent 17 weeks at the top spot and would spend two
more before being unseated. (Billboard) “Old Town Road” sparked massive debate in
the music world about what lyrical subjects and musical stylings count as “country”
enough for the country charts. This debate culminated in Billboard taking “Old Town
Road” off its Hot Country chart a week after it debuted (CBS). John Osborne, of the
country duo Brothers Osborne, was quoted as saying; “Go listen to Kris Kristofferson,
and then go listen to ["Old Town Road”] … If you tell me they have anything to do with
each other, then I will quit” (Newman, Reuter, & Zadeh 2019).
At its core, the debate around how to categorize “Old Town Road” was rooted
in ideas of what, and who, is traditionally country. As Melinda Newman notes, several
white artists “have blended country with other genres in recent years,” but none of
them have caused the debate that “Old Town Road” did upon its debut. Lil Nas X’s
identity as a black, queer (he was not publicly out when “Old Town Road” was
released) was the unspoken, but obvious, reason that many fans of traditional country
music questioned “Old Town Road”’s place on the country charts.
The debate around how to categorize Old Town Road was rooted in the
narrative America has told itself about the old West and cowboys. In truth, the

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historical reality is that cowboys were a melting pot of diverse races, identities, and
sexualities. In COJO 328, we have studied the ways aspects of indentity influence how
stories get told throughout history. The power to have your story accurately
represented is a privilege that is only afforded to those whose race, class, and gender
match that of the dominant powers. Those cowboys who belonged to racial and/or
sexual minorities have either been erased in the American consciousness or contested,
such as Lil Nas X. Investigating the “how” and the “why” that erasure happened is
relevant to what we’ve been studying in class.
In my project, I aim to answer questions that will help me understand this
dissonance. My questions include: What groups made up historical cowboys
throughout the 1700-1800s? Through what mechanisms did our cultural narrative of
cowboys come to only include straight, white men? Who had control over these
mechanisms, and what did they stand to gain by excluding people of color and queer
men from the Western narrative? And, finally, what is the present depiction of the
cowboy, and how is it evolving?
To answer these questions, I will first offer a brief history of the cowboy. Who
they were, what they did, and how they were perceived during their time. I will then
analyze the road shows, dime novels, and Western films that created the mythology of
the cowboy. The historical reality of the cowboy and the cowboy as a construct of
American myth are very different, and I will explain these differences. I then will use

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the information gathered to explain the two sides of the debate around “Old Town
Road.” Finally, I will use my research of the cowboy’s past with my observations of his
current incarnations to try and predict where the cowboy as an American icon might
go from this moment.
Who Were the Real Cowboys?
To examine historical cowboys, we must first remove ourselves from the
mythologized idea of what a cowboy was. In the 1700-1800s, the word “cowboy” was
simply a job description. It held all the romance and drama of the label “teacher,” or
“shopkeep.” Instead of being attached to any American ideal, the label denoted
certain tasks and responsibilities. cowboys were predominantly young men, who made
anywhere from $25 to $45 a week for their work. They were low-class laborers who
were regularly tagged with a reputation for being lawless thugs, so much so that they
were occasionally banned in high-class establishments (HISTORY).
The cowboy tradition began in the territory that was then Mexico, when the
Spanish colonized the Americas in 1519 (Livingston). They brought with them horses
and cattle, introducing these animals to the continent. Those who knew how to handle
horses and herd cows were referred to as “vaqueros,” a word derived from the

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Spanish word for cow, “vaca.” It is thought that the word “buckaroo” has its roots in
Anglo Cowboys mis-pronouncing vaquero, as the Spanish “v” is pronounced as the
English “b.” (Gandy)
After the Mexican-American War (1846-1848,) Americans flooded the
territories ceded by Mexico at the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. These
territories would eventually become the states of New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona,
California, Texas, and Western Colorado (Britannica). As Americans realized how
lucrative the ranching industry in these territories were, Americans looked to the
vaqueros of Mexico to learn how to herd their cows. Researcher Kay S. Gandy
describes the Mexican roots of American cowboy culture:
American cowboys learned their trade from the Mexican vaquero: how to
break a bronc, ride a herd, throw a lariat, and use a branding iron. Cowboy equipment,
working techniques, clothes, entertainment, range law, and organizations have their
roots in Mexico. Even the language of the charro became part of the English language,
with such words as rodeo, lariat, lasso, chaps, taps, cinch, bandana, mustang, and
bronco. (Gandy)
As the vaquero evolved into the American cowboy, Anglo Americans were far
from the only ones who entered the new job market. In fact, the reputation of cowboy
work as only for the poor and uneducated steered many Anglos away from the job. In
their place, recently freed slaves and indigenous peoples found the job market for
Cowboys particularly lucrative.

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The roots of Black Cowboys stretch back to the Civil War, when many white
ranchers and their white staff in the South were called on to fight for the Confederacy.
With no one staying behind to tend the cattle, white ranchers had no choice but to
train slaves in how to ride horses and herd cattle (Gandy). The term “cowboy” is
thought to have originated as a reference to slaves who worked with cattle (up until
the Civil Rights period, it was common practice to refer to grown Black adults as “boy”
and “girl”.) When the Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in Confederate states,
many freed men used the skills they had learned at the onset of the Civil War to make
a living.
Historical records show that approximately one in every four Cowboys was
African American prior to the Civil War (Gandy). Black men were faced with a choice
after the Civil War; they could either spend their lives in urban centers, working menial
and often repetitive jobs, become sharecroppers, or head out West and find work as a
cowboy. Compared to the banality of a life pulling levers and making deliveries, the
freedom of a life on the range was appealing to many single Black men.
Not only was cowboying a convenient way to earn a living by using skills many
freed men already had, but Black Americans also found the job to be relatively less
segregated than others that were available to them. As researcher William Katz
describes, “cowboys had to depend on one another. They couldn’t stop in the middle
of some crisis like a stampede or an attack by rustlers and sort out who’s black and

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who’s white” (Katz). Though Black men inevitably faced a level of discrimination from
their White coworkers, the autobiographies of Black cowboys reveal that they never
felt more equal to White men than when they were working as cowboys.
As educational writer Kay S. Gandy states, because “the West is often
portrayed as a battlefield between cowboys and Indians, it may be difficult for
students to understand that so-called Indians were often cowboys” (Gandy). But many
tribal cultures, built around living in harmony with the land and working with animals,
lent themselves incredibly well to cowboying. Early Spanish missionaries trained many
indigenous communities in herding and ranching in an attempt to “civilize” them, and
as Americans increasingly moved on to tribal lands, many indigenous people used
ranching as a means of survival in the American economy they found themselves living
in.
Much like Black cowboys, indigenous men found a level of acceptance in
Cowboying work that wasn’t afforded to them anywhere else in the United States at
the time. Rodeos were one of the only times Native men could be looked at as
something other than a red-skinned savage. Instead, they were recognized for their
remarkable horseback riding skill. Most recognized for their skill as cowboys were
Comanche warriors, who have been noted in historical records for “their ability to
shoot arrows from under a horse’s neck while galloping onwards” (Gandy).

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The final minority that found themselves attracted to work as a Cowboy was
that of queer men. Before discussing the relationship between cowboys and male
sexuality, it is important to remember how our perception of sexuality has changed
through the centuries. Attitudes towards sexuality in the 1700 and 1800s were
different from the ones we hold today. Prior to the movement for LGBTQ+ rights and
acceptance (which many historians agree began approximately around the 1969
Stonewall Riots,) sexuality was not as closely tied to one’s identity as it is today.
Instead of something you were, your sexual preferences were something you did. Men
who slept with other men were not perceived to be inherently effeminate or weak. In
fact, queer men were more likely to be perceived as deviant, dangerous, and prone to
criminal behavior (Schiller, Before Stonewall). These traits were in direct contrast to
the feminine ideal of the time; that women should be proper, passive, and stay mostly
in the home.
Therefore, cowboys who slept with other men would not have considered
themselves “gay” the way we think of the label today. But the diaries of Cowboys and
other historical records show that sexual activity and romantic relationships between
men was more common and accepted in cowboy circles than almost anywhere else in
the United States. Many Cowboy poems and songs refer to romantic or sexual longing
for their fellows, and Cowboys in long-term romantic relationships with each other
were referred to as being in a “bachelor marriage” (Bommersbach).

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A common narrative I have noticed in academic works on cowboy
homosexuality is that same-sex relationships were entered into as a “last resort,”
because of the lack of women in the West. While that may have been true in some
cases, I believe this narrative to be rooted in the cognitive dissonance mainstream
America has when confronted with the reality of cowboys, the pinnacle of American
masculinity, being gay (an identity associated with inherent femininity and weakness).
It is, in my opinion, more likely that men who were attracted to men in the 1700-1800s
searched out cowboy work because it was commonly understood that they would find
like-minded, or at least accepting, camaraderie in the industry.
Of course, White men also worked as cowboys. We know that many of them,
especially poor or uneducated Whites, were drawn to the work for the same reason as
men of color- it provided a more active and interesting life than menial blue-collar
jobs. However, it is important to establish what cowboys historically looked like,
because our cultural image of the West is so dominated by narratives that have been
shaped by white supremacy and heteronormativity. The historical West, and historical
cowboys, were much more diverse than the fiction we have created in our cultural
imaginations. The importance of this historical foundation is best illustrated by
educational researcher and writer Kay S. Gandy; “the cowboy culture and history are a
product of men and women of many ethnicities; therefore, it is imperative that

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students be exposed to the many influences that shaped the American cowboy”
(Gandy).
The Creation of Cowboy Mythology
One of the earliest vehicles of cowboy mythology was the dime novel, which
reached peak popularity between 1865 and 1900. These novels, named so because
they cost a dime to purchase, were not seen as high-class art or fine literature. They
were instead aimed at children (particularly boys) and working-class audiences. Threequarters
of dime novels were stories of the frontier, making them primarily Western
stories. The themes of your average dime novel were not complex, instead they told
stories that used the “frontier as a metaphor for the conflict between the savage and
the civilized” (Moore, 209). The freedom of the frontier was represented by the main
characters, who didn’t have to abide by the rules of polite society. But ultimately, the
legitimacy of American civilization was reinforced by the morals the main characters
held and the way they conducted themselves.
Though dime novels were not regarded as high art or accurate representations
of cowboys and the frontier, Western novels were. The first Western novel was Owen

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Wister’s ‘The Virginian,’ published in 1902. Moore describes the hero as “embodying
decidedly middle-class values of masculinity… The Virginian is the model of restraint”
(Moore, 210). Moore states that it was ‘The Virginian’ that placed the cowboy squarely
as the central figure of the Western.
When discussing the earliest depictions of cowboys in media, it is important to
remember that at the turn of the century, cowboys were not romanticized the way
they are today. In fact, they had a reputation of being crude, lawless vagrants. This
reputation, in part, arose from stereotypes around the races, classes, and sexualities
that made up the majority of cowboys. They were non-white (and therefore “savage,”)
from lower classes (and therefore unintelligent and classless,) and not straight (and
therefore deviants) (Moore).
By the 1900s, ranching was becoming increasingly industrialized. This increased
efficiency required fewer men to herd cattle and work on ranches than had previously
been necessary, and the age of the cowboy gradually came to a close. As urban sprawl
continued and industrialization made its way into every corner of American life, people
became “nostalgic for an imagined past that they had read about in novels or seen in
Wild West shows” (Moore, 204).
The most popular Wild West show in the country, and the one that every other
sought to emulate, was Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. The show’s first season began in 1883,
and it ran until it went bankrupt in 1913 (Fees). Though William “Buffalo Bill” Cody

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only worked on the frontier briefly, Moore credits him, more than anyone else, with
“rehabilitating” the image of the cowboy (Moore, 205). The shows typically consisted
of elements of “border life,” including frontier characters, representations of Native
American life, horse riding and roping, fancy shooting, etc. These elements were put
together in a narrative structure, often built around a well-known event such as
attacks on stagecoaches, train robberies, and even Custer’s Last Stand (Buffalo Bill
Center of the West).
Moore credits the success of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West to William Cody’s ability
to tap into “white, middle-class anxieties about the influx of immigrants, the end of the
frontier, and the decline of masculinity” (Moore, 205). To assuage these fears, Buffalo
Bill presented viewers with an easily identifiable hero; the white, masculine, middleclass
cowboy. The Anglo cowboy always saved the day, overcoming the forces of
nature as well as the dark-skinned opponents to the “American Way.” Both Moore and
Paul Fees, the former curator of the Buffalo Bill museum, note that at first, people of
color were well-represented in Buffalo Bill shows. Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous
cowboys were all cowboy performers in the show. However, “as the popular image of
the cowboy crystallized” (Fees), actors of color were reduced to weak stereotypes of
dumb brutes or wild savages.
Around 1920, former cowboys began writing their memoirs. In response to the
perception of cowboys as immoral ruffians, cowboys and their ghostwriters leaned

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into the mythologized cowboy that Wild West shows and dime novels had popularized.
This cowboy was “heroic and genteel” (Moore), wandering across the West and
helping the citizens of backwater towns or hunting down evildoers. Cowboy memoirs,
in an effort to improve the perception of themselves and their peers in the eyes of
American society, claimed this fictionalization as reality. As Jaqueline Moore points
out, this legitimization of the fledgling cowboy mythology unintentionally glorified
white, middle-class ideals of masculinity. By embracing the myth of cowboys as polite,
moral heroes who often abided by the rules of society, early cowboy memoirs began
distancing themselves from the historical truth of cowboys and their work.
It is impossible to talk about the fictionalized representations of cowboys
without discussing Western films. The cowboy has been a constant character in
American cinema since its inception. In fact the first feature-length Western, 1903’s
‘The Great Train Robbery,’ was one of the first American films of any genre to reach
widespread popularity. Westerns helped build the American film industry, as film
studios in Europe would not create Westerns for decades. By 1910, 21% of American
movies made were Westerns. This percentage remained fairly steady until the 1940s
(Moore, 212). It is no exaggeration to say that the Western, at the heart of which the
cowboy resides, is the most influential film genre in American cinema.
Characters like Broncho Billy, filmmakers like William S. Hart, and actors like
Tom Mix cemented the image of the cowboy as an aloof loner who Moore describes as

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“rough but gallant towards woman, good-natured, and free and easy” (Moore, 213).
Jane Thompkins argues that these early films served first to reinforce American values,
and used the cowboy as a tool to that end. She describes the cowboy as “liberated
from stuffy interiors and bad family scenes,” but “too isolated to be a real human and
participate in the benefits of civilization.” In early Westerns, Moore expands, “the
cowboy’s job is to defend civilization and then get out of the way” (Moore, 214).
Dime novels, Western novels, road shows, and Western movies all built on
each other to create what I believe is the only truly American mythology. There are
many themes and characteristics that these narratives share, but here I will focus on
the commonalities between the cowboys represented in these stories. When I write
about the “mythologized cowboy,” I am referring to the traits that the cowboys in
fictional Western representations share. The mythologized cowboy is:
• White
• Straight
• An aloof loner who often does not form attachments
• Morally right, even if he works outside the law
• Free to make his own decisions (this freedom often comes at the cost of
interpersonal relationships or the opportunity to “put down roots”)
• Hypermasculine

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• Respectful towards women, but ultimately treats them as either a conquest, a
means to an end, or something to be protected
• Often employs violence to solve their problems rather than diplomacy
Who Has the Right to be a Cowboy?
Moore describes the cowboy as a persona “modern cattlemen, oilmen, and
politicians now appropriate… to denote masculine authority, ensuring their social and
political status, and providing sanction for missions of civilization and profit on new
frontiers” (Moore, 216). Fellow cowboy researcher Rebecca Scofield echoes this
characterization, but extends it to all white American men. To Scofield, the cowboy is a
persona that any white American man can take as their own, without question from
their peers or society as a whole. As a 1989 Western wear spread in Esquire magazine
proclaimed; “if you’re an American male, buried somewhere deep in your soul is a
little bit of cowboy” (Scofield, 138). Due to the close ties that have been established
between the cowboy and white American masculinity, white American men have
historically had the right to the cowboy persona.
In her book ‘Outriders: Rodeo at the Fringes of the American West,’ Scofield
describes a sudden upwelling of cowboy culture in the late 1970s, in which movies/TV,

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fashion, and advertising were all a part. Scofield attributes this cowboy trend’s
strength to an “emerging desire to reassert American global dominance after the
supposed feminizing effects of the 1960s” (Scofield, 138). After the cultural, political,
and global instability that characterized the 1960s, the American popular
consciousness leaned on the strong, in-control, dominant cowboy. This theory is
supported by researcher Jane Thompkins, who claims that “the emphasis on
masculinity in the Western itself is what made them so popular [at the turn of the
century], as they reflected a backlash to the rise of the New Era woman” (Moore, 205).
As the embodiment of American masculinity and dominance, the cowboy and his
associated iconography reassured the American public of their imagined “roots” as a
country.
From my own observations, I believe we are in the middle of a similar upwelling
of cowboy culture today. The world is certainly still unstable in all and more than the
ways it was in the 1960s, and Americans are once again turning to the comfort and
assurance the cowboy provides. In the world of gaming, 2018’s Red Dead Redemption
2, a Western survival game, garnered mass audience and critical acclaim, and swept
the year’s multiple video game awards shows. In the world of celebrity, influencer
James Charles wore not one but two western-themed outfits to Coachella 2019,
featuring fringed suede jackets, cowboy hats, and chaps. And of course, in the world of

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music, in 2019 Lil Nas X broke Billboard’s record for the longest running #1 hit in
history.
When people who do not fit the mold of the mythologized cowboy try to
embrace the Western image, however, cognitive dissonance in the American
consciousness can create tension. As I have demonstrated, every portrayal of cowboys,
from road shows to film, has been created for the consumption and comfort for white
American audiences. Cowboy narratives have been told through a purely white,
heterosexual, male perspective, with people of color and queer men being at best
written out of the story altogether, or at worst becoming an enemy to be conquered
by the Anglo cowboy. These representations have created an idea in the minds of
Americans that the identities of “cowboy” and “gay,” “black,” “Latino,” “indigenous,”
or “genderqueer” are mutually exclusive. We think that one person cannot embody
both identities at once, because we have not seen it done before.
This dissonance lies at the core of the debate around Lil Nas X and Old Town
Road. White country artists have been slowly adopting rap verses and trap beats for
the past five years (Todd Nathanson, 2015) and they haven’t been barred from
Billboard’s Country charts. White country artists can add rap elements to their music
because, by virtue of their whiteness, they have the right to adopt the cowboy persona
without question or criticism. As a black, gay man, Lil Nas X was not afforded the same

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right. Without the shield of whiteness to protect him, Lil Nas X’s blend of country and
rap was open to attack for daring to present itself as Country.
If there is a silver lining to the discriminatory treatment Lil Nas X faced from
Billboard and America in general, it is that the publicity around Old Town Road has
started a national conversation around who we “allow” to use the cowboy persona. Lil
Nas X himself has proven that he is more than a one hit wonder and remains one of
the most talked about pop stars in the world. In the more traditional country music
scene, gay artist Orville Peck is, as Billboard claimed in a 2019 headline, “revitalizing
classic country’s spirit” (Billboard). James Charles, mentioned above, is an out
influencer, and his cowboy Coachella looks were met with acclaim. The world-famous
manga Steel Ball Run, running between 2004-2011, takes place in a Western setting,
with cowboys who wear lipstick and are drawn in poses more reminiscent of
supermodels than Clint Eastwood. There are likely many more examples I am not
aware of, but it is clear that an increasingly diverse group of artists and celebrities are
laying claim to the cowboy persona.
Personally, I am overjoyed that we are evolving past the white, straight cowboy
we have been stuck with for decades. Western novels and movies are often narrative
microcosms of American growth, even if they are not explicitly about “how the West
was won” or the expansion of America to a continental and global superpower. Queer
people and people of color were as involved in westward expansion as white and

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straight Americans were, but their stories have been largely erased and forgotten.
White America is very attached to the notion that we and we alone made our country
into what it is, and that people of color and queer people did not have the power to
effect change until relatively recently. This erasure robs Americans of color and queer
Americans of the sense of ownership over their country that White Americans enjoy.
Lil Nas X, and other artists like him who would not have traditionally been
“allowed” by American society to use the cowboy persona, are reclaiming that
ownership. Through their use of cowboy iconography in their art, they remind the
American public that they, and people who share their identities, helped to create this
country. As long as Americans cling to the belief in a fictionalized West, populated by
White, straight cowboys, any modern use of the cowboy persona by people who do
not fit that mold will cause dissonance. But the answer to cognitive dissonance is often
to change the belief or action that is causing the dissonance. As Americans come to
accept that those outside White, heterosexual, male America have as much a claim to
the cowboy persona as they historically have had, such dissonance will fade. In its
place, I hope a more historically accurate understanding of cowboys, in all their
diversity and complexity, will prevail.

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Works Cited:
"Backlash After Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" Removed from Billboard Hot Country
Chart.", April 10, 2019, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/old-town-road-lil-nas-xbillboard-removes-song-from-hot-country-critics-question-race-factor/.
"Before Stonewall." , directed by Greta Schiller, and Robert Rosenberg. , produced by
John Scagliotti. , Before Stonewall Inc., 1984.
History.com Editors. "Cowboys.", April 26, 2010,
https://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/cowboys.
Jacqueline Moore. Cowboys and Cattlemen: Class and Masculinities on the Texas
Frontier, 1865-1900. NYU Press, 2010.
Jana Bommersbach. "Homos on the Range." True West Magazine, 2005,
https://truewestmagazine.com/old-west-homosexuality-homos-on-the-range/.
"POP SONG REVIEW: "Cruise (Remix)" by Florida Georgia Line Ft. Nelly." , directed by
Todd Nathanson. , performance by Todd Nathanson. , 2015.
Phil Livingston. "The History of the Vaquero." American Cowboy, 2017,
https://www.americancowboy.com/ranch-life-archive/history-vaquero.
Scofield, Rebecca. "Camp and the Cowboy: The Serious Fun of Gay Rodeo." Outriders:
Rodeo at the Fringes of the American West. , 2019.
Stephen Daw. "Meet Orville Peck, the Masked Gay Crooner Revitalizing Classic
Country's Spirit." Billboard, 2019,

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https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/pride/8508400/orville-peck-interviewqueer-country.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Mexican-American War." The Encyclopaedia
Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/event/Mexican-American-War.
"Wild West shows: Buffalo Bill's Wild West.",
https://centerofthewest.org/learn/western-essays/wild-west-shows/.
William Katz. The Black West. , 1973.
Bibliography:
"Backlash After Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" Removed from Billboard Hot Country
Chart.", April 10, 2019, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/old-town-road-lil-nas-xbillboard-removes-song-from-hot-country-critics-question-race-factor/.
"Before Stonewall." , directed by Greta Schiller, and Robert Rosenberg. , produced by
John Scagliotti. , Before Stonewall Inc., 1984.
History.com Editors. "Cowboys.", April 26, 2010,
https://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/cowboys.
Jacqueline Moore. Cowboys and Cattlemen: Class and Masculinities on the Texas
Frontier, 1865-1900. NYU Press, 2010.

21
Jana Bommersbach. "Homos on the Range." True West Magazine, 2005,
https://truewestmagazine.com/old-west-homosexuality-homos-on-the-range/.
"POP SONG REVIEW: "Cruise (Remix)" by Florida Georgia Line Ft. Nelly." , directed by
Todd Nathanson. , performance by Todd Nathanson. , 2015.
Phil Livingston. "The History of the Vaquero." American Cowboy, 2017,
https://www.americancowboy.com/ranch-life-archive/history-vaquero.
Scofield, Rebecca. "Camp and the Cowboy: The Serious Fun of Gay Rodeo." Outriders:
Rodeo at the Fringes of the American West. , 2019.
Stephen Daw. "Meet Orville Peck, the Masked Gay Crooner Revitalizing Classic
Country's Spirit." Billboard, 2019,
https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/pride/8508400/orville-peck-interviewqueer-country.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Mexican-American War." The Encyclopaedia
Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/event/Mexican-American-War.
"Wild West shows: Buffalo Bill's Wild West.",
https://centerofthewest.org/learn/western-essays/wild-west-shows/.
William Katz. The Black West, 1973.
French, Warren. “THE COWBOY IN THE DIME NOVEL.” The University of Texas Studies
in English, vol. 30, 1951, pp. 219–234., www.jstor.org/stable/20776038. Accessed 14
2020.

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Morton, Marian J., and William P. Conway. “Cowboy without a Cause: His Image in
Today's Popular Music.” The Antioch Review, vol. 35, no. 2/3, 1977, pp. 193–204.,
doi:10.2307/4637903. Accessed 14 2020.
Cadlo, Joseph J. “Cowboy Life as Reflected in Cowboy Songs.” Western Folklore, vol. 6,
no. 4, 1947, pp. 335–340., doi:10.2307/1497666. Accessed 14 2020.
Needham, Gary. “Queering the Western.” Brokeback Mountain, Edinburgh University
Press, Edinburgh, 2010, pp. 31–78, www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1r20zz.7.
Accessed 14 2020.
Writing Goals:
Goal #1: In some places in my History and Scholarly Research report, Dr. Petersen
noted some awkward wording/phrasing. I have edited the indicated passages for
clarity and easy of reading.
Goal #2: Dr. Petersen suggested I use subheadings to better organize my essay. I have
done so.
Goal #3: Dr. Petersen corrected my use of capitalization when referring to cowboys. I
have edited my History and Scholarly Research report to this end and used lower case
when referring to cowboys.
Goal #4: Dr. Petersen asked me to expand on the communication strategies that were
used to promote cowboy mythology. I have done so.
Goal #5: In some areas of my essay, Dr. Petersen noticed that I did not cite my sources
properly or often enough. I have edited my History and Scholarly Research report to
cite correctly, and have endeavored to do so throughout the rest of my essay.