The cowboy and the decline of old fashioned American masculinity

**ASquareDealer** · 06-13-2012, 09:57 AM

I was pondering a few things last night while my lady slept...I don't know when exactly it began, perhaps in the 1990s when Political Correctness reigned, but it seems the "old fashioned American MAN" is out of style...I don't mean that in a good way, either. You see "men"--metrosexuals--all shaved clean, grooming themselves more than chicks, going to Starbucks and sipping lattes, men with hair in wild colors...It's like, what happened to the old fashioned American male? What happened to the rugged individualist, the "he man"? The man who wasn't afraid to go outdoors, or raise a ranch, or go hunting? I look at the degradation of the image of the Cowboy--one of America's finest male symbols, the very symbol of the West, the wild untamed frontier that can only be survived by tough, masculine men. The hero of Westerns; Men not that different from our grandparents or great grandparents. I'm sure some here grew up watching Bonanza or shows like it or liking The Man with No Name movie series. Several of our modern Presidents, including President Theodore Roosevelt, President Lyndon Johnson, President Ronald Reagan and President George Bush II were cowboys or frontiersman when not being President; it wasn't just an act or an image, all owned ranches and cleared brush and weren't afraid to get their hands dirty...

Then later you had the Village People and Brokeback Mountain which unfortunately created in the public's mind that the Cowboy is an inherently gay figure, which totally pisses on a big time legacy of American culture. It just seems like being an old fashioned masculine man renders you a bigot in today's politically correct metrosexual society. I don't understand what happened to America in this regard....

On a side note, why do gays try to claim traditional, masculine symbols as their own? Why do gays have an obsession with asserting that dead male celebrities who were masculine were in fact gay or bisexual? Why do they try to destroy old fashioned masculinity?

Pictures: LBJ at his ranch, September 1972, Reagan at his ranch in 1981 as he signed TEFRA, George Bush at his ranch, ca. 2005.

**txradioguy** · 06-13-2012, 10:11 AM

He's gone out of style and become persona non grata because the left has made masculine men...cowboys etc out to be the boogeyman for every evil in the world today.

Cowboys terrorized the Indians...robbed people of ther money and herded innocent cattle to slaughter. They were the foot soldiers of the cattle barrons like Charles Goodnight and Richard King...the 1%'ers of "Big Cattle".

The most hated and demonized person on earth is a straight...white...christian male.

**noonwitch** · 06-13-2012, 11:45 AM

The Village People didn't mean any harm, they were just having fun. I really don't think their cowboy was that influential in the degradation of the iconic cowboy image.

I think a computer culture, with the internet and video gaming, has taken the desire out of a lot of people to enjoy the things associated with masculinity. Why go out horseback riding? Why go hunting? There are zombies to kill on the tv screen and you don't even have to leave your nice warm living room with a fully-stocked kitchen nearby?

I'm sure that someone will say it's all the fault of feminists and gays, but I think it's more of a technology and urbanization thing.

**Retread** · 06-13-2012, 05:48 PM

Originally Posted by noonwitch

.....................

I'm sure that someone will say it's all the fault of feminists and gays, but I think it's more of a technology and urbanization thing.

I can't say who is driving it but I must disagree respectfully on the driver. It is being done deliberately. So far it hasn't been driven off the cliff ......yet, but the edge is approaching.
IMHO it is part and parcel of the long slide of the USA into an oblivion that will please the euro admirers, the anti-christians, the socialist and the sexual deviates no end.

**Gina** · 06-13-2012, 07:52 PM

Remember this guy? I wonder how he's doing, he was having a bit of trouble when he got home. I think I'll look him up later.

The most hated and demonized person on earth is a straight...white...christian male.

Agreed.

**Retread** · 06-18-2012, 07:04 PM

As gender roles change, are men out of step?

"I think that masculinity is more flexible than we give it credit for," said journalist Liza Mundy. "I think that our ideas of what's masculine change."

**AmPat** · 06-18-2012, 09:57 PM

Originally Posted by ASquareDealer

Pictures: LBJ at his ranch, September 1972, Reagan at his ranch in 1981 as he signed TEFRA, George Bush at his ranch, ca. 2005.

Here's one of The One!

**Chuck58** · 06-18-2012, 10:14 PM

They aren't all gone. Here's a bunch of working cowboys from the Bell Ranch in east central New Mexico. Notice the couple of kids. Many of the cowboys who work that ranch had fathers, grandfathers and possibly great grandfathers who also worked on the ranch. Having spent time over there, I'll tell you this too: they are some hard men. Never saw any of the guys in the picture, but it is recent within the past decade.

**Gina** · 06-18-2012, 11:46 PM

Originally Posted by AmPat

Here's one of The One!

It's hilarious that Putin is darker in that pic!

**NJCardFan** · 06-19-2012, 03:11 AM

The fall started in the 80's when men were supposed to get in touch with their feelings and such. IMO there's nothing wrong with traditional roles. Funny that when traditional roles ruled the day crime and poverty were down. Once the feminist genie was out of the bottle and women no longer needed men(but oddly enough still needed their money), that's when things started going to shit. The Village People have nothing to do with it. The fall of masculinity started long before they came to be.