During his long, distinguished writing career, Archer City’s Larry McMurtry has been known to cast a skeptical eye on the American cowboy and the myth of the Old West. So it will be interesting to hear what the author’s got to say (sub. required) introducing the classic John Wayne western, The Searchers, at Snyder’s John Wayne Film Fest on Labor Day.
Coincidentally, McMurtry’s attitudes toward cowboys, masculinity and the West are taken to the woodshed in an article titled “Cowgirl Up” (sub. required) in the August Texas Monthly by journalist Barney (that’s right) Nelson. Barney’s an honest-to-god cowgirl/rancher (and English professor at Alpine’s Sul Ross State University) who seems to know what she’s talking about.
“I’ve never been a Larry McMurtry fan,” Nelson writes, “maybe because he once wrote that the cowboy’s women are ‘for the most part acquiescent victims. They usually buy the myth of cowboying and the ideal of manhood it involves, even though both exclude them. A few even buy it to the point of attempting to assimilate the all-valuable masculine qualities to themselves, producing that awful phenemenon, the cowgirl.’
“This,” Nelson continues, “is the view of a man who needs to take a cold shower and read some history instead of dime novels. Cowboys are not and never have been exceptionally manly men. Nor are cowgirls. In my whole life, I’ve known only maybe two women that I would call really good hands, who could do it all. But I’m not sure I’ve known many more men who could do it all either.
“Instead of being able to do it all, everyone seems to have a specialty or two: maybe roping, maybe starting colts, maybe cutting a herd, knowing the country, catching horses, gathering remnants, handling a crew, keeping an ancient windmill pumping. My own specialties were self-deprecating humor and washing dishes. I can wash dishes anywhere–creek, stock tank, bucket, mud hole–and under any conditions–blowing dust, snow hail, no shade, no water. My china is tin.
“The job requires tenacity, not virility, patience rather than strength, and the willingness to do whatever needs doing, not heroics.”
God, I love a good literary fight.
