Stories of Subversion, Resistance, and Acceptance

Hollywood’s big screen and the pages of countless regional novels simplify the complexities of gender in the classic American West with one-dimensional characters such as the lone cowboy, the gun-slinging marshal, the fated cavalry officer, the schoolmarm, and the little-house-on-the-prairie mother. Such artless representations have also become the archetypal stalwarts of America’s westward advance, trail-blazers and prepares for a civilization yet to come.

But in his presentation, Peter Boag offers a different view of the Old West through sharing stories of individuals whose truths subvert common wisdom about the region’s gender stereotypes, whose lives of resistance to societal norms question masculinity and femininity, and whose oft-times acceptance by their communities counters the hatred, prejudice, and even violence that those who don’t seem to match up to accepted gender (and sexual) stereotypes still experience in the American West of today.

Free and open to the public.

See more events celebrating the 150th anniversary of the first transcontinental railroad here!

Contact: Lindsey Marolt
Phone: (712) 329-8307
Email: [email protected]

Category: Educational