Gender and Desire in Polo Ralph Lauren, continued...

The Cowboy as Gay Icon

The cowboy as a historical figure has powerful sexual implications for many people. In his classic volume, Gay Semiotics, Hal Fischer considers the cowboy to be an archetypal image for gay men. He writes,

Like the straight culture, gay culture has evolved a set of public, sexual prototypes. In gay magazines men are pictured in situations which were initially inspired by established male fantasies. Within the gay community certain characteristics of the fantasy have been adopted as fashion, thereby creating a 'gay look' [. . .]. (30) The western or cowboy archetype can be seen as derivative of the natural myth. The archetype is recognized by articles of clothing, cowboy or western boots, jeans, flannel shirts, and in some instances hats [emphasis added]. (31)

Fischer further states that the cowboy was appropriated as an archetype by the gay male culture in the 1970s both because of his actual history as a figure in the West and because of his frequent representation in American film:

The cowboy represents the frontier and male dominated society. The bunkhouse, wide open spaces and male camaraderie have origins and parallels in the classical archetype, but are more contemporary, and widely used in TV and movies, and therefore easier to relate to. It would be unlikely for an American boy growing up in the 40's or 50's not to have a cowboy hero." (32)

Shaun Cole supports Fischer's claims in his essay, "Macho Men." Explaining the history behind gay men's adoption of the cowboy as a sartorial type in the 1970s in the United States and Great Britain, Cole writes,

[. . .U]ntil the 1970s, the history of gay men's dress was dominated by two choices: the adoption of overtly feminine styles or conformity to accepted male dress codes of the day. [. . .] The social and legal climates in both Britain and the United States meant that for most gay men the adoption of an overt visible gay identity was impossible, as it could lead to social ostracism or arrest. [. . .] the counterculture movement of the 1960s and the beginnings of sexual liberation prompted men to question their roles. As straight men increasingly moved away from the rigid dress codes of their fathers and adopted a freer outlook, so gay men began to challenge public attitudes towards them and their legal and social position. The gay liberation movement had introduced questions about lifestyle and, as part of that, acceptable clothing and behavior. Activist groups such as the Gay Liberation Front called for an end to gender-prescribed behavior and dressing. [. . .] Gay men began to regard themselves as masculine. [. . .] The cowboy and the biker were two archetypes that were influential in the adoption of 'butch' dress styles for men. (33)

Although Fischer and Cole certainly do not speak for all gay men, it is safe to say that, for some gay men at least, the West and the cowboy represented a world of hypermasculinity, defined not only by its absence of social norms, but by its absence of women. The West was a world of men, a place where men could enjoy pleasures spiritual and sexual.

"Gone Santa Fe"

For some gay women, the West had (and has) powerful implications as well. In a biography on Georgia O'Keeffe, Jeffrey Hogrefe writes,

During the 1920s and 1930s, Santa Fe and Taos were to American lesbians what Capri was to British homosexuals at the same time—a place away from the constraints of organized society, which discouraged homosexual unions. [. . .] In Broadway crowds at this time a woman who had switched her sexual preference was said to have 'gone Santa Fe'. (34)

For much of the twentieth century, then, the West was perceived as a place free of rigid sexual categories, a place that allowed women and men the freedom to engage in "untraditional" forms of labor and "untraditional" sexual partners. Thus, just as the West has been viewed by some as a land of opportunity for economic reasons, it has been seen by many others as a land for social and sexual opportunities as well. For some gay men and women, the West was (and for many, still is) a place where one can make a new start, and live life outside of society's suffocating boundaries. And while the West's image as a utopia for society's outsiders is perhaps as much a myth as its image as a utopia for men seeking to reclaim their masculinity, it is a myth that enjoys some popularity, and thus should be considered when analyzing visual interpretations of the West, including those by Polo Ralph Lauren.

As history shows, the cowboy had a far less fixed gender identity than literature, film and (as I will address below) fashion demonstrate. Although I think it will take me too far afield to discuss why the cowboy figures so prominently in Polo Ralph Lauren's advertisements, I would like to discuss how the cowboy is represented by Polo Ralph Lauren and how the public perceives this figure in Polo's advertisements. I suggest that the cowboy, as represented by Polo Ralph Lauren, reflects neither a pure nor a single essence of masculinity. Cowboys lived (and live) lives of varied experience in the West. Their experiences are framed by their own particular histories and identities. Whether Polo Ralph Lauren reveals these varied experiences and ambiguous positions in its advertisements, or whether it permits these positions and experiences to inform these images, is the subject of the remainder of this paper.

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