Keith Girard
Trace Adkins cut a dapper figure in a bespoke suit and a matching cowboy hat at the Country Music Awards (CMAs). (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Country music cowboys were riding high at the Academy of Country Music Awards show last night. But the cowboy hat is also a gay icon symbolizing the rugged, macho world of the Old West, where homos on the range were more common than not back in the day.
That’s a complete reversal of the popular notion that the West was populated by virile, heroic men, according to TruWest, a Web site devoted to the history of the Old West.
Apparently there was much more to the life on the open range than a rope, a horse and the ultimate phallic symbol a gun. Think “Brokeback Mountain” more than “Rio Bravo.”
“It’s important to know the history of homosexuality,” says Peter Boag chairman of the history department at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
“Society didn’t really designate people as homosexual or heterosexual through most of the 19th century; it was not really until the 20th century that those identities crystallized,” he told the Web site.
Cowboys in country music can be traced back to the 1930s with the popularity of such groups and singers as the Sons of the Pioneers, Gene Autry, William S. Hart, Tom Mix and Roy Rogers who appeared in singing cowboy movies, according to smithsonian.com.
Image was important even back then. Studio heads they thought Autry was too feminine and not masculine enough to be a cowboy hero. But he proved to be one of the most popular movie cowboys of all.
Check out today’s country music cowboys and their hats.
| Country Music Cowboys Ride High (Click Photos to Enlarge!) |
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| Academy of Country Music Awards Winners (in bold) 2017 | |
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Entertainer of the Year
Jason Aldean Album of the Year “Black” – Dierks Bentley Single Record of the Year “Blue Ain’t Your Color” – Keith Urban Song of the Year “Blue Ain’t Your Color” – Keith Urban Female Vocalist of the Year Kelsea Ballerini Male Vocalist of the Year Jason Aldean Vocal Duo of the Year Big & Rich |
Vocal Group of the Year Eli Young Band New Male Vocalist of the Year Kane Brown New Female Vocalist of the Year Lauren Alaina New Vocal Duo or Group of the Year A Thousand Horses Songwriter of the Year Ashley Gorley Video of the Year Vocal Event of the Year “Different for Girls” – Dierks Bentley featuring Elle King |