Gender, Whiteness, and Power in Rodeo

The cowboy and cowgirl played in the imagination and made rodeo into a symbolic representation of the Western United States, but the rodeo has diverse history that largely remains unaccounted for. In Gender, Whiteness and Power in RodeoTracey Owens Patton and Sally M. Schedlock visually explore how race, gender, and other issues of identity complicate the mythic historical narrative of the West. Using iconic visual images, along with the voices of the marginalized, Patton and Schedlock enter into the sometimes acrimonious debate of cowgirls and ethnic minorities in rodeo.

Tracey Owens Patton is director of African American and diaspora studies as well as professor of communication in the Department of Communication and Journalism at The University of Wyoming. Sally M. Schedlock received her BA and MA degrees in communication from the University of Wyoming. She has rodeoed since she was a small child and continues to barrel race.