There never was an icon of American manhood to compare with the cowboy.There never was an icon of American manhood to compare with the cowboy. For decades, from Tex Ritter Tex Ritter (January 12, 1905 – January 2, 1974) was an American country singer and actor. Life and career He was born Maurice Woodward Ritter in Murvaul, Texas, the son of James Everett Ritter and Martha Elizabeth Matthews. and Hopalong Cassidy, through Gary Cooper and John Wayne, down to the spaghetti westerns of the 1960s, these rugged, self-reliant heroes rode and swaggered across our movie and TV screens, teaching us the elements of justice, honor, chivalry chivalry (shĭv`əlrē), system of ethical ideals that arose from feudalism and had its highest development in the 12th and 13th cent. , and manliness. Alas, when we lost our national innocence, around 1968, we lost the cowboy too. Nowadays these slow-talkin', fast-drawin' legends of the old West are remembered, if at all, as pathetic symbols of a vanquished patriarchy, probably addled ad·dle v. ad·dled, ad·dling, ad·dles v.tr. To muddle; confuse: "My brain is a bit addled by whiskey" Eugene O'Neill. See Synonyms at confuse. with insecurity, neurosis neurosis, in psychiatry, a broad category of psychological disturbance, encompassing various mild forms of mental disorder. Until fairly recently, the term neurosis was broadly employed in contrast with psychosis, which denoted much more severe, debilitating mental , and shameful secret longings. At least, that was the image presented in Brokeback Mountain--and now, too, in the latest production by aging Texas country singer Willie Nelson: "Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)." The song has lines like: "What did you think all them saddles and boots was about?" and "Inside every cowboy there's a lady who'd love to slip out." John Wayne, thou shouldst shouldst aux.v. Variant of shouldest. be living at this hour. America has need of thee. |
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