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Clip: Episode 4 | 1m 55s | Video has closed captioning.
In the 1920s, the rise of a new form of militant white racism had a big impact on the motion picture industry. Consequently, Hollywood Westerns downplayed the significant role that women, Black people and other marginalized groups and minorities played in settling The West, in favor of promoting the mythic image of male-dominant, gun-toting cowboys.
Aired: 05/17/23
- Why do you think that the script writers and the movie producers and directors didn't have Black cowboys and Latino cowboys and Native American cowboys?
Why do they only have white cowboys?
- What happened in the years around World War I and the 1920s is this rise of this new dominant, militant white racism.
The rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan in 1915.
The studios realize they're gonna lose money if we have people of color.
You're not gonna see Black people.
Indians tend to just show up as a somewhat faceless enemy.
Hispanic Americans are often portrayed as being devious.
Women are largely, though, not entirely absent.
- [Narrator] I knew that women played a huge role in the Western expansion, not only in homesteading but in cattle ranching.
Why were they left out of the story?
- There was a reaction in the 1920s and the 1930s to women winning the right to vote and there was very much a effort in American society to put American women back in their place in the home.
And by the time, David, that you and I are growing up, you have Dale Evans and Dale is fine, and we all love Dale, but she's also very feminine and a bit demure.
We have to remember that in the Bill Cody era, you've got Annie Oakley.
- Annie Oakley, of course, was a sharp shooter, one of the best, not just of women, but of men and women.
She was the first female superstar in the US.
Of course, she rode.
And the women in these Wild West shows did all sorts of things.
They eventually were riding broncs, they were doing some trick riding.
But so much of our history of the American West is very much this male mythic how the West was won.
And women get entirely dropped from this narrative.
Iconic America
David Rubenstein examines the history of America through some of its most iconic symbols, objects and places, in conversation with historical thinkers, community members and other experts. Together, they dive deep into each symbol’s history, using them as a gateway to understanding America’s past and present.
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