The Gun Fetishism of the Western and the Anxieties of American Men

초록

This essay discusses the relationship between the Western and the American rhetoric of gun rights by exploring the history of the Western genre in literature and film as well as the tradition of gun rights and vigilante justice in the U.S. In exploring the history of the Western, I include not only classic examples of the genre (from Riders of the Purple Sage to Shane) but also the genre's roots in popular entertainments like Buffalo Bill's Wild West and the genre's influence on American popular culture, particularly in films such as Taxi Driver. I explore the tradition of gun rights and vigilante justice by looking at American legal history, the rhetoric of gun rights advocates and organizations, popular magazines and advertisements, the history of gun manufacture in the U.S. and so on. By exploring all of these materials and discussing them in relation to each other, I attempt to discover a point of convergence where the uniquely American brand of gun fetishism can be understood historically and culturally. I argue that the Western's code of violent hypermasculinity is a significant part of the American culture of gun fetishism and vigilantism, but that this culture has been perpetuated by the cynicism of gun manufacturers and politicians and fueled (especially after the 1960's) by working-class white male anxiety of cultural displacement. I also argue that the schizophrenia shown by disturbingly violent characters like Travis Bickle is already revealed in many classic Westerns by heroes who are conflicted men like Lassiter (who engages in violent excess to prove that he is a man) and Shane (who kills other men to exorcise the demons of his own past). The historical roots of the American rhetoric of gun rights may be difficult to trace, but the political influence of that rhetoric can be seen clearly in the lack of effective or even rational responses to the serious problem of gun violence.

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