Open Collections

Abstract

Pansy: a cowboy’s bloom is a spoken word poetry album that tells the story of Billy, a young man growing up in the country who, because he is gay, feels he must move to the city to fit in. However, in the city, Billy feels a similar incongruence between who he is and the place he is in. Interwoven into the story is an interrogation of place-based gender expectations, as well as an exploration of “natural” masculinity. The album consists of 35 poems, using spoken word as well as ambient music and sounds to embody the story and experience of Billy, totalling 68 minutes. This work draws on themes of gender performance, inspired by drag kinging and the works of Murray Hill and Jack Halberstam. Billy acts as a representation of nonnatural masculinity and gender nonconformity. His identity as a gay man means he does not conform to the expectations of masculinity in his small town. His identity as a blue-collar cowboy means he does not fit in amongst the middle-class queers of the city–a paradox of the “everyone welcome” idealism of modern 2SLGBTQIA+ urban landscapes, pointed out by Natalie Hubbs. Billy combats the stereotypes of his gender and expectations as a queer man, while inhabiting cowboy and country aesthetics. Pansy: a cowboy’s bloom attempts to disrupt notions of fixed and natural gender expression, especially those rooted in place-based expectations. The album is an act of representation. Through the lenses of kinging, low-theory, and gender performance, this work gives voice to underrepresented models of masculinity and gender queerness.