# Gay gunslinger riles rednecks **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 10, 2002, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798 "2002-12-10T17:44:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/21 "2002-12-12T17:11:34Z")
Just as well my brother isn’t a comics maven as I’d just be getting it for him as camp value. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/22 "2002-12-12T17:55:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cervaise \* > \*\*“Oh _no!_ A comic book character who has the same hobby we do is _gay!_ I hope that don’t turn _us_ gay, too!” > > I find it hard to muster much sympathy for the conservative cowpokes.\*\* Although there is some of that (overtly) , most of the criticism I’ve seen falls into one of two categories. Either it’s from gay or pro-gay folks who think this is going to be a bunch of broad stereotypes done as a publicity stunt (sort of a gay minstrel show), or it’s from folks upset by the revamping of continuity. I honestly don’t have a lot of sympathy for the latter view, as at least some of it is a cover for the homophobia (whether the critics realize it or not). But some of it, at least, is legitimate in that it disapproves not of making a cowboy comic book character gay, but it disapproves of making a gay character out of a character with about a decade’s worth of published adventures in which he was portrayed as pretty aggressively straight. That is, they would have the same reaction if he was portrayed in these new comics as a time traveller from the future, a nazi spy, or a poor shot. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/23 "2002-12-12T18:33:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Max Carnage \* > \*\*…and I just realized why they chose to focus on _Rawhide_ Kid. \*\* The question is, is he gonna be a _Bareback Rider_?😉 ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/24 "2002-12-12T18:49:08Z")
I think its obvious Marvel is angling for publicity by riling up the very people who are getting so riled. They could’ve made up an entirely new cowboy and made him gay, but instead resurrected an icon popular with a conservative demographic. I call it the “NYPD Blue” tactic: do something outrageous to piss off conservatives (who seem to be the only people who get outraged much these days anyway, or at least who get much press when they do) so you get lots of free publicity. Then people will tune in to see what all the fuss is about. Marvel must really be hoping to sell a lot of this new comic, to float a stupid story like this. Probably 50,000 dopes will snap up issue #1, “just to see what all the fuss is about”, and someone in Marvel’s marketing department will get a raise. Phegh. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/25 "2002-12-12T18:53:19Z")
A gay cowboy is one that rapes the male livestock, right? Goddamn, what’s wrong with people these days. That’s just wrong. Stick with the cows. They don’t have horns. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/26 "2002-12-12T19:17:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Max Carnage \* > \*\*…and I just realized why they chose to focus on _Rawhide_ Kid. \*\* No, no. It’s \*Rawhi **nd**! There’s even a theme song for him: _Colon, colon colon, I’m pounding on your colon! Your colon is swollen. Rawhind! Push it in! Pull it out! Push it in! Pull it out!_ William S. Burroughs wrote several novels which featured gay cowboys, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/27 "2002-12-12T19:20:47Z")
It looks like CNN will be [covering](http://www.newsarama.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=000118) the story. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/28 "2002-12-12T19:42:01Z")
What gets me is Marvel isn’t “introducing” an openly gay title character. Rawhide Kid has been around for decades. They’re rewriting a character to make him gay when there has been nothing in the past 50 years to indicate otherwise. But then Zimmerman is worse about throwing out continuity than John Byrne so it’s not surprising. I have no problem with gay characters (Northstar et al). Great! It makes the books a little more believable (in as much as guys shooting lasers from their eyes is ‘believable’) but to do it just for a lark is nuts. Yet here I am talking about it which is what Marvel wants. The price I pay for being a Marvel Zombie. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/29 "2002-12-12T21:41:18Z")
If they make a black-and-white movie of him eating pudding, they can show it at independant film festivals. Independent films are _always_ about gay cowboys eating pudding. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/30 "2002-12-12T22:31:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > \*\*Stick with the cows. They don’t have horns. \*\* You’re obviously not a cowboy. Back to biology 101. Horns are not a sex characteristic of cattle. ---
**Author:** ![robertliguori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/46a35a/32.png) [@robertliguori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robertliguori)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/31 "2002-12-12T23:04:10Z")
Shoot. I opened this tread expecting to read about an attempted gay-bashing gone wrong (or very right, actually). ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/32 "2002-12-12T23:41:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by robertliguori \* > \*\*Shoot. I opened this tread expecting to read about an attempted gay-bashing gone wrong (or very right, actually). \*\* Actually the discussion/flame war going on over [pinkpistols.org](http://pinkpistols.org) ahas got the cowboy shooters in a bigger uproar than The Rawhide Kid. Go to the webpage Kalashikov posted and you’ll find a very appropriate motto. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/33 "2002-12-12T23:59:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cliffy \* > **most of the criticism I’ve seen falls into one of two categories. Either it’s from gay or pro-gay folks who think this is going to be a bunch of broad stereotypes done as a publicity stunt (sort of a gay minstrel show)** You mean like the top-ten sitcom “Will and Grace”? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/34 "2002-12-13T01:11:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Padeye \* > \*\*You’re obviously not a cowboy. Back to biology 101. Horns are not a sex characteristic of cattle. \*\* What the hell you talking about Willis? Cows = no horns Steers, bulls = horns. ---
**Author:** ![Narile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@Narile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Narile)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/35 "2002-12-13T02:13:19Z")
My problem with it isn’t that its a gay character, its that they are ‘reinventing’ an already existing character. A trend that I loathe in hollywood, and anywhere else for that matter. Just create a new character…or is originality that hard for you? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/36 "2002-12-13T03:22:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > \*\*What the hell you talking about Willis? > > Cows = no horns > > Steers, bulls = horns.\*\* You’re probably thinking of the fearsome mutant Tasmanian groundhogs **Scylla**. I understand that horns are a sexual trait with them. However, in the more mundane domesticated bovine, cows and bulls both have horns. Modern farm practices encourage de-horning cattle of both sexes, so you don’t normally see horned cattle nowadays. Here’s a couple of sites with illustrations of Texas long-horned [heifers](http://www.lazyhillranch.com/breeding_heifers.htm) and [brood cows](http://www.lazyhillranch.com/brood_cows.htm). Here’s a couple of sites with more info than you’ll ever need on the genetic principles governing the inheritance of horns and polled cattle: [USask site](http://sask.usask.ca/~schmutz/polled.html) [Hereford site](http://www.hereford.org/Genetics/FS/hps.html). And here’s a typical bit of scholarly understatement on the [de-horning process](http://www.agsci.ubc.ca/animalwelfare/projects/dehornart.html): > [@](#): > > Even when the procedure is carried out at an early age, hot-iron dehorning causes a pronounced behavioural response such that significant physical restraint is necessary to carry out the procedure. ---
**Author:** ![lothos2002](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/df788c/32.png) [@lothos2002](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lothos2002)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/37 "2002-12-13T04:01:46Z")
\*\*Scylla[b/], really, have you NEVER seen a cow? of course they have horns. They are just not BIG horns, but there are two bony protusions on the top of their heads that are called HORNS. And \*\*Northern Piper[b/], was the gruesome animal cruelty quote necessary? wouldn’t a link to a picture of a nice grazing cow have sufficed? As for the OP, I think its cool that there is a gay character in the comic books, although they are saying that he won’t be openly gay, only that there will be some “euphemisms and double entendres” used. Does that mean they should call it “Rawhide Kid:Slap some leather in the closet¨” ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/38 "2002-12-13T16:02:19Z")
Well the title of the book _is_ “Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather.” And in the picture in the link in the OP, his right handed gun is being held in an oh-so-phallic manner. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/39 "2002-12-13T16:07:45Z")
Whoops! Not the OP link…[this one.](http://www.newsarama.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=000118) Sorry about that, Chief. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798/40 "2002-12-13T16:18:27Z")
So sorry Scylla. I’ve dehorned many a bull and heifer calf on my granddad’s Montana ranch and it was an unpleasant process as was castrating the bull calves. “hot-iron dehorning causes a pronounced behavioural response such that significant physical restraint is necessary to carry out the procedure.” That’s putting an awfully pleasant spin on it. We used a steel gouge for dehorning but branding was still hot back in those days. Well that’s the most bizarre hijack I think I’ve ever on SDMB. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gay-gunslinger-riles-rednecks/141798.md?page=3)