On the Culture of Bull Riding

When I first saw "For Bull Riders, It's a Long Day of Waiting and a Few Seconds of Fury," in the New York Times, I didn't know where to begin. I felt some deconstruction coming on, and I knew it wasn't going to be pretty, but I've been trying to inject more positive (/less negative?) posts into my repertoire. I decided to write about something else.

Then a regular Animal Person sent me:

"Check out the photo on this story.
The subject, a star rodeo rider, who makes about as much as Pacelle, 
has a shirt that says borderpatrol.gov
The connection between violence against immigrants and animals plays 
out at slaughterhouse and rodeos."

Let's deconstruct:

• 2001's rookie of the year, Luke Snyder, earned $348,560.54 the season he turned 19. That's a decade ago. $348,560.54.
• Bull riding, in my opinion, has exactly zero redeeming value and is by no means fair. Nevertheless, it has "grown exponentially" according to Flint Rasmussen, who is one of those clown-faced "entertainers" who help people like Snyder not get completely pummeled by the bull by distracting him (this is from this 2007 video the article links to). 
• "It's the cowboy against the bull, every night," we are told, as if the bull signed up for this kind of treatment.
• "People don't understand that these bulls are bred, like racehorses. That's their bloodline, to do this." Their bloodline, to be enslaved and abused and mocked. That's like saying cows are bred to be eaten so it's okay to eat them.
• "While it's happening, it's the best feeling in the world, to conquer somethin." This says it all, really. The rest of the post isn't really necessary. These men want "to conquer somethin." End of story. And of course the bull is a thing. One rider even compares bulls to rollercoasters.
• "There's no way to explain what it feels like to have a 1500 pound bull underneath you that don't want you on his back." This sorry excuse for a "sport" is just abuse dripping with machismo and it's disgraceful that in 2008 it passes for "entertainment." And that adults take their children to watch such displays, teaching them early on that this kind of behavior is not just acceptable, but admirable in a man (or a woman. Hunter Lovins, believe it or not, is a bull rider and rodeo enthusiast. Back in 2004, I asked her a question about her bull riding on Grist. Here's the cached page so you can easily find my question and her answer).
• There are rodeo groupies, called "buckle bunnies." I think you know what's coming . . .
• At a bar after an "event," where the men drink Jagermeister and Red Bull, the buckle bunnies, well . . . "Within an hour, several riders were paired with 20-something women they just met. One rider was on an ottoman, pushed onto his back by a comely blonde. She rode like a bull rider and lifted her shirt, eliminating the need for an imagination."
• Snyder goes to his hotel room, apparently after not being interested in the behavior of the women, and watches "Righteous Kill" with DeNiro and Pacino.
• The next day he does a promo for Rachel Ray (who I'm sure you know recently published a recipe for dog--in a dog magazine--that features onions).
• He wears alligator-skin boots. (Which probably attest to his manliness more than the average dead cow skin boot.)

And let's not forget the border patrol shirt.

If you haven't checked out SHARK, please do. It's not fun to read and watch, but if this kind of behavior is really growing in popularity, that worries me. And because most people aren't going to agree that bulls aren't ours to ride, knowing what makes a rodeo a rodeo is important for activists. What makes rodeo rodeo is largely it's culture, steeped in violence and domination and machismo and the belief that American "traditions," and particularly those related to the West and cowboys, have some kind of intrinsic value and need to be maintained.

But some don't. Like bull riding and rodeos, in general. They simply shouldn 't exist.

Comments

[Bea Elliott]

I think this is a bunch of wanna-be "macho" men. Excuse me for being sexist here but any "real" man need not demonstrate his "superiority" in such a fashion. I think the whole rodeo culture is made up of a bunch of whimps and sluts who idolize them. And the public that pays to see these events are sadly lacking in common sense and decency.

I go out of my way to avoid all rodeo sponsers which are listed on the Shark "corporate thugs" page:
http://www.sharkonline.org/?P=0000000352

The good news is, sometimes the bulls "win".

[Eric]

In light of your recent posts and the concern with intersectionality, this drive to conquer (dominate, etc.) the Other (or nature itself) seems to be a deep well for us to explore. Where does this drive come from? Why? What can be done to eliminate or moderate or channel it, or to keep it from developing/manifesting? Is it possible to even "reach" people in whom this drive is already strong? Why do some people seem less driven by a need to dominate than others? How responsible is culture for stoking this drive, and how do we change that?

Okay, enough rambling. Thanks for deciding to post.

[Terry Cumming]

Mary - here's a little anecdote about CBC's (Cowardly Broadcasting Corporation) television coverage of the Calgary Stampede last year.

CBC is a huge supporter/promoter of what some enlightened people in Calgary refer to as 'Hillbillyfest.' I was forcing myself to watch the coverage early in the Stampede and saw one really sad scene of a bull who had just finished performing, and, being exhausted and stressed, laid down on the ground panting. Outriders were roping him and trying to make him stand up. They got him to stand up, and he moved a little ways and again laid down in the ring. The CBC announcers were highly amused (made jokes about it). The morons in the crowd also thought this scene was hilarious. The bull finally got up again and was led out of the ring.

CBC did a show about animal exploitation and cruelty involved in the entertainment business, called 'Cruel Camera':

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/cruelcamera/video.html

CBC is a big supporter of/propaganda source for, northern "traditions" such as the Yukon Quest (and Idiotarod), the hunting and trapping of animals - they are also pretty soft in their coverage of the Canadian seal hunt.

[Roger]

Jim Mason included a good account of the rodeo (and bullfighting etc) in An Unnatural Order....

I based this on Mason:-

Many of the ritual elements of the bullfight are found in the dominionistic spectacle of the North American rodeo. Another social spectacle with yet more brave men and their weapons. Thus, while the rodeo, first and foremost, ‘replays the cowboy’s work out on the range,’ it also displays the cowboy’s skills and power over other animals, and his society’s ‘values on fearlessness, violence, strength, domination, and obliviousness to pain’. Mason (pp: 248-249) cites Rodeo, a publication of anthropologist Elizabeth Atwood Lawrence, who asserts that the modern rodeo is the result of a long history of ‘herder values and culture’. Like the matador, the rodeo cowboy is often viewed as a patriarchal, macho, figure of male sexuality, self-control and bravery in the face of danger. Rodeo riders display a certain degree of stoicism as part of North American competitive and rugged individualism: these guys do not complain when things get rough. Indeed, they personify the slogan, ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’. For example, rodeo performers regularly continue to ride even with broken limbs and strapped-up chests. And, as part of the image, these guys try to look like they would out-cool Cool Hand Luke every time.

What the rodeo is all about, however, is a socially-constructed dominionist representation of human mastery over nature in general and nonhuman animals in particular, which emphasises the ‘pioneer’ within the cowboy. As the Europeans did in Europe, the white cowboys felt they must conquer, subdue and vanquish the moral vacuum that is wild nature (Spiegel 1988: 14). On the symbolic level, the rodeo’s major theme is the herder’s literal ‘conquest of nature’ as men physically wrestle nonhuman animals to the ground. However, as with the case of the bullfight, the decks are loaded. For example, several rodeo performers may work together in teams; they are often on horseback, and have ropes, whips and other weapons. Furthermore, some of the animals used in rodeos are little more than frightened babies, used, for example, in the spectacle of ‘calf-roping’. Calf-roping often results in neck and back injuries in young animals. When calf-roping was covered regularly by US cable news service ESPN, the camera would deliberately pan back to horse and rider so viewers were spared seeing the calf ‘hitting the end of the rope and being slammed down to the ground’ (ArcNews 1996: 17). In addition, again just like in bullfighting, it is sometimes necessary to employ artificial means to provoke naturally docile individuals into the ‘wild broncos’ the public are led to expect to see being ‘tamed’ before their very eyes.

and you may be interested in my research on hunting turkeys...

Turkey hunters tend to talk about their activities in a particularly macho way, perhaps ostensibly to compensate for the type of prey they seek to kill. A turkey as prey hardly sounds the same as a ‘wild’ and potentially ‘dangerous’ ‘animal opponent’ like a bear, a moose, or even a fully-grown stag. Indeed, possibly for similar reasons, the size of the North American turkey is often carefully emphasised in hunters’ photographs of themselves and ‘their’ bird. Common iconoclastic poses tend to feature dead turkeys with their tail feathers fanned out or thrown nonchalantly over hunters’ shoulders, the birds’ lifeless heads hanging down limply with large wing feathers cascading below the conquerors’ waists. In turkey-hunter talk, male turkeys are termed ‘gobblers,’ ‘tom turkeys’ and ‘longbeards’, and these individuals are the more prized prey, while the smaller females are simply called ‘hens’ (see Van de Pitt [1998: 23-39] for a discussion of the ‘construction of the sexes’ in ornithological literature).

With unacknowledged irony, turkey hunters such as John Trout, Jr. speak of the male turkeys being rather macho, almost arrogant; strutting around, scratching at the earth, and ‘parading’ around to attract mates. Male turkeys ‘gobble’ at other birds; and they walk-the-walk, checking out the competition and the availability of females. Turkey hunters say they use their considerable knowledge of turkey behaviour against the birds, evolving clever hunting ‘strategies’ to ‘outwit’ the gobblers. Hunters also often like to emphasise the necessary expertise and skill required to successfully kill wild turkeys, who seem to the hunters capable of forever keeping themselves (the little teasers) just outside ‘killing distance’. Furthermore, dedication and perseverance are essential qualities for successful turkey killing, for any false move on a hunter’s part will be inevitably seen by the birds’ putative ‘supernatural vision’. When Trout Jr. describes his own turkey hunts, he portrays a mental and physical struggle between ‘man’ and ‘bird’. He keenly passes on his long experience of ‘bumping heads’ with ‘afternoon gobblers’; and says that by following his hunting strategies you may ‘double your fun’ in the wild turkey kill. After establishing the difficulties of battling the allegedly ‘supernatural’ gobblers, the skills of the dominionist hunter are amply demonstrated with accounts of the frequency of their successful kills. Thus, when a gobbler appears behind Trout Jr. the bird soon ‘falls victim’ to the hunter’s ‘trusty Winchester’. When two turkeys appear out of a huge valley, he wastes no time in ‘taking’ what he expertly identifies as the ‘best’ bird. By skillfully ‘calling’ to a gobbler in the manner of a female turkey:

Almost instantly, three hens and a strutting gobbler appeared on the opposite side of the field, just out of shooting range. Patiently, I raised the gun while Joe [note: two against one] took over the calling and offered the strutting bird a sweet string of clucks and purrs. The hens paid little attention, but the gobbler found the calls irresistible. Slowly he approached, and when he reached the point of no return I squeezed the trigger. The gun roared and the 4-year-old gobbler toppled.

Another strategy of human skill over animality involves targeting the guy- without-a-gal: or the ‘lonesome turkey’. After all, according to Gary Sefton, cited by Trout Jr., an experienced wildlife shooter and honoured as ‘turkey calling champion’, any male turkey is more likely to respond to calls if he has ‘no hens alongside’. Another turkey hunting strategy involves hunters attempting to ‘scream like a peacock’. This practice is apparently designed to cause ‘shock-gobble’. It seems that there is nothing like a peacock’s call to intrigue even a weary ‘afternoon turkey’ who is ‘desensitised after gobbling at crows and other turkeys all morning’: ‘The peacock call is like an extra stimulant that can force a turkey to talk when he has stopped answering the crows and other sounds that made him gobble earlier in the day’.

Focusing his analysis specifically on North America, Jim Mason (2005) argues that hunting keeps dominionist values ‘alive’ and ‘handy for all of society’. He notes that a hunter regards himself as the ‘leading’ and also the controlling species on the planet, encroaching on wildlife every day, deciding where and where not wildlife can live, and which to domesticate in order to eat. Finally, talking specifically about nonhuman animals rather than nature in general, the hunter is aware of the weighty responsibilities of having ‘total power over them’ (hunter in Greenwich News [Connecticut], cited by Mason, p. 250). Mason calls hunting ‘human society’s oldest man-over-beast ritual’, further noting that, although only a small percentage of Americans hunt themselves, society in general tacitly supports it, especially the hunting of deer. For example, the opening day of the deer hunt is described as ‘a secular day of obligation’. It appears that this North American ritual has a powerful sociological influence in terms of the maintenance of a ‘misotherous’ culture (a term coined by Mason, meaning hatred and/or contempt for animals - explored below in greater detail). For Mason, misotherous culture is transmitted and maintained through peer group and secondary socialisation processes. For example, on this significant first day of hunting, ‘schools and factories close, restaurants offer ‘sportsman’s plates’, local media sponsor Big Buck contests, and a standard greeting is, ‘Get your deer yet?’’ Mason further reports that the New York Times has poetically described the annual opening day deer-killing phenomenon ‘the song of the rifle’ in the ‘rite of autumn’ (p. 252).

[Dan]

Having lived in rodeo country for over 14 years and having met and observed some rodeo dudes, my assessment is this: strong backs and weak minds. I think the brains-to-brawn ratio is similar to the bulls, the main difference being that the bulls are larger.

Anyway, in answer to Eric’s comment, I think human behavior is fully determined by genetics and environment (i.e. cumulative life experiences up to the past millisecond), and that of the environmental factor, culture is the most influential in *most* humans. Some of us are far less affected by culture than others, but we’re the exception, not the rule. The best route to change is the path of least resistance: try to change the attitudes and behavior of those least influenced by the herd and with the most natural sense of empathy and justice and ignore the more difficult half of the herd (those who have the strongest herd instinct, the least sense of empathy and justice, and/or value and uphold traditional herd values higher than any other values). IOW, ignore those who love and uphold traditional domination and cruelty and work on those with a more open mind.

[amber]

I think the rodeo is the best thing in the world!!! those guys have balls to get on a bull. the bulls dont get hurt. we dont tie the balls together to make them buck. they are bred to buck. it's in their genes. We do breed certain cows for food, black angus for instance!!!! We also breed cows for milk, Holstien cows....I'm actually in a Dairy class. I love the rodeo world. It's my passion. They guys are great, some can be cocky but overall the guys are so nice! even the stock contractors and bull fighters are nice. I would love to see if any of yall who talk trash about bull riding, get into the arena and entertain a bull so the rider doesnt get hurt, or even get on a bull. I know some people who known bucking bulls and they said at home the bulls are fine, but when they get into the chute they know it's their job to buck. It aint harmful to them at all.

[Billie]

If you want to rant and rave about the treatment of the bulls thats fine, in all actuality, the bulls arent mistreated, but I could see where an animal activist would disagree. I think it is inappropriate to degrade the bullriders. It's not about machoism for most. It something they actually enjoy. And whos to judge someone for what they enjoy as long as it is legal! Everybody enjoys something that somebody else would look down their nose at. I would gladly list examples, but it would be a waste of time to argue opinions. Dont condemn something you (most likely) dont have first hand experience in.

[Mary martin]

Billie and Amber,
I have absolutely no problem condemning bullriding. We have no right to create animals to use and abuse how and when we want. Whether it's in the name of "sport," or "entertainment" or "food," profiting off the backs of others without their consent is unethical.

Period.

I don't need to abuse a child to know that it's wrong. And I don't need to breed and use animals when that's not necessary to know that that's wrong, too.

[Jerrad]

So.... What you are saying it is ok for horses to trained to race but it is not ok for bulls to buck? Where is your logic here? Bucking bulls are trained to do what they do( which is buck!!). The funny thing is that every one is complaining about bullriding how it is wrong, cause it hurts the bull....Really? Name one situation that a bull has got hurt! what about bucking horses is that wrong too or is that ok because that is what they do...what about racing horses they get shot up with steriods all the time should that go away to? What about dog racing they mussle the dogs mouth and they have the dogs(which were bred to run) chase a motorized rabbit so they will run in a circle? The double standerds are killing! The rodeo has been a round longer than anyone of us have. Got a question for you Mary how many bulls die in the arena ever? huh? and how many men have died? Lane frost one of my heroes died in the arena because a bull attacked him, he rode so he could support his family!
When we start talking about animal life over human life we have gone wrong somewhere cause human life is what matters the most. Am I wrong with that statement. So you say we should eat meat because the cow didnt give me a consent form saying i could kill and eat him!

[Mary]

Jerrad,
This is obviously your first time here and likely your last. But if you re-emerge allow me to clarify a couple of things that you misunderstand:
*No, I am not saying it's okay for the horses to be trained.
*No, I am not saying it's okay to force greyhounds to race.
*Who cares how long the rodeo has been around? That's irrelevant. Human slavery was around for a long, long time, too, and in fact is still around.
*No one is talking about nonhuman life over human life. We can survive quite well without harming nonhumans and it would do us no harm.
*No one who is in an arena with the purpose of using and harming an animal should be considered a hero by anyone, no matter how that situation ends.

Good day, sir.