SHAE BISHOP

White Hat / Black Hat

Ceramic, underglaze

2023

photos by Loam

Any Western-loving kid in the 1940s, or Westworld viewer in 2016, could tell you that good guys wear white hats and bad guys wear black hats. The cinematic convention started in 1903 and was established in the visual language of Westerns through mid-century. In the era of black-and-white films it helped clarify the characters in action sequences, and the symbolism made sense to the largely white, Christian, American audience. Justice was personified as a white man with a gun, facing off against the transgressors of his self-evidently moral social order.

The rise of color films and revisionist Westerns diminished the convention’s use on screen, but the idea of white hats vs. black hats remained an established trope. In the digital age the terminology has even been applied to hackers: malicious black hat cybercriminals vs. law-abiding white hats testing cybersecurity. This highlights the lasting impact of Westerns’ moral symbolism, even today.

The problem is that a binary worldview not only oversimplifies good and evil but also issues like race, gender, and colonialism. The paradigm always favors one half of the perceived binary, supporting the structures that legitimize power inequality.

When you put on this hat you must be both the hero and the villain. But if you choose to reject the dichotomy just remember it’s ceramic and, unlike rigid moral and political systems, it is easily broken.

Dang Me

Ceramic, underglaze

2023

photos by Loam

Ceramic, acrylic, silver

2022

photos by Loam

Who can compare to the mighty Heracles of myth? Son of Zeus, conquerer of monsters, strongest man on earth. For millennia, from Greece to Rome to the USA, he has been a paragon of masculine ideals. By the mid-20th century the muscly strongman ideal was at its peak in America with the Golden Age of superhero comics. And alongside the cape-and-tights heroes, historical frontiersmen like Davy Crockett were increasingly mythologized into homegrown herculean characters in pulps and comic books. These beefcakes bursting out of their buckskins bested beasts and men alike. Brawn was exalted over brains. Thus, generations of boys were taught that the measure of a man is best taken around his biceps.

Ceramic, underglaze

2022

photos by Loam

The ancient Greeks believed in petty, fallible gods, and the classical heroes were part divine and just as imperfect. But in a culture that demands perfection, putting a human being on a pedestal rarely ends well. The flaws that brought ancient heroes to tragedy are just as present now as then. When our fragile heroic images topple and shatter, we are left sorting out the pieces. For all the good they inspire, all too often we must also reconcile with disappointment. That’s the trouble with heroes.

Ceramic, underglaze

2022

photos by Loam

“Cowboy” is almost synonymous with stoicism. The “strong, silent type” is the usual phrase. But does strength really come with hiding the full spectrum of emotions under a restrained facade?

Our culture has long made a masculine virtue of stubborn pride and a refusal to express our feelings. How many relationships and friendships have been harmed by this “virtue”? Maybe cowboys would be easier to love if they didn’t keep so much under their hats.

ceramic, leather, metal buckle

2022

photos by Loam

ceramic, leather, metal buckle

2022

photo by Loam

Crotalus

ceramic, underglaze

2022

photos by Loam

From the Garden of Eden to the Oregon Trail, we have cast snakes in the role of an eternal enemy. Often characterized as sly, inscrutable, and vicious, snakes are so different from ourselves that they are shrouded in fearful mystery. But this mystique also makes snakes a powerful symbol of untamed nature. The rattlesnake looms large in the mythos of the American frontier, and, like the wolf and cougar, we held it in awe at the same that we killed it relentlessly.

How many cowboys’ hatbands and belts have sported a diamondback skin to show off their mastery of nature’s dangers? This hat, instead, shows off the snake in its living glory, reminding us of snakes’ vital importance in the natural world: worthy of our respect, not our hatred.

Petromasculinity

ceramic, underglaze

2022

photos by Loam

This ceramic hat is for the coal rollers. When your fragile, fragile masculinity is attacked by the presence of a cyclist or Prius driver, you don’t take it laying down. Ohhhh no. You flood your engine with sweet diesel nectar and let loose a cloud of smoke as black as the barrel of an AR-15. Because you’re a real man, a proud boy, you love your carbon footprint, and those greenies whining about climate change and gender equality are trying to take your God-given right to be IN CHARGE.

And for all the times you can’t be rollin coal, you can still wear this hat, so everyone remembers who’s boss.

Dude

ceramic, underglaze

2022

photos by Loam

People have been saying “dude” for a long time. In the 19th century it meant a dandy, a man exaggeratedly devoted to style and fashion. From there, western slang took up “dude” to refer to fancy city dwellers in general, hence the term “dude ranch” where tourists paid to play cowboy. “Dude” entered African-American slang, was picked up by west-coast surfers and hippies, and became entrenched in stoner culture. Over time its meaning and usage broadened, largely transcending gender, region, and subculture. “Dude” is now firmly part of the mainstream lexicon.

Well dudes, whatever kind of dude you are, this hat is for you. As a dandy man from a city who likes to play cowboy, I have to admit I’m quite a dude myself.

The Higher The Heels

ceramic, underglaze

2022

photos by Loam

What’s more manly than a high heel?

Nothing, if you asked a medieval Persian cavalryman, King Louis XIV, or a 20th century cowboy. They hold your foot in the stirrup while riding, make you taller, exude confidence and prestige, and give a swagger to your walk. So when did high heels become such a symbol of femininity? Like so many other changes in fashion, it happened in the 18th century.

Before then, most high heels were worn by men. When heels, inspired by Asian riding shoes, became a fashion craze in 17th century Europe, they were a status symbol (especially red heels). Louis XIV even banned the lower classes from wearing them. But in the next century, along with a big fashion shift, men’s shoes were becoming plainer and more utilitarian, and women’s more ornamental. With few exceptions, heels ended up firmly in the feminine realm.

Later, as American western wear developed, riding boots started to have higher heels again. Cowboy style, full of exceptions to fashion norms, brought back the manly high heel.

Whatever your style, whether it’s stilettos, platforms, cubans, or cowboys, know your history and wear your heels with pride.

Ceramic

2021

photo by Loam

Eye contact is key in personal interaction. How we look at one another can say as much as the words we speak. One look from someone can tell if you are being respected or disrespected, and this is especially important when protecting your fragile masculinity. Maybe a fella looks at you funny; that’s as good as fighting words. Or maybe he had the grit to look you in the eye and talk man-to-man. What’s he thinking behind that long stare?

Rest assured, when two cowboys put on this hat you’ll never have to wonder “you lookin at me?”

modeled with Jason Bige Burnett

Ceramic, underglaze

2021

photos by Loam and Annie Evelyn

This ceramic hat is the next piece in my Fragile Masculinity series. While the wearing of cowboy hats has waned over time, another symbol of American masculinity has roared into ever-greater prominence: the pickup truck. Associated with the cowboy, farmer, construction worker, and general tough guy, few symbols loom as large in the macho pantheon as the big old American truck. Whether seen as a replacement for the horse in cowboy identity, or a connection to a bygone era of hands-on labor, the truck is central to the construction of a certain type of masculine self-image. Americans actually bought more trucks than cars for the first time ever in 2020.

Of course if there is one place you’ll hear more “pickup lines” than a bar, it’s in country music, always spreading the gospel of the truck. Since the 1960s there has been a 700% increase in the the mention of trucks in country songs, coinciding with trucks becoming ever more mainstream. Anyone who tuned into a country station in the last decade is familiar with the “Hey girl, hop in my truck, I’ll take you for a ride” mantra of bro country. If rural mid-America is the heart of the country, then the pickup truck might be its penis.

So, put on this hat if you want to want to get more truck in your life and show off your manliness. Just remember, it’s fragile.

Ceramic, underglaze, silver

2021

photos by Loam

This ceramic hat was the first of a series exploring the theme of “fragile masculinity”. The cowboy hat is an iconic emblem of American manliness as a mythic ethos, but has also been repurposed in myriad ways. Now I present it once again, in ceramic, to look at these ideas and distinctions and suggest how delicate they can be.

Floral and nature motifs in clothing only began to be perceived as female-gendered in the 19th century in the Euro-American world. But they have held a place in cowboy & western menswear which has waxed and waned, but never gone away. The influence of American Indian beadwork and embroidered folk textiles of European immigrants (all the way down to Nudie Cohn) contribute to this, but it’s a complex picture.

So, who is a “garden variety” American cowboy? The self-reliant frontiersman? The Nudie-suited 70s superstar in Hollywood? The 21st century teen questioning gender norms in fashion? In some ways the answer to all of these could be: Yes.