The Texas Liberal Press and the Image of White Texas Masculinity, 1938-1963

Figure 1.

Title cover from the Emancipator, September 1938. DI 03086, courtesy Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

The popular image of white men in Texas has long been used and molded by those in film, literature, and society who wished to promote their own political, cultural, or social agenda or, indeed, challenge what they perceived as the sociopolitical norm. What this article intends to show is that the popular image of white Texas manhood became, in the period under discussion, an important symbol of all that the liberal press in Texas believed was wrong with Texas society. The three outlets for Texas political liberalism that will be examined here, each, to varying degrees, displayed an understanding of the cultural, social, and political relevance of the Texas male image. The resentment toward the image that existed in the Texas liberal press, especially when it became a significant issue in the mid-1950s, was primarily directed at those who benefited from the image in the Texas business and political elites. However, bitterness was also aimed at those in the media, literature, and the entertainment industries who were seen as the promoters of the image.

Stereotypes surrounding white Texas masculinity were, and remain, pervasive among sections of the American public. The current president of the United States, George W. Bush, was raised in Texas and that knowledge brings with it an immediate and definite perception of his character. It is difficult to find an analysis of Bush that does not in some way attribute his demeanor and actions to his home state. Social commentators, cartoonists, and journalists regularly use a variety of cowboy metaphors and images to describe Bush. The president himself recognizes the benefits of a Texas male persona and exploits it at every opportunity. At the Republican National Convention in New York in September 2004, for instance, Bush said, "Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called 'walking.'"¹ This allusion to the idea that the men of Texas carry themselves with a confident, no-nonsense deportment struck a chord with his elite, powerful, and predominantly white Republican audience, who perhaps saw in his Texas swagger a notion that was close to their vision of the American male ideal. The sentiment behind the Bush statement and its natural appeal to a constituency that has traditionally represented socioeconomic privilege in the United States are central to the arguments made in this article.

To many liberal Texans, the popular image of Texas and its manhood increasingly became an irritant. It is not surprising that those Texans who sought to represent the views and concerns of the powerless should resent the domination of a popular masculine image that centered on the characteristics most commonly associated with the powerful. The appearance of another nationally recognized male stereotype, the oil millionaire, which came to rival the cowboy/rancher in Texas male iconography, did not soothe the Texans annoyed at the appropriation of the cowboy image. In the immediate post–World War II period, representatives of this small but highly visual section of the Texas population were feted by the nation's journalists and written about in countless magazine articles. The crass materialism of the "big rich" gave the concept of white Texas maleness a distinctly political feel. Millionaires, of course, were closely identified with the spirit of capitalist entrepreneurship, which itself fitted neatly with the ideas and principles of the conservative political establishment. Therefore, the image of white Texas masculinity that these men personified was a direct link between the popular image of the state's maleness and those men who ran the state politically and economically.²

For many social commentators of a liberal bent, the image itself was pure hokum. For others, the use of the Texas male image by the Texas establishment represented part of an insidious strategy by which the ruling elite sought to promote itself and the values they believed they represented, as the heart of Texas culture. The one...