Riding Pretty

by Laegreid, Renee M.

• ISBN13: 9780803229556
• ISBN10: 0803229550
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-10-01
• Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr

Summary

When the town of Pendleton, Oregon, held its first large-scale rodeo, it introduced a new kind of rodeo queen--not a traveling cowgirl performer but a young, middle-class woman from its own town.Riding Prettyexamines the history, evolution, and significance of the community-sponsored rodeo queen, from the introduction of this new phenomenon at the 1910 Pendleton Round-Up to the advent of Miss Rodeo America in 1956, and places the main theme--connection of queens to community--within the context of the evolution of rodeo as a spectator sport and the changing concepts of gender relations in the American West.The model for community-sponsored rodeo queens that originated in Pendleton gradually spread to other rodeos throughout the West, giving young women the opportunity to participate both in rodeo and in their communities. From 1910 to 1956, the community-sponsored rodeo queen's role expanded, both in terms of her responsibilities and in terms of the community she represented, local, regional, and national. While each community adapted the rodeo queen phenomenon to suit the characteristics of its own celebration, the main characteristics of the role remained: the rodeo queen as a symbol of the local rodeo and as a metaphor for western women.

Author Biography

Renee M. Laegreid is an assistant professor of history at Hastings College.

Table of Contents

Community-sponsored rodeo queens : Pendleton's first go-round, 1910-1917	p. 18
"Who will reign as queen?" : community queens return to the Pendleton Round-Up, 1921-1929	p. 40
A new kind of community rodeo queen : sponsor girls at the Texas Cowboy Reunion	p. 71
Riding pretty : the glamour years begin, 1930-1941	p. 95
"We like it western!" : redefining rodeo queens	p. 117
"It was great being queen" : the postwar era, 1944-1955	p. 141
All-girl rodeos : challenging the definition of rodeo queen	p. 173
From local community to national : Miss Rodeo America	p. 196
Pendleton Round-Up queens and princesses, 1910-1959	p. 213
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