American Girls, American Guns: Whiteness and Transgressive Womanhood in the Sharpshooting Performances of Annie Oakley and Lillian Smith

"American Girls, American Guns: Whiteness and Transgressive Womanhood in the Sharpshooting Performances of Annie Oakley and Lillian Smith."

In the wild west show of the late 1800s, an entertainment genre dominated by feats of muscular athleticism and simulated violence, the acts of female sharpshooters operated as deviations from the show’s staple depictions of frontier masculinity, as well as appealing, if not problematic, amplifications of the mythic narrative of the U.S. American West. 

Sponsored by the Gender Institute and the Feminist Research Alliance Workshop.

For more details about the workshop series:
http://www.buffalo.edu/genderin/programs/fra.html