Gender, Misogyny, and Bull Riding in Urban Cowboy

Gender, Misogyny, and Bull Riding in Urban Cowboy (1980, directed by James Bridges)


Definitely not a modern film in terms of gender roles, Urban Cowboy is Texas working class values to the hilt. Men are men and girls are girls.

Bud (John Travolta) moves to Pasadena from Spur, Texas. He works a dangerous job at a refinery during the day and carouses at Gilley’s at night. He meets Sissy (Debra Winger) and they fall in love and get married about a week later.

Marital bliss is interrupted when the mechanical bull is installed at Gilley’s. All of a sudden, it is all about who can ride that bull.

Bud is obsessed with it. He rides it over and over again. Sissy says she wants to ride the bull, but Bud refuses, “Girls don’t do that.” He tells her that it is too dangerous. She rides it anyway. She taunts him that she can ride it better than he can. Bud slaps her.

Wes comes onto the scene. He rides the mechanical bull better than anyone else. This bothers Bud.

Being a Cowboy…

When Sissy asks Bud, “Are you a real cowboy?” she’s asking him if he’s a man. Trouble between Wes and Bud starts when Sissy acknowledges Wes’ superiority on the mechanical bull, “You’re a real cowboy, ain’t ya!” This is not a question. Bud is livid. Sissy has pointed out the new alpha male at Gilley’s, ensuring that Bud’s status is shaky at best.

Wes is a convicted felon. When Sissy slips away to Gilley’s while Bud is working, Wes teaches her how to ride the bull and seems to nurture her independence. As an outlaw, he is free from societal constraints. Wes is free, but he is also dangerous. Sissy is drawn to him (as is Bud, evidenced when, at the prison rodeo he comments that convicts are the best bull riders because “they don’t care if they get hurt”) as he allows her to do what Bud has forbidden.

The Bull Becomes a Steer

Interestingly, as Bud and Pam leave Gilley’s (following his charming invitation to mate of, “So when you gonna take me home and rape me”), she tells her friends, “I found me a cowboy.” Pam tells Bud that she has a weakness for cowboys – certainly a fetish. She takes care of Bud, buys him things, which makes him uncomfortable. In Bud and Pam’s relationship, there is an obvious role reversal, where although Pam attaches the label of cowboy to Bud, she takes the lead to the extent that it is somewhat emasculating.



Being a Lady

And so Sissy rides the bull against Bud’s wishes. Riding the mechanical bull, within the world of Urban Cowboy, is a virtually unmistakable analogy for sex. The scene where Sissy rides the bull to taunt Bud and Pam is little less than soft porn: she is thrusting, sweaty, and bereft of a bra. It is an act meant to flaunt her independence, to convey to her estranged husband that she is powerful and sexy on her own and doesn’t need him - but it ultimately backfires. Bud recoils. Aunt Corine and Uncle Bob look embarrassed. Sissy hasn’t mastered the bull; she’s only managed to make herself look like a slut.

While Sissy naively puts herself on display, Pam keeps a mounted saddle behind the closed doors of her bedroom, indicating that her sexuality is something that she keeps hidden. Pam is discreet. She would never wish to ride the bull, especially in front of others. This is a fundamental difference between Sissy and Pam, and Bud recognizes it, telling Sissy that he found a real lady.

Sissy doesn’t clean the trailer, nor does she keep food in the kitchen. Bud is angry and embarrassed that there wasn’t even a box of instant when he wants cornbread, implying that Sissy isn’t doing her job as a wife; she isn’t being a good woman. And what’s worse, Aunt Corine has taken notice: “Y’all live like pigs!”

Indeed, Sissy isn’t much of a woman. For starters, her name is Sissy – which is a name given to a child. She’s young; she’s immature. There are frequent references to Sissy as a “girl” throughout the film. Limitations on what girls can or cannot do are frequently imposed by Bud when Sissy hits the bag on the punching machine or rides the bull.

Too Much of a Man?

Despite Sissy’s displays of independence, she leaves Bud’s trailer for Wes’ trailer (and I wonder why she didn’t just go to her parent’s trailer). Turns out that Wes has the same expectations of a woman as did Bud. However, when Sissy resists, Wes is even more abusive than Bud, hitting her or grabbing her by the hair to force her to pick up the carton of cigarettes that she has thrown at him for cheating on her. Wes, the uber-cowboy, is a brutal criminal, and Sissy finds herself in a considerably weaker position than when she was with Bud. Deciding to focus on the lesser of two evils, Sissy knows she has to straighten up and fly right if she wants to win Bud back.

So Sissy plays the good woman, cleans up Bud’s trailer, as Kenny Rogers loves the world away. She writes him a heartfelt apology note that he will never see.

And Pam, being no fool, decides to move into the trailer after she discovers that Sissy has cleaned it. No doubt she notes Bud’s delight to find that his castle is clean. As a lady, she knows what Bud expects from a woman; she has dinner and a custom made shirt ready for him when he returns from work.

And the Winner is…

In spite of domestic abuse, alcoholism, slovenliness, and adultery, Sissy and appear to grow up and realize that true love is worth hanging onto. Although Bud apologizes for hitting Sissy and regains his alpha cowboy status at Gilley’s by winning the mechanical bull contest and beating the living shit out of Wes for hitting Sissy, it is undeniably Sissy’s behavior that has to change. She tells Bud that she doesn’t want to ride the bull anymore in a subdued and childish voice. Wes is arrested for trying to rob Gilley’s. Bud restores Sissy’s nameplate in the rear window of the pickup truck. They proclaim their love for each other and head back to the trailer. Order is restored.

Does Sissy grow up or is she simply beaten down, realizing that Bud’s occasional slap in the face is a damned sight better than the brutality of a former convict?

The real tragedy is that while Sissy is squatting in a steamy, battered tin can of a trailer outside of Gilley’s with Wes, Bud is “uptown” with Pam, living the high life in affluent Houston. While Pam, despite being a real lady, ultimately wears the pants in the relationship with Bud, I’ll assert that Sissy’s options are considerably more limited. Bud is very clearly the best option for her, yet Bud demonstrated that he could, and did, branch out.

Hell of a couple of weeks.