THESIS
THE “HYBRID HERO” IN WESTERN DIME NOVELS:
AN ANALYSIS OF WOMEN’S GENDER PERFORMANCE, DRESS, AND IDENTITY IN
THE DEADWOOD DICK SERIES.
Submitted by
Cameron Moon
Department of Design and Merchandising
In partial fulfillment of the requirements
For the Degree of Master of Science
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, Colorado
Summer 2012
Master’s Committee:
Advisor: Jennifer Ogle
Eulanda Sanders
Linda Carlson
Tracy Brady
ABSTRACT
THE “HYBRID HERO” IN WESTERN DIME NOVELS: AN ANALYSIS OF
WOMEN’S GENDER PERFORMANCE, DRESS, AND IDENTITY IN THE DEADWOOD
DICK SERIES
As rapid urbanization and growth in the 19th century pushed families westward, men and
women often found themselves sharing in domestic and work-related activities. In turn, these
changes in gender roles brought about attendant changes in norms for gendered dress behaviors,
particularly for women. One valuable window into the lives of 19th century Americans can be
found in the American dime novel. Though they are fictionalized accounts of western characters’
exploits, dime novels are grounded in some historical fact, and thus, they can provide rich
understanding of frontier life. Thus, this research was undertaken to gain an understanding of
dime novels’ reflection of 19th century American society, including women’s negotiation of
frontier life through the manipulation of gender, dress, and appearance. More specifically, the
purpose of this research was to explore how dress – including cross-dressing and androgynous
dress – is used by dime novel authors to construct meanings about gender and identity. The
research was informed by the works of Judith Butler and Erving Goffman on performativity and
by reflection theory, which are useful for understanding the complex relationships between
society and literature.
Five western dime novels from the Deadwood Dick series, authored by Edward Wheeler
between 1877 and 1885, were selected for analysis. Data were collected by extracting all
references to women’s appearances, including dress and the situated body, within the texts of the
selected novels. Data were analyzed using the thematic analysis approach to narrative inquiry.
Analyses revealed the importance of dress and gender performance as a means of situating
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female characters in their geographic and bodily spaces and places on the frontier. Whether
female characters used traditional feminine dress, androgynous dress, or cross-dressing, there
was evidence of shifting gender norms and gendered dress behaviors throughout the series.
The majority of female characters in the Deadwood Dick series wore traditional feminine
dress and performed in conventional ways, reinforcing traditional gender binaries. Consistent
with the Cult of True Womanhood, the virtues of piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity
were embodied in these performances. However, there were instances in which female characters
were forced to act outside the private sphere and to alter their dress and gender performances.
The duality of characters’ gendered role behaviors in these situations supports Cogan’s (1989)
notion of Real Womanhood, which provides an expanded view of women’s roles.
The female protagonist of the series, Calamity Jane, adopted androgynous dress as a
means by which to navigate and participate in the male-dominated public sphere with ease,
confidence and power. Despite receiving negative reviews of her androgynous dress, Calamity
made no alterations to her dress or performance, allowing her to challenge traditional gender
binaries, to gain empowerment, and to maintain a nontraditional gender identity. As the series
progressed and the 19th century came to close, issues of androgynous dress became less of a
focal point in the series, revealing perhaps that nontraditional gender performances became more
acceptable.
Female characters utilized cross-dressing as a means of navigating temporary changes in
space and place, such as westward movement, and for participating in the public sphere. Two
uses of cross-dressing were discovered: cross-dressing for disguise and cross-dressing for
survival. Cross-dressing for disguise was typically undertaken for purposes of rescuing others
and solving wrong-doings, whereas cross-dressing for survival was enacted for purposes of
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escaping a male character. Although cross-dressing for purposes of disguise was presented as a
more acceptable form of cross-dressing, for the most part, characters who cross-dressed were
able to gain empowerment through their performances.
Findings provide insight into ways in which westering and pioneer women, both fictional
and real, utilized appearance and gender performance to navigate and negotiate a multiplicity of
geographic and bodily locations. Androgynous dress and cross-dressing allowed female
characters to be “hybrid heroes” in that they participated in different plots by creating multiple
identities through changes in appearance (Jones, 1978). The findings provide further knowledge
about changing gender performances in the 19th century and are consistent with previous work
about real-life pioneers, thus supporting reflection theory.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................1
Background .........................................................................................................................1
Purpose................................................................................................................................3
Research Questions .............................................................................................................4
Limitations ..........................................................................................................................4
Assumptions........................................................................................................................4
Definitions...........................................................................................................................5
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................7
Nineteenth Century American Society ...............................................................................7
Western Relocation and Movement .................................................................................. 11
Gender, Identity, and Dress on the Frontier ...................................................................... 15
Nineteenth Century Literature as a Reflection of National Character .............................. 20
Theoretical Groundings .................................................................................................... 26
Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 30
CHAPTER THREE: METHOD ................................................................................................... 33
Narrative Inquiry............................................................................................................... 33
Sample and Data Collection.............................................................................................. 34
Data Analysis .................................................................................................................... 35
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................. 37
APPENDIX I: CODING GUIDE ................................................................................................. 43
APPENDIX II: MANUSCRIPT ................................................................................................... 45
The “Hybrid Hero” in Western Dime Novels: An Analysis of Women’s Gender
Performance, Dress, and Identity in the Deadwood Dick Series ...................................... 46
Literature Review.............................................................................................................. 47
Theoretical Groundings .................................................................................................... 51
Research Questions ........................................................................................................... 53
Method .............................................................................................................................. 53
Results ............................................................................................................................... 56
Traditionally Feminine Dress Juxtaposed against Constructions of 19th Century
American Womanhood.............................................................................................. 56
The Role of Androgynous Dress in Creating Nontraditional Gender Identity.......... 58
Appearance ........................................................................................................ 59
Manners.............................................................................................................. 62
Cross-Dressing as a Means of Navigating Temporary Changes in Space and Place 64
Cross-dressing for disguise ................................................................................ 65
Cross-dressing for survival ................................................................................ 66
Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 69
References ......................................................................................................................... 72
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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background
During the nineteenth century, as American society became more industrialized, cities
along the east coast, such as New York and Boston, grew exponentially (Denning, 1998). The
influx of immigrants and others to the cities during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries propagated the need for expansion and more space. Thus, men and women crowded
out by the growing city population headed west towards the “continually advancing frontier line”
(Turner, 1920, p. 2) in search of a place where they could make a new home and escape “the
economic, geographical, and social confines of civilization” (Brown, 1997, p. 4).
As rapid urbanization and growth pushed families westward to seek new opportunities,
men and women often found themselves sharing in domestic and work-related activities. In
order to survive the journey west and life on the frontier, men and women were forced to assume
nontraditional gender roles. Men often took part in traditionally feminine duties such as cooking
and cleaning, while women took on masculine duties such as farming, working outdoors, and
tending animals and livestock (Degler, 1992; Helvenston, 1986; Jeffrey, 1998; Schlissel, 1992).
In turn, changes in gender roles and norms incited by westward movement brought about
attendant changes in norms for gendered dress behaviors, particularly for women. Although
many women continued to wear traditional feminine dress, they often had to make adaptations to
some of the more cumbersome and impractical components of feminine dress in order to perform
their new roles and duties with more ease. On the other hand, many women incorporated
components of traditional masculine dress into their own wardrobes to create androgynous
appearances. In other cases, women engaged in “cross-dressing,” adopting completely
masculine dress. Androgynous dress and cross-dressing became common among frontier women
1
for several reasons: to accommodate the physical lifestyle of the frontier, to negotiate the
hegemonic power relationships between men and women on the frontier, to participate in maledominated roles, and to assert a measure of independence from the rigid norms of nineteenth
century society.
One important window into the lives of nineteenth century Americans – including shifts
in norms for gendered role behaviors such as dress – can be found in the American dime novel.
Although works of fiction, many scholars consider dime novels to be important primary sources
of information about nineteenth century American society, pioneer and western life, and
working-class culture (Brown, 1997; Denning, 1998; Jones, 1978; O’Brien, 1922; Smith, 1978).
In particular, dime novels have been said to aptly reflect the national character and social
struggles of nineteenth century America:
[Dime novels are] literally saturated with the pioneer spirit of America. [The dime novel
collection] portrays the struggles, exploits, trials, dangers, feats, hardships, and daily lives
of the American pioneers…. It is a literature intensely nationalistic and patriotic in
character; obviously designed to stimulate adventure, self-reliance and achievement; to
exalt the feats of the pioneer men and women who settled the country; and to recite the
conditions under which those early figures lived and did their work. (O’Brien, 1922, p.
3)
Because dime novels were generally read by, and written for the working class, the content and
the themes present were those that were easily identifiable and relatable to workers (Brown,
1997; Denning, 1998). Themes of perseverance, hard work, morality, loyalty, strength,
adventure, and self-reliance were common throughout all dime novel genres, including Western,
detective, sport, and working class novels. The ability of dime novel authors to create characters
who related to the appearance, manners, and attitudes of the “unknown public…the million,”
although performing heroic or dangerous tasks in various settings, was integral in creating such a
large and devoted readership (Brown, 1997; Denning, 1998).
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Dime novels also have been said to “present a more accurate and vivid picture of the
appearance, manner, speech, habits and methods of the pioneer western characters than do the
more formal historians” (O’Brien, 1922, p. 3). Although it should be acknowledged that there
were some larger-than-life western females such as Martha Cannary, otherwise known as
Calamity Jane, dime novels often sensationalized historical fact for the purposes of entertainment
and selling books (Cox, 2000). Though grounded in some reality and historical fact, it is
important to remember that dime novels provide an author’s imagined and fictionalized vision of
western characters and their exploits. With this in mind, the examination of dime novels will
provide a valuable perspective from which to understand changing nineteenth century American
society and westward expansion. Additionally, dime novels will be a useful tool in gaining a
rich understanding of the conditions in which pioneer women worked and negotiated their
appearances, genders, and identities through the use of androgynous dress and cross-dressing.
Purpose
The research examined how the fictional world of western dime novels represent and
create western heroines based on historical truth, and to what degree the two worlds are
reflective of each other. Further, this research explored a selection of dime novels for their use
of androgynous dress and cross-dressing among female characters as a means of creating new
identities and spaces in which to negotiate the demands of life on the western frontier. As such,
the purpose of this research was to analyze selected dime novels from the Deadwood Dick series
to gain an understanding of dime novels’ reflection of nineteenth century American society,
including women’s relocation to the West, women’s cross-dressing and use of androgynous
dress, and women’s negotiation of frontier life through the manipulation of gender, dress, and
appearance. Given the focus of this work upon dime novels as a window into the lives of
3
frontier women, only those novels that feature Calamity Jane, the series’ main female character,
were analyzed. To inform the analysis, three theoretical frameworks were utilized: reflection
theory, performativity, and ecology of the self.
Research Questions
The following questions were used to guide the present research project:
1. What roles do female characters play in the Deadwood Dick series?
2. How do dime novel authors use dress and appearance to describe female characters?
3. How is gender performed in the Deadwood Dick series?
4. How is androgynous dress and cross-dressing used by female characters to perform
gender in the Deadwood Dick series?
5. How does dress create a sense of identity and place for female characters?
6. How do dime novels from the Deadwood Dick series reflect 19th century American
values and social concerns?
Limitations
Due to the breadth of dime novels available, including story papers, pamphlet novels, and
cheap libraries, the researcher had to identify a rather small selection of dime novels based on
format, genre, and series. A sample of five western pamphlet dime novels from the Deadwood
Dick series was selected for analysis. Further, the sample was further narrowed down to include
those that featured a recurring major female character. The sample size and scope are not
representative of all western dime novels or other genres of dime novels.
Assumptions
The author assumes that works of fiction such as dime novels may reflect, to an extent,
the values, mores, and norms of the time period they were created in. Therefore, it was assumed
4
that dime novels reflect, to an extent, nineteenth century American society. Additionally,
descriptions of dress and appearance in the dime novel selection were assumed to be accurate
and representative of nineteenth century norms.
Definitions
Androgynous: an attempt to neutralize gender differences by “unit[ing] male and female” in one
body (Arnold, 2001, p.122).
Appearance: includes aspects of the body that can be perceived by the human senses; comprises
dress, the situated body, and its attributes (e.g., age, health, skin, color, stature, mood, etc.)
(Lillethun, 2007).
Cross-dressing: the adoption of dress and appearance by a gender opposite than that which
society deems socially acceptable (Arnold, 2001; Butler, 1990).
Dress: any type of body modification or body supplement, such as garments, accessories,
jewelry, hair styles, makeup, and piercings (Roach-Higgins & Eicher, 1992).
Dime novel: a wide range of commercial, mass-produced popular fiction narratives in the form
of story papers, pamphlet novels (the most common form), and the cheap library (a series of
pamphlet novels in one book) published between the 1840s and 1890s (Brown, 1997; Denning,
1998, O’Brien, 1922). Pocket-sized books about a hundred pages in length featuring woodcut
illustrations on the covers, and were sold for anywhere from five to twenty-five cents (Denning,
1998).
Fashion: “a form of human behavior and product of human behavior, which is widely accepted
for a limited time and is replaceable by another fashion that is an acceptable substitute” (Roach
& Musa, 1980, p. 19).
5
Frontier: characterized by movement from East to West across America, predominately in the
trans-Mississippi West (Helvenston, 1990; Jeffrey, 1998; Turner, 1920); both a place and a
process that serves as “a place of cultural contact and interaction between groups” (Jeffrey, 1998,
p. 6).
Gender: gender is not fixed, but rather is created and transformed through human interactions
and as a part of social life. Humans are born with a sex, but gender is socially constructed
(Butler, 1990).
Identity: “can include public, private, and secret selves that may have many dimensions” (e.g.,
cultural, ethnic, subcultural, gender, sexual, etc.) (Lillethun, 2007, p. 121). Humans have
multiple identities that comprise the self; these identities are shaped and influenced by gender,
dress, and appearance.
Politics of location: relocation and negotiation of new locations results in women experiencing
these new spaces or locations differently. How individuals experience the world and who they
become is shaped by the various locations, both geographic and bodily, that they find themselves
in. There are a variety of spaces where women can challenge traditional gender binaries,
conceptualize changes to their environments, and adapt to changing locations (Blunt & Rose,
1994; Rich, 1993; Roberson, 1998a).
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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
This review of literature is organized into six sections. The first five sections are devoted
to an analysis of empirical findings, whereas the last section provides a review of the theoretical
frameworks utilized in the research. The first section provides background information on
nineteenth century American society, including the social, political, and economic climate as
well as discussion of traditional gender roles. The second section reviews previous work on
gender, dress, and identity. The third section discusses issues related to western relocation and
movement, and the fourth section examines the evolution of fashion on the frontier. The dime
novel as a reflection of national character is discussed in the fifth section. The theoretical
frameworks reviewed in the last section include reflection theory, performativity, and ecology of
the self. The review concludes with a summary of existing work.
Nineteenth Century American Society
The advent of the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century brought about
substantial changes to the social, political, and economic climate of American society. As
industries grew overnight, so did the national wealth and independent fortunes of “a new breed
of capitalists,” including railroad builders, lumber kings, meat packers, steel barons, and oil men,
who came to dominate American industry and society (Jones, 1978, p. 10). Although
industrialization brought with it advances in transportation, electricity, and industrial processes,
for the average American citizen, it also brought a changing and sometimes uncertain future. As
a result of the Industrial Revolution, local shops and industries went out of business as they were
replaced by large industrialized factories, mechanization and cheap immigrant labor created job
loss, and the dynamic of neighborhoods was forever changed by the influx of immigrants (Jones,
1978). In the last few decades of the nineteenth century, industrialization also resulted in the
7
significant increase of women and children working in industry, which coupled with the rapidly
changing social, political, and economic landscape of American society, challenged traditional
gender roles.
Changing Gender Roles
Traditional gender roles of the nineteenth century were divided between two spheres: the
domestic and the public. The domestic sphere belonged to women, who were expected to be
pious, pure, submissive, and domestic beings in the comfort and refuge of their homes (Gordon,
2003; Welter, 1966). Women were expected to work in silence and to be unseen members of the
home where they acted as religious and moral authorities. On the other hand, “men were the
movers, the doers, the actors” who operated in the public sphere (Welter, 1966, p. 159). Male
gender norms valued rank, power, and personal strength. Women’s work in the domestic sphere
was for the sake of unburdening their husbands so that they could operate properly and
efficiently in the public sphere as breadwinners and community leaders. However, the rapid
industrialization of the latter half of the nineteenth century resulted in the blurring of traditional
gender roles and norms. While industrialization and urbanization created more job opportunities
for women, it also encouraged many families to move westward in search of open space and the
opportunity for a life more reminiscent of pre-Industrial Revolution America (Denning, 1998;
Jones, 1978). These changes served as the necessary conduit for shifts in traditional gender
roles, as women and men were increasingly called upon to share in the duties of both the
domestic and public spheres.
Life on the frontier demanded that men and women take on a variety of tasks and roles
that were not normally acceptable in nineteenth century society. For instance, it was necessary
for men and women to share in domestic and work-related activities to ensure their families’
8
survival and to achieve economic improvement. Often, men would perform duties traditionally
ascribed to women, such as cooking, cleaning, and tending to the children. In addition to
performing domestic duties, women were also called upon to take part in farming, take care of
animals and livestock, fight floods and fires, work outdoors, and perform physical labor
(Helvenston, 1986; Jeffrey, 1998; Myres, 1982; Schlissel, 1992). The work that women took
part in on the frontier allowed them “to regain some of the economic importance they had lost as
a result of nineteenth-century industrialization,” which, in turn, helped to foster empowerment,
self-reliance, and confidence (Helvenston, 1990, p. 150). Although the merging of male and
female gender roles would normally be viewed as improper, on the frontier it was a normal
occurrence that was viewed positively by most. In 1864, the editor of the Union Sentinel said of
frontier women: “Under ordinary circumstances, this would be improper and unbecoming, but
now is praiseworthy, and gives us proof of the solid and at the same time class character and
good sense of American women” (in Helvenston, 1990, p. 148).
The Cult of True/Real Womanhood
Barbara Welter’s (1966) cult of True Womanhood has become the lens through which
many historians and scholars of nineteenth century American studies have viewed women and
women’s roles in society. Through the examination of women’s magazines published between
1820 and 1860, Welter determined that “woman, in the cult of True Womanhood…was the
hostage in the home” (p. 151). The attributes of True Womanhood were determined to be piety,
purity, submissiveness, and domesticity, all of which promised happiness and power. These four
virtues were best performed, practiced, and refined in woman’s “proper sphere,” the home
(Welter, 1966). Whereas men were active participants in the public sphere and expected to be
aggressive, strong, and independent, women were expected to be passive, submissive, silent, and
9
unseen participants in the private sphere. In the vein of True Womanhood, women were
encouraged to create moral and social reform only within the home, to revel in the uplifting
nature of housework, and to adopt an almost childlike and dependent demeanor (Welter, 1966).
Although women’s magazines were rampant with the rhetoric of True Womanhood, there were
“forces at work in the nineteenth century which impelled woman herself to change, to play a
more active role in society” (Welter, 1966, p. 173). These forces included industrialism, social
reform, the Civil War, and westward migration. Faced with a rapidly changing society and
situations that called for action outside the home, the ideal of True Womanhood was no longer
practical or attainable.
Frances Cogan (1989) offers an alternative view to Welter’s True Womanhood, the Ideal
of the Real Woman or Real Womanhood, which provides a different lens through which to view
the lives of nineteenth century American women. Real Womanhood claims that there is a
“unique sphere of action and duty” that demands a real woman “not to sacrifice herself, but to
survive” (pp. 4-5). The Ideal of Real Womanhood asserts that women’s spheres were broader
than the private, domestic spheres dictated by the Cult of True Womanhood. Real Womanhood
contends that the advice columns and women’s magazines so notorious for advocating True
Womanhood also can be interpreted as encouraging strength, independence, intelligence, and
survival among women, both inside and outside the home:
As a result of such didactic fiction and advice texts, during a forty-year period in the midnineteenth century, ideals of fragility clashed with ideals of competence, pious selfsacrifice with survival, and the popular middle-class reader was left with two countering
class images of women’s nature, capabilities, and goals to study and possibly emulate.
(Cogan, 1989, p. 18)
Whereas much of the rhetoric in women’s magazines encouraged piety, purity,
submissiveness, and domesticity, the reality was much different for many women, especially
10
those of the working-class. According to Cogan and other scholars, marginalized groups have
been forgotten and overlooked, resulting in generalizations applicable almost solely to upperand middle-class white men and women (Armitage, 2007; Castaneda, 1992; Dornan &
Kleinberg, 2007; Jeffrey, 1998; Myres, 1982). Upper- and middle-class women’s realities were
much different than those of working-class women who were forced by necessity to work outside
the home; therefore, Cogan’s ideal of Real Womanhood is more encompassing of the daily lives
and struggles of women. While many women worked very hard at attaining the ideal of True
Womanhood, there also were many women who worked both within the home and outside of the
home, whether out of economic, religious, or political necessity, or for the sake of westward
movement and the settlement of new frontiers (Cogan, 1989; Jeffrey, 1998; Myres, 1982).
Western Relocation and Movement
Colonization, immigration, and westward movement are central foundations of American
history, which, according to George Pierson (1970), served to shape a national character and
identity that were forged in large part by the “M-factor”: movement, migration, and mobility.
Central to Pierson’s thesis is the idea that American history and character have been built upon a
yearning for change that spurred the movement, migration, and mobility of the nation’s people,
which, in turn, inspired within them the capacity to readily adapt to ever-changing
circumstances. Chevalier’s (1839) observation that pioneering Americans were continuously
moving and traveling in search of the next great opportunity echoes Pierson’s propositions about
the centrality of change and migration in the shaping of early America. Thus, the opening of the
frontier and subsequent westward movement played integral roles in the formation of the
American national character, and so should be given due consideration for their importance in
history.
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The Western Frontier
Frederick Jackson Turner’s (1920) “The Significance of the Frontier in American
History,” originally presented in 1893, suggests that the Western frontier was essential to the
development of American culture and democracy and that the “dominant individualism” typical
of American character could be attributed to the country’s frontier past (Turner, 1920, p. 37).
Although Turner’s work laid the foundation for much of modern historical study, it is important
to note that his work reflects the values of the time, including those favoring the attitudes and
experiences of affluent white males, and neglects those of women and minorities. However,
Turner’s frontier thesis provides an important look at the male perspective of westward
expansion and the settlement of the frontier. Turner’s writings construct the Western frontier as
a “meeting point between savagery and civilization” and the settlement of that frontier as the
progression of a metaphorical line that continuously advanced westward into primitive areas (p.
4). According to Turner, as the line continued moving each year into new and mostly unsettled
areas, settlers were given the opportunity for a “perennial rebirth” as they colonized and asserted
American values of independence, self-reliance, perseverance, and strength (Denning, 1998;
Turner, 1920). Further, the notion that on one side of the line lay civilization and civilized
peoples, and on the other side, savagery and barbarians, legitimated westward movement by
suggesting that white men were the carriers of progress and that the indigenous people were
savages who held no claim to their own lands.
Thus, with the mindset that the West was an open and largely unsettled land, Americans
and immigrants headed west fueled by the desire for opportunity, adventure, and advancement.
As unsettled lands and lands occupied by the Native Americans were colonized year after year
by pioneers, adventurers, and men of various trades during the westward expansion of the late
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nineteenth century, the formation of a national character that values self-sufficiency,
individualism, independence, and democracy occurred. Although the frontier was closed by the
1890 Census, its importance in shaping American society and the American character should not
be forgotten: “The stubborn American environment…did indeed furnish a new field of
opportunity, a gate of escape from the bondage of the past; and freshness and confidence, and
scorn of older society” (Turner, 1920, p. 38).
The convergence of Americans, immigrants, Native Americans, and other peoples on the
frontier resulted in the formation of an American nationality composed of a wide range of
nationalities and social classes (Chevalier, 1839; Turner, 1920). Although Turner’s work is an
important and seminal one from which to view and interpret the experiences of white men on the
frontier, there is a noticeable omission of the experiences of women, as well as people of
different ethnicities and social classes. Until the late 1970s and 1980s, Turner’s frontier thesis
was widely accepted and adopted by historians and other scholars. In response to an increasing
dissatisfaction with Turner’s view of the frontier experience, Patricia Limerick (1987) introduced
the “new western history,” which views the West and the frontier as both a process and a place
where gender, race, and class intersect. This intersectionality of race, gender, and class on the
frontier, argues Limerick, is a more comprehensive and accurate view of the experiences of those
involved in westward movement. The purpose of new western history is to look at western
history “no longer [as] the study of the triumphant American pioneer…but of a myriad of issues,
events, and peoples” (Anderson & Chamberlain, 2008, p. 4). Because I am examining both
men’s and women’s experiences on the frontier, this work was conducted in the spirit of new
western history, while still acknowledging the importance of Turner’s contribution to
understanding westward movement and the American pioneer.
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The Politics of Location/Relocation
As women relocate and are forced to renegotiate their geographic spaces, they experience
these new spaces or locations differently. In large part, women’s experiences of relocation are
influenced by class, race, language, personality, and gender, as well as the extent to which they
are involved in the decision to relocate (Blunt & Rose, 1994; Roberson, 1998a). Rich (1993)
makes the argument that how individuals experience the world and who they become is
fashioned by the various locations, both geographic and bodily, that they find themselves in.
Blunt and Rose (1994) further propose that locations and spaces are “fragmented,
multidimensional, contradictory, and provisional,” creating a unique dynamic in which there are
a multiplicity of spaces where women can challenge traditional gender binaries, conceptualize
changes to their environments, and adapt to changing locations (p. 7). Stemming from Rich’s
“politics of location,” Roberson (1998a) posits that the reconfiguration and negotiation of new
geographic locations experienced by women on the frontier was rather a “politics of relocation,”
which describes the unstable and kinetic reality of the pressures, challenges, imbalance, and
disorientation experienced by women on the move. The conflict experienced by pioneer women
attempting to negotiate and renegotiate their changing physical, bodily, and intellectual locations
was frightening while also exhilarating and liberating, providing a multifaceted and complex
understanding of westering women’s experiences.
Scholars of frontier studies also note that there are tangible relationships between
geographic relocation/movement and women’s sense of self that are constantly being negotiated
and changing (Blunt & Rose, 1994; Chevalier, 1969; Kolodny, 1984; Roberson, 1998a, 1998b).
Women relocating to the West, and other frontiers, had to negotiate a “complex and shifting
matrix of power relations” within their domestic, public, and personal spheres by constantly
14
adapting their identities and spaces; this was achieved through changes in appearance, dress,
manners, domestic and social duties, and gender roles (Blunt & Rose, 1994, p. 14). Gender,
sexuality, appearance, and dress are all spaces or locations in which women can redefine and
negotiate their sense of self, as well as to assist with settling into new geographic locations.
Gender, Identity, and Dress on the Frontier
To exert control over social interactions and to define the situation for the self and for
others, people may alter their actions, manipulate their environments, and/or adjust their
appearances (Charon, 1985; Stone, 1995). It is important for situations to be defined – be it
through actions, dress, or gender performances – so that observers can interpret selfpresentations and interactions and plan their behaviors, accordingly. On the American frontier,
gender, identity, and dress interacted together to form a variety of appearances that were crucial
in assisting pioneers in navigating and negotiating social interactions in new and different
environments.
Feminist scholars have suggested that although humans are born with a sex, gender is
socially constructed (Butler, 1990; Lorber, 1994). That is, gender is created and transformed
through human interactions and as a part of social life. In this vein, Butler (1990) proposes that
gender is unstable and can be manipulated in various ways to create different performative
identities. Thus, men and women can “enact the behavior of the other” through the manipulation
of acts, gestures, appearance, and dress (Lorber, 1994, p. 6). Androgyny and cross-dressing are
two types of performance through which gender can be manipulated (Butler, 1990). Arnold
(2001) conceptualizes androgyny as an attempt to neutralize gender differences by “unit[ing]
male and female” in one body (p.122). On the other hand, cross-dressing involves the adoption
of dress and appearance by a gender opposite than that which society deems socially acceptable
15
(Arnold, 2001; Butler, 1990). For the purposes of this work, dress will be defined as any type of
body modification or body supplement, including garments, accessories, jewelry, hairstyles,
makeup, and piercings (Roach-Higgins & Eicher, 1992). Thus, androgynous dress refer to any
type of body modification or body supplement that unites male and female in an attempt to
neutralize gender differences, whereas cross-dressing refers to body modifications or
supplements used to adopt a different gender (Arnold, 2001; Butler, 1990; Krishnaraj, 1996;
Lorber, 1994; Michaelson & Aaland, 1976; Roach-Higgins & Eicher, 1992).
Appearance comprises dress, the situated body, and its attributes (e.g., age, health, skin,
color, stature, mood, etc.); further, appearance includes aspects of the body that can be perceived
by the human senses (e.g., sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste) (Lillethun, 2007). The
interaction between gender, dress, and appearance helps to establish one’s identity. Appearance
management occurs daily during social contexts so as to represent various identities and to
manage others’ reactions to and perceptions of one’s representation of self. During social
transactions, programs (evaluations about the wearer by wearer) and reviews (evaluations about
the wearer by others) can “coincide” or clash, leading to either the validation of self or to the
modification and redefinition of self (Stone, 1995). Thus, the negotiation of gender, dress, and
appearance are crucial in obtaining the “validating responses essential to the establishment of our
self” (Stone, 1995, p. 230).
Prior examinations of frontier fashion have explored how women and men have utilized
dress and appearance to maintain traditional gender roles, the struggle between maintaining a
fashionable appearance and wearing work/environment appropriate dress, and the use of
androgynous dress by men and women. Roach and Musa’s (1980) definition of fashion is useful
for understanding the importance of fashion on the frontier: “a form of human behavior and
16
product of human behavior, which is widely accepted for a limited time and is replaceable by
another fashion that is an acceptable substitute” (p. 19). Thus, frontier fashion should be viewed
as not only a tangible product, but also as a process (Helvenston, 1986).
Maintenance of Traditionally Feminine Dress
For women on the frontier, fashion often served a social function, useful in establishing
groups in which frontier women could interact, share fashion advice, and hold onto vestiges of
their femininity. Despite the male-dominated atmosphere of the western frontier, there is
evidence of the persistence of the fashion process in these new and developing frontier societies
(Helvenston, 1986, 1990). The small, isolated frontier communities acted as “microcosms”
where the fashion process differed from one community to another; the fashion process in these
communities was dependent in large part on the availability and prevalence of fashion news
communication, as well as the availability of transportation routes. Some communities were
more isolated from transportation routes than were others, thus affecting the amount and
frequency of communication regarding fashion. To stay abreast of the latest fashion news and
styles, frontier women relied on newspapers, fashion periodicals (e.g., Godey’s Ladies Book,
Peterson’s Magazine, and Harper’s Bazaar), public reading rooms, face-to-face contact,
newcomers to the community, and letters and hometown newspapers sent by relatives
(Helvenston, 1990). These sources of fashion communication provided frontier women with the
means with which to create networks amongst themselves for discussing fashion and upholding
feminine ideals.
Although, according to the social conventions of the time, women were supposed to “act
as neat and proper ornaments for [their] households,” the rigors of frontier life often required
women to take on work and roles not befitting of traditional female gender norms (Helvenston,
17
1986, p. 35). As traditional masculine and feminine spheres merged, women’s sense of their
femininity was challenged, often leading them to value symbols of femininity. Fashionable dress
was representative of the female sphere, and thus many women fought “to maintain these
vestiges of a familiar environment once they moved to the frontier” (Helvenston, 1990, p. 143).
Despite the uncomfortable, impractical, and sometimes dangerous nature of proper female dress
on the frontier, many women insisted on preserving their feminine dress and appearance as a
means of upholding and asserting their femininity in male-dominated contexts.
Fashion versus Utility
Although many women sought to maintain vestiges of traditional feminine dress on the
frontier, others understood the impracticality of doing so, and so adopted dress more suited to the
rigors of frontier life. Helvenston (1986) notes that the demands of frontier life “necessitated a
more assertive and instrumental role for women” (p. 36). These new roles also necessitated the
adoption of different dress that allowed for more mobility and comfort. Hoop skirts, corsets,
tight bodices, voluminous skirts, and excessive trimmings were no longer practical (Helvenston,
1990; Walker, 1998).
The struggle over fashion versus utility was common among frontier women. For many
women, fashionable dress was a way to negotiate a sense of place and of self on the frontier; for
other women, utility dress gave them the comfort and freedom that suited their new roles, but
which were not socially acceptable in eastern society. Thus, the types of changes adopted in
dress to accommodate the physical pioneering lifestyle varied among frontier women. Many
women chose to maintain a feminine appearance, albeit a much more simplified and practical
version, whereas others adopted more radical fashions, such as the Bloomer dress and the Mother
Hubbard dress. The Bloomer dress, the source of much controversy at the time of its inception
18
in the 1850s, featured a knee-length skirt over loose pants, which allowed women increased
mobility and decreased risk of catching their skirts in cooking fires (Helvenston, 1986; Walker,
1998). The Mother Hubbard dress, introduced in the 1870s, was a versatile, loose, and
comfortable dress that also allowed for increased mobility and comfort (Helvenston, 1986).
Although the Bloomer dress and the Mother Hubbard dress were controversial variations from
women’s fashion, they were still dresses. Some pioneering women violated gender role
expectations for dress in an even more ostentatious manner by dressing in men’s clothing and
adopting a male appearance (Helvenston, 1990; Walker, 1998). Many did so for physical
comfort, social convenience, and personal safety, as well as to participate in male-dominated
roles. Whether women adopted simplified female dress, radical women’s fashions of the time, or
men’s dress, they did so because they “acknowledged that survival had become more important
than pride or appearance” (Walker, 1998, p. 17).
Androgynous Dress and Cross-Dressing on the Frontier
The nineteenth century ideas of female “delicacy, purity, and uselessness,” (Walker,
1998, p. 17) as well as the idea of women as “neat and proper ornaments” had no place on the
frontier (Helvenston, 1986, p. 35). Whereas some women adopted more simplified versions of
traditional female dress, many other women adopted androgynous dress as a means of
negotiating changing gender roles and performing tasks necessary for survival on the frontier.
Roberson’s research on pioneer women’s diaries revealed that some women liked their
androgynous “Western appearance[s]” that included pieces of masculine dress; Mary Alice
Shutes wrote in her journal, “I am dressed like Charles and straddle my horse” (in Roberson,
1998b, p. 230). For many women, not having to follow fashion gave them a sense of relief and
liberation (Helvenston, 1990). As women took on these new identities and learned different
19
ways to consider themselves, feelings of self-sufficiency and empowerment became
commonplace (Blunt & Rose, 1994; Roberson, 1998b). Thus, androgynous dress and
appearance and cross-dressing became forms of “hybridity” for negotiating the hegemonic power
relationships between men and women on the frontier (Blunt & Rose, 1994, p. 17).
Nineteenth Century Literature as a Reflection of National Character
The Dime Novel in American Culture
The term dime novel encompasses a wide range of commercial, mass-produced popular
fiction narratives in the form of story papers, pamphlet novels (the most common form), and the
cheap library (a series of pamphlet novels in one book) published between the 1840s and 1890s
(Brown, 1997; Denning, 1998, O’Brien, 1922). The pamphlet novel will be examined for the
purposes of this research; as such, further use of the term dime novel will refer to pamphlet
novels, specifically. Dime novels were most often pocket-sized books about a hundred pages in
length featuring woodcut illustrations on the covers, and were sold for anywhere from five to
twenty-five cents (Brown, 1997; Denning, 1998). The small size of the dime novels was useful
for the typical readers, including school children, Civil War soldiers, male and female factory
workers, and other laborers, who needed to be able to easily conceal or store the novels when
they were not reading them. Most often, dime novels were published in series (e.g. Beadle’s
Half-Dime Library, The Deadwood Dick Library, Frank Starr’s American Novels) that featured
specific characters (e.g. Deadwood Dick, Calamity Jane, Frank Starr) and genres (e.g. Western,
detective, sports). Due to industrialization and improved printing methods, dime novels were
able to be published on a monthly basis so that readers had a new adventure in the next
installment of their favorite series to look forward to each month (Denning, 1998).
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As a body of literature, the dime novel often was regarded as cheap, sensationalist
popular fiction that was responsible for distracting children, increasing crime, and
“contaminating the morals of the working class,” (Brown, 1997, p. 3) as well as being an inferior
and distasteful form of literature (Denning, 1998). On the other hand, dime novels evoke images
of boys and young men reading all-American stories about slick detectives and sea-faring
adventurers and wild tales of adventures on the western front (Brown, 1997; Denning, 1998;
Jones, 1978). Many scholars of literature and sociology consider dime novels to be an important
primary source of information about working-class culture, pioneer and western life, and
nineteenth-century Americans (Brown, 1997; Denning, 1998; Jones, 1978; O’Brien, 1922).
According to O’Brien, dime novels provide insight into the habits, characteristics, speech, and
lives of everyday working-class people. Common throughout the large body of dime novels are
themes of perseverance, hard work, morality, loyalty, strength, adventure, and self-reliance, all
of which are themes inherent in the American national character (Brown, 1997; Denning, 1998;
Jones, 1978).
The Western Dime Novel
Many plots of the Western dime novel “express in literary form the popular belief that
civilization’s contact with the wilderness would strengthen the national character, redeem
society, and assure the eventual realization of the utopian ideal” (Jones, 1978, p. 41). As midnineteenth century America was undergoing labor strife, economic worries, and increased
industrialization, “the dime novel Western functioned increasingly as a vehicle for social
criticism and spiritual reaffirmation” (Jones, 1978, p. 56). The plots and characters of the dime
novels served to represent the morals and ideals that American society valued in the face of
adversity, but which were not necessarily upheld in reality. The frontier setting of Western dime
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novels was regarded as a “potential paradise,” which continued moving further and further west
as civilization continued to encroach on the closing frontier (Jones, 1978; Turner, 1920). During
a time of “increasing class stratification and declining social mobility,” the Western
character/hero represented the idea that social advancement and new opportunities were
available and attainable for all (Jones, 1978, p. 46).
Western dime novelists often concentrated their stories on one protagonist who
participated in multiple plots by creating multiple identities, “simply by changing his clothes”
(Jones, 1978, p. 42). Jones refers to this character as the “hybrid hero,” which provides an
interesting lens through which to examine Western dime novel characters, both male and female.
The use of androgynous dress and cross-dressing by these “hybrid heroes” assists with their
negotiation of power relationships between men and women on the frontier. Scholars of dime
novels note that male characters often employ cross-dressing in order to pass as a woman when
in need of escaping an unfavorable situation (e.g. surrounded by enemies in a saloon or other
establishment). In addition, male characters may change their clothes in order to switch between
the role of the adventurer and the role of the lover (Brown, 1997; Denning, 1998; Jones, 1978).
On the other hand, female protagonists, such as Calamity Jane, often adopted androgynous dress
and/or cross-dressing to pass as a male, to neutralize gender differences, to perform traditionally
masculine roles more efficiently and effectively, and to switch between various identities (e.g.
adventurer/heroine versus mother/wife) (Brown, 1997; Jones, 1978). Both male and female
characters in dime novels appear to utilize androgynous dress and cross-dressing as a means of
achieving “hybridity” (Blunt & Rose, 1994) in space and place, and of creating the “hybrid hero”
identity (Jones, 1978).
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Working-Class Culture in Dime Novels
The capitalization of publishers, such as Beadle and Adams, on the revolution in
publishing technology and the growing demand for accessible literature created a “fiction
factory” that changed the face of the national publishing industry by providing cheaper than ever
novels at a faster than ever rate (Denning, 1998). As such, working-class individuals were able
to purchase novels, a luxury previously afforded to the upper- and middle-classes (Brown, 1997;
Denning, 1998). Dime novels tended to serve as an escape from everyday life for predominately
working class men and women, although there was a small contingency of upper- and middleclass dime novel readers, as well. The stories, themes, and characters in dime novels reflect
those of the working class: “So a history of dime novels is not simply a history of a culture
industry; it also encompasses a history of their place in working class culture” (Denning, 1998, p.
26). The working class valued hard work, honesty, loyalty, and strength as well as the possibility
for a better future, all of which are represented by the characters and plots of the Western dime
novel.
Role of Women in Literature and Dime Novels
Increasingly throughout the nineteenth century, women were becoming authors, and a
significant portion of dime novel authors were women (Brown, 1997; Denning, 1998). In fact,
the first dime novel, Malaeska; The Indian Wife of the White Hunter, was written by Ann Sophia
Stephens (Brown, 1997). Stephens went on to publish several dime novels and other novels, as
well as to serve as editor of many prominent magazines. Stephens is a good example of how
women writers found success in this genre of literature. The protagonist of Malaeska is an
Indian woman who has to bury her husband and father at the same time- and so must spend the
story taking care of herself and journeying about as a self-sufficient Indian woman (Brown,
23
1997). The significant role of women in the dime novel, both as author and character, was well
established from the very beginning of the dime novel genre.
In his Dime Novel Companion, J. Randolph Cox (2000) notes that female characters were
often forced “to take [a] stand in a male profession or a male-dominated world due to adverse
circumstances” in their lives (p. 286). As such, female characters had to be able to “hold [their]
own” in whatever male-dominated situations they encountered, and they did (Cox, 2000, p. 286).
In addition, Cox reveals that in frontier and western dime novels in particular, women adopted
male dress and an androgynous appearance in order to assist in their hybrid roles. Clearly, dress
plays an important role in dime novels’ portrayal of female characters immersed in maledominated cultures and roles.
The Deadwood Dick Series
Between 1877 and 1885, Edward L. Wheeler, a dime novelist, penned the Deadwood
Dick series, in which he traced the adventures and exploits of Deadwood Dick, an outlaw road
agent in the Black Hills of Deadwood, South Dakota. The series was examined for the purposes
of this research. The dime novels were published in Beadle’s Half-Dime Library (1877-1885),
Beadle’s Boys Library of Sport, Story, and Adventure (1882), Beadle’s Pocket Library (18841889), and The Deadwood Dick Library (1889-1900). Of the 34 dime novels included in the
series, the first 24 were reprinted in Beadle’s Pocket Library and The Deadwood Dick Library;
Beadle’s Half-Dime Library was the original publisher of the Deadwood Dick series (Cox,
2000).
The story of Deadwood Dick, also known as Edward “Ned” Harris, begins as a young
man living in the East with his sister, Anita Harris. Ned and Anita were persecuted and driven
out of their home by Alexander and Clarence Filmore, father and son who had a personal agenda
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against Ned. Upon reaching the West in search of a new beginning, Ned became a stage driver,
but soon was caught up in banditry, at which time he earned the name Deadwood Dick. He was
eventually involved in an attempted hanging for his role as a bandit, but escaped death when a
friend rescued him from his seemingly hopeless plight. In response to this near-death
experience, Deadwood Dick remarked, “While I hung and paid my debt to nature and justice, I
came back to life a free man to whom no law in the universe could molest for past offenses” (in
Smith, 1978, p. 101). Although Deadwood Dick often exacts revenge and serves justice by
killing those who have wronged him and society, he does show some measure of fairness, mercy,
and “concern with social problems that is…unique in the dime novels” (Smith, 1978, p. 101). In
several stories, Deadwood Dick “‘stand[s] up in defense of the weak and unprotected’”
(Wheeler, 1881, chapter IV). Despite his varied past, Deadwood Dick achieves fame and fortune
for his exploits as a road agent and for his involvement in the mining industries of South Dakota.
As a character, Deadwood Dick is a study in contrasts, embodying traits of both the traditional
genteel hero and the archetypical villain (Smith, 1978). Although he is without upper-class rank,
he possesses considerable skill in riding and shooting, and is often involved in romantic affairs.
Deadwood Dick experiences several unsuccessful marriages and love affairs throughout the
series; however, he does find lasting love and companionship with Calamity Jane.
Calamity Jane, a major recurring female character in the Deadwood Dick series, is “the
feminine counterpart of Deadwood Dick” (Smith, 1978, p. 117). Similar to Deadwood Dick, as
well as to other dime novel heroines, Calamity Jane was transformed from a refined character to
a ruthless, gun-slinging character due to some great mysterious “wrong” in her past. Calamity
Jane acts as an outlaw road agent who drinks whiskey, smokes cigars, plays cards, swears, fights,
shoots, and dresses like a man (Brown, 1997; Jones, 1978; Smith, 1978). Her dress and
25
appearance often are described in great detail, perhaps owing to the fact that, during the
nineteenth century, it was unusual for women to adopt the dress of men. While the real Calamity
Jane, Martha Cannary, was a notorious cross-dressing and gun-slinging figure in the Black Hills
of Deadwood, there are few other similarities between her and the fictional Calamity Jane
portrayed in the series (Cox, 2000).
Throughout many of the stories, both Deadwood Dick and Calamity Jane are involved in
a number of marriages and love affairs with others and with each other. At times, the two are
one another’s love interests, and at other times, they are enemies, but common across many of
the stories is their camaraderie, affection, and respect for one another (Cox, 2000). The complex
and evolving nature of the relationship between Deadwood Dick and Calamity Jane is due in part
to their similar personalities and histories. Smith (1978) notes that “like much of the inner
structure of the Deadwood saga, the relations between Deadwood Dick and Calamity Jane are
hard to make out” (p. 117). Although plots, characters, and love interests vary from story to
story and often jump around in time, Calamity Jane and Deadwood Dick remain major characters
whose stories intersect in a multitude of ways.
Theoretical Groundings
This analysis of selected dime novels from the Deadwood Dick series was guided by
three theories: reflection theory, performativity, and ecology of the self. These theories were
chosen for their usefulness in understanding the ways in which literature and society are
reflective of one another, how gender is performed through the manipulation of dress and
appearance, and how changing environments may impact one’s sense of self. Together,
reflection theory, performativity, and ecology of the self assisted in understanding how female
dime novel characters used dress and appearance to create a variety of gender performances and
26
to what extent the female dime novel characters and their dress, appearance, and manners were
reflective of changing gender roles in nineteenth century America.
Reflection Theory
Previous research demonstrates that literature, in particular dime novels, often reflects
social and cultural conditions of society (Albrecht, 1954; Brown, 1997; Denning, 1998;
Griswold, 1981; Jones, 1978; Lowenthal, 1961; White, 1980). Reflection theory proposes that
“cultural products such as literature in some way mirror the social order” (Griswold, 1981, p.
740). As such, reflection theory is useful in understanding the complex relationships between
society and literature. Gyorgy Lukacs’ seminal works, The Theory of the Novel (1971) and The
Historical Novel (1983), provide the foundations of reflection theory in Marxism. Lukacs argues
that the use of “typical” characters in historical fiction to dramatize major social conflicts and
historical events enables authors to depict social life not as fixed, but as constantly changing and
open to transformation. Dime novel authors’ use of a few standard plots and character types
follows Lukacs’ model for historical fiction, allowing social and cultural conditions to be more
easily related to the audience (Denning, 1998; Jones, 1978; Lowenthal, 1961).
According to White (1980), literature provides unique access to social structures and
history of a given society and/or time period that other cultural or linguistic artifacts cannot.
Further, he notes that literature has the “power to transcend, criticize, or at least self-consciously
comment on the structure of those social conditions under which literary works are produced”
(White, 1980, p. 364). Thus, literary works have the ability not only to provide insight into
culture and society, but also to critique and comment on the social conditions of the times.
Examining dime novels through the lens of reflection theory will allow themes regarding the
27
social and cultural conditions of society, as well as themes about dress, appearance, gender, and
identity to emerge.
Performativity
Stemming from symbolic interaction theory is Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical
perspective, in which social interactions are analyzed as though a part of a theatrical
performance. Goffman (1959) states that everyone plays a role and “it is in these roles that we
know each other; it is in these roles that we know ourselves” (p. 19). Important to the notion of
performance is the personal front, which includes expressive equipment that the performer
utilizes in order for the audience to identify him or her. Expressive equipment includes items of
dress, gender, speech, and race to name a few. Overall, the goal of the actor’s various
presentations of self is to gain acceptance from the audience through the manipulation of fronts,
manners, and settings (Goffman, 1959). At any given time, the actor may have multiple
performances or “social selves” that change depending on the performance or social situation.
Thus, a woman may adopt androgynous dress or cross-dress as a part of her front in the hopes of
manipulating others’ perceptions of herself.
Judith Butler’s (1990) work on the performative nature of gender is useful in considering
how women perform society’s hegemonic, heterosexual standards of gender. According to
Butler, gender performances serve to create and shape rather than to reflect individuals’
identities. Men and women create and maintain gendered performances that society deems
socially acceptable and appropriate through the “stylization of the body” (e.g., bodily gestures,
movements, and various styles of dress) (Butler, 1990, p. 191). On the other hand, one may
choose to go against society’s gender norms by taking part in subversive bodily acts such as
drag, cross-dressing, and androgynous dress, which allow for experimentation with a variety of
28
gender identities. The meanings attached to gender performances are contingent on the wearer
and the audience’s experiences and values. The act of cross-dressing or of putting on
androgynous dress creates gender performances that stray from society’s gender norms, but that
also create “expand[ed] possibilities” of what it means to be a man or woman (Butler, 1990, p.
3).
The Ecology of the Self
Hormuth’s (1990) concept of the ecology of the self is important in understanding how
women’s relocation to the western frontier affected their sense of self and the ways in which
women negotiated these new environments in the process of re-establishing their identities. The
ecology of the self describes the “constituents of the self, namely others, environments, and
things that provide, mediate, and perpetuate social experience” (Hormuth, 1990, p. 2). Within
the concept of the ecology of the self, personal change and development occur through others,
objects, and environments. Interactions with others provide a source of direct social experience
in which one’s concept of the self is reflected by the reactions of others; in other words, others
provide a mirror through which to view one’s self (Hormuth, 1990). Objects serve as “symbols
and representations of social experiences” that assist in the maintenance of one’s sense of self
(Hormuth, 1990, p. 3). Environments provide the setting for social experiences and can reflect
one’s identity. Hormuth argues that others, objects, and environments are interdependent aspects
of the self-concept that must maintain stability; otherwise, actions must be taken in order to
restructure one or all of the components of the ecology the of self. Changing environments,
whether externally- or self-imposed, can have a significant impact on an individual’s sense of
self, and so steps must be taken to become acclimated and adjusted to new environments.
Westering women often ended up in the West due to the inclinations of their husbands or fathers,
29
but once there, women “had to improvise their lives as they lived them, to face changes in plan
and expectation caused by geographic dislocation” (Roberson, 1998a, p. 4). Thus, westering
women negotiated, and often renegotiated, their new environments; in addition, women had to
negotiate relationships with others in these new environments, as well as the new objects
required of life on the frontier.
Conclusions
Women’s movement to new frontiers necessitated changes in geographic and bodily
location and identity. Along with these changes came shifts in gender roles and dress norms.
Frontier life demanded that women straddle the domestic and public spheres in order to survive
and assert themselves in their new locations, providing many women with feelings of
empowerment, strength, and self-sufficiency. Accounts of pioneer women’s experiences, as well
as dime novel stories, portray the ways in which women negotiated and renegotiated these roles
(Jeffrey, 1998; Myres, 1982; Schlissel, 1992).
In order to adapt to their new roles on the frontier, many women adopted masculine
dress. The adoption of masculine dress by pioneer women, whether worn to create an
androgynous appearance or for purposes of cross-dressing, served as expressive equipment with
which women created fronts crucial in their performances within male-dominated spaces and
places (Goffman, 1959). The Western dime novel, as an important primary source, provides a
rich sample of nineteenth century American culture and dress norms from which to examine the
uses and effects of androgynous dress and cross-dressing in the Deadwood Dick series.
This review revealed gaps within the literature on dime novels and dime novel culture
that point to opportunities for future work. The majority of dime novel studies were published in
the early to mid-twentieth century (Jones, 1976; O’Brien, 1922), with a few major publications
30
occurring towards the end of the century (Brown, 1997; Denning, 1998). The predominant focus
of dime novel literature has been on the Western genre and the working-class culture embodied
by dime novels; however, there is very little consideration given to the female characters. Seeing
as the first dime novel featured a female protagonist and the first author was a woman, it would
seem there would be more attention given to the roles that these women played. Although the
majority of dime novel characters and protagonists were male, there was a contingency of strong
female characters that has been neglected by scholars.
Interestingly, several dime novel scholars have discussed the relationships between the
content of the novels and the social conditions of nineteenth century America, but have neglected
to apply the concepts of reflection theory, performativity, and ecology of the self to their
analyses of dime novels. The works of Lukacs (1971, 1983), Griswold (1981), and Jameson
(1976) in the fields of literary criticism and reflection theory provide a useful and interesting lens
through which to view dime novels. Using reflection theory to understand the complex
relationships between society and literature aided in understanding the connections between the
experiences of pioneer women and western female dime novel characters.
Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical perspective and Butler’s (1990) works on performativity
provided a useful lens through which to view the social interactions and presentations of self that
occur in dime novels. The examination of female dime novel characters’ manipulation of fronts,
manners, and settings assisted in understanding how these presentations of self provide
“expand[ed] possibilities of what it means to be a woman” (Butler, 1990, p. 3) in nineteenth
century American society where such possibilities were rather limited. Further, gender
performativity aided in understanding how the texts analyzed suggest that women deviated from
the traditional “reiterative acts” that reinforce gender binaries (Butler, 1990, p, 2).
31
The geographic dislocation experienced by Westering women, both pioneers and western
dime novel characters, required them to readjust to and improvise in their new environments.
According to ecology of the self, changing environments can have a significant impact on an
individual’s sense of self. Hormuth’s (1990) ecology of the self was a useful tool for examining
how female dime novel characters adjusted to their new and changing surroundings through the
manipulation of others, environments, and things. Individually, reflection theory, performativity,
and ecology of the self are useful theories within their disciplines, but together they provided a
rich theoretical framework from which to analyze and understand the complex interactions
between society, gender performance, presentations of the self, and literature.
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CHAPTER THREE: METHOD
For this study, narrative inquiry was used to collect, analyze, and make sense of the
manipulation of gender, dress, and appearance of dime novel characters in the Deadwood Dick
series. Further, narrative inquiry assisted the researcher in examining the fictional world of
western dime novels within its historical context for linkages to nineteenth century American
society. This chapter will present an overview of narrative inquiry and thematic analysis, the
form of narrative analysis that will be used for this study. Lastly, the selection of dime novels
analyzed and the methods used for data collection will be discussed.
Narrative Inquiry
Narrative inquiry, the examination of spoken, written, and visual materials, was used for
this study. Abbott (2001) notes that narrative inquiry is the study of particulars: “particular
actors, in particular social places, at particular social times” (p. 183). Relying on the experienced
human story, this method of qualitative analysis is useful for analyzing and understanding long
accounts with a common form (Riessman, 2008). Narrative inquiry is different from other
qualitative approaches, such as grounded theory, in that stories are kept intact and “treated
analytically as units” rather than theorizing across multiple cases by using categories (Riessman,
2008, p. 12). That is not to say that narrative inquiry does not generate categories or general
concepts through close reading of individual cases; in the case of narrative inquiry, categories
can emerge, but more attention is paid to details such as “how and why incidents are
storied….For whom was this story constructed, and for what purpose” (Riessman, 2008, p. 11).
Examination of the story and the ways in which the storyteller or author conveys particular
characters, events, and times, as well as the listener’s and reader’s own imagination allows
narrative research “to include many voices and subjectivities” (Riessman, 2008, p. 13) useful for
33
making sense of the past and for conceptualizing “lived and told stories” (Pinnegar & Daynes,
2007, p. 5).
For this study, thematic analysis was the most fitting form of narrative analysis because it
is the common approach used to analyze written materials and is appropriate for “a wide range of
narrative texts” (Riessman, 2008, p. 54). Whereas narrative inquiry as a whole examines what,
how, to whom, and for what purposes a particular case is written, the thematic approach focuses
on what is said, or the “told” rather than “the telling” (Mishler, 1995; Riessman, 2008). This
study used words instead of numbers to interpret the told stories and to lend trustworthiness to
“characterizing the phenomena of human experience” (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990, p. 2).
Through extensive discussion with sociologist Maria Tamboukou, Riessman (2008) revealed
several stages in Tamboukou’s research that were useful for the present analysis: educating
oneself about the subject and important theoretical works, examining self-writings, creating
thematic groups based on classifying statements, and “tack[ing] back and forth between primary
data and the scholarship of others” (p. 66). Throughout the process of thematic analysis, key
words and phrases are selected during the initial reading of the materials, excerpts are chosen
during re-reading with general categories in mind, and emergent themes are interrogated
historically and against gathered data and previous works (Riessman, 2008).
Sample and Data Collection
Five western dime novels from the Deadwood Dick series, authored by Edward Wheeler
between 1877 and 1885, were selected for analysis. Given the focus of the present work upon
the dime novel as a window into the lives of frontier women, only Deadwood Dick novels
featuring Calamity Jane were chosen for the sample. Thus, the selected sample includes the first
dime novel of the series, Deadwood Dick, the Prince of the Road; or, The Black Rider of the
34
Black Hills (1877); as well as Deadwood Dick on Deck; or Calamity Jane, The Heroine of
Whoop-Up (1878); Deadwood Dick’s Doom; or, Calamity Jane’s Last Adventure (1881);
Deadwood Dick’s Big Deal; or, The Gold Brick of Oregon (1883); and Deadwood Dick’s
Diamonds; or, The Mystery of Joan Porter (1885).
Data were collected by extracting all references to appearance included within the texts
of the selected novels. For the purposes of this work, appearance was defined to include dress
and the situated body and its attributes (Lillethun, 2007). Using Roach-Higgins and Eicher’s
(1992) definition of dress, references to body modifications (e.g., hair, skin, nails,
muscular/skeletal system, teeth, breath) and body supplements (e.g., enclosures, attachments, and
hand-held objects/accessories) were identified for analysis. References to the situated body and
its attributes (e.g., age, health, skin, color, stature, and mood) also were extracted for analysis.
Additionally, references to androgynous dress, or that which unites male and female in an
attempt to neutralize gender differences, and cross-dressing, the use of dress to adopt a different
gender, were extracted (Arnold, 2001; Butler, 1990). Lillethun and Roach-Higgins and Eicher
suggest that the five senses (e.g., sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste) can be used to further
describe appearance; as such, references to the sensory perception of appearance also were
extracted for analysis.
Data Analysis
In keeping with the conventions of the thematic analysis approach, the researcher read the
data multiple times to identify key words and phrases that represent core meanings or ideas
within the data. These core meanings and ideas were grouped into an initial set of general
content categories. Then, through the process of re-reading and tacking back and forth “between
the primary data, the literature, and the researcher’s own reflexive voice,” overarching and minor
35
themes emerged and were further clarified (Sanders, 2011, p. 273). Redundant themes were
eliminated or combined and were developed into a coding guide that was applied to the data
through a coding process, such that excerpts representing various themes were grouped and
organized. The emergent overarching and minor themes revealed connections and conclusions
about appearance, dress, and gender among female characters in the Deadwood Dick series, as
well as the relationships between dime novel literature and nineteenth century American society
by situating the findings within the historical context (Riessman, 2008).
Several measures were taken to increase trustworthiness and dependability of the data
collection and analysis processes. First, throughout the coding process, the researcher and
advisor met to discuss the coding process, including the meanings of the coded material.
Second, an additional coder worked with the researcher to audit her (a) identification of text for
inclusion within the sample and (b) application of the coding guide to the data. In both cases, an
interrater reliability coefficient was calculated by dividing the total number of agreements (i.e.,
instances in which the researcher and the audit coder agree) by the total number of decisions
made (i.e., decisions to include an article within the sample or to assign a specific code to a unit
of text). All disagreements in decision-making were negotiated between the researcher and the
audit coder.
36
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1
References with an asterisk identify the dime novels that will be used in the analysis.
41
*Wheeler, E. L. (1885, June 2). Deadwood Dick’s diamonds; or, the mystery of Joan Porter.
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42
APPENDIX I
43
Coding Guide
1. Gender Performances
1.1 Reinforce gender binaries
1.1.1 Reactions
1.1.2 Dress and appearance
1.1.3 Gender roles
1.1.4 Gestures
1.2 Challenge gender binaries
1.2.1 Reactions
1.2.2 Dress and appearance
1.2.3 Gender roles
1.2.4 Gestures
1.2.5 Empowerment
2 Descriptions of Dress and Appearance
2.1 Traditional feminine dress
2.1.1 Tone/connotation of description
2.1.2 Justification for use
2.1.3 Influence on character’s behavior/actions
2.2 Androgynous dress
2.2.1 Tone/connotation of description
2.2.2 Justification for use
2.2.3 Influence on character’s behavior/actions
2.3 Cross-dressing
2.3.1 Tone/connotation of description
2.3.2 Justification for use
2.3.3 Influence on character’s behavior/actions
44
APPENDIX II
45
The “Hybrid Hero” in Western Dime Novels: An Analysis of Women’s Gender Performance,
Dress, and Identity in the Deadwood Dick Series
Colorado State University
150 Aylesworth Hall, SE
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1574
Phone: (970) 491-1629
Fax: (970) 491-4855
Cameron.Moon@colostate.edu
46
The “Hybrid Hero” in Western Dime Novels: An Analysis of Women’s Gender
Performance, Dress, and Identity in the Deadwood Dick Series
During the 19th century, as American society became more industrialized, cities along the
east coast grew exponentially (Denning, 1998). As rapid urbanization and growth pushed
families westward to seek new opportunities, men and women often found themselves sharing in
domestic and work-related activities. Men often took part in traditionally feminine duties such as
cooking and cleaning, whereas women took on masculine duties such as farming, working
outdoors, and tending animals and livestock (Helvenston, 1986). In turn, changes in gender roles
and norms incited by westward movement brought about attendant changes in norms for
gendered dress behaviors, particularly for women. Although many pioneer women continued to
wear traditional feminine dress, they often had to adapt some of its more cumbersome and
impractical components in order to perform their new roles with ease. Thus, androgynous dress
and cross-dressing became common among frontier women for several reasons: to accommodate
the physical lifestyle of the frontier, to negotiate the hegemonic power relationships between
men and women on the frontier, to participate in male-dominated roles, and to assert a measure
of independence from the rigid norms of 19th century society (Helvenston, 1986).
One important window into the lives of 19th century Americans – including shifts in
norms for gendered role behaviors such as dress – can be found in the American dime novel.
Dime novels have been said to “present a more accurate and vivid picture of the appearance,
manner, speech, habits and methods of the pioneer western characters than do the more formal
historians” (O’Brien, 1922, p. 3). Though dime novels provide an author’s imagined vision of
western characters and their exploits, they are grounded in some reality and historical fact. With
this in mind, dime novels can be a useful tool in gaining a rich understanding of the conditions in
47
which pioneer women worked and negotiated their appearances, genders, and identities through
the use of androgynous dress and cross-dressing. Thus, this research was undertaken to gain an
understanding of dime novels’ reflection of 19th century American society, including women’s
negotiation of frontier life through the manipulation of gender, dress, and appearance. Of
particular interest was how dress – including cross-dressing and androgynous dress – was used
within the Deadwood Dick dime novel series to construct meanings about gender and identity.
Literature Review
American history has been built upon a yearning for change and a keen capacity to adapt
to ever-changing circumstances. As the following review reveals, westering women were no
exception to this rule; when confronted with changes in expectations for how they should lead
their lives, they readily made adaptions, accordingly.
Constructions of 19th Century American Womanhood
In the years spanning 1820 and the Civil War, America witnessed the rise of new
industries, businesses, and professions that spawned the emergence of a new middle class and
along with it, a new ideology about womanhood. Referred to by Barbara Welter as the (1966)
Cult of True Womanhood or Domesticity, this ideology identified four virtues of ideal
womanhood: piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity, all of which promised happiness
and power if performed in woman’s “proper sphere” – the home. Although rhetoric promoting
these virtues was rampant within popular literature, Welter (1966) has suggested that there also
were “forces at work in the 19th century which impelled woman herself to change, to play a more
active role in society” (p. 173). These forces included industrialism, social reform, the Civil War,
and notably, westward migration. Indeed, owing to the intermingling of gender-specific chores
on the frontier, some historians have questioned the influence of the Cult on westering women.
48
Although pioneer women made genuine efforts to maintain their images as proper ladies, they
also modified the virtues of the Cult – which clashed with the daily necessities of life on the
frontier – to suit their own needs (Cogan, 1989; Welter, 1966).
Thus, the lives of pioneer women may echo more closely themes identified with what
Frances Cogan (1989) has referred to as The Ideal of Real Womanhood, which she offers as a
critique of Welter’s work. The Ideal of Real Womanhood asserts that women’s spheres were
broader than the private, domestic spheres dictated by the Cult of True Womanhood. Real
Womanhood contends that the popular literature so notorious for advocating True Womanhood
also can be interpreted as encouraging strength, independence, intelligence, and survival among
women, both inside and outside the home. The Ideal of Real Womanhood therefore may reflect
more truly the daily lives and struggles of women and marginalized groups who often worked
both within the home and outside of the home, whether out of economic, religious, or political
necessity, or for the sake of westward movement and the settlement of new frontiers (Cogan,
1989). Real Womanhood also closely mirrors the New Woman movement that emerged after the
Civil War in response to women’s growing discontent with the patriarchal systems in place. The
New Woman movement sought to create sexual, social, and political transformation by
encouraging women to gain an education, enter the workforce, and participate in social activities.
As such, late 19th century society saw many changes for women, including increased political
access and voting rights (particularly in the West), expanded educational and professional
opportunities, and new social activities (Myres, 1982).
Gender, Identity, and Dress on the Frontier
The perpetual relocation faced by pioneer women necessitated that they engage in a
negotiation or reworking of identity as they moved through space and place (Blunt & Rose,
49
1994; Roberson, 1998). Roberson (1998) has referred to this process as the “politics of
relocation.” For women relocating to the West, this negotiation process was achieved in part
through changes in gender roles and social duties, as previously described, as well as in
alterations to appearance (Blunt & Rose, 1994). Not all pioneer women, however, managed their
appearances in a similar manner; a multiplicity of dress behaviors co-existed on the frontier.
Despite the uncomfortable, impractical, and sometimes dangerous nature of proper
female dress on the frontier, many women insisted on preserving their feminine dress and
appearance – including hoop skirts, corsets, tight bodices, voluminous skirts, and excessive
trimmings – as a means of upholding and asserting their femininity in male-dominated contexts
(Helvenston, 1990; Walker, 1998). Additionally, for many pioneer women, the maintenance of
traditional feminine dress was important because fashion often served a social function, useful in
establishing groups in which women could interact, share fashion advice, and hold onto vestiges
of their femininity. Thus, there is evidence that even small, isolated frontier communities acted
as “microcosms” in which women created networks amongst themselves for discussing fashion
and sustaining feminine ideals of appearance (Helvenston, 1990).
Although many women sought to maintain vestiges of traditional feminine dress on the
frontier, others understood the impracticality of doing so, and so adopted a much more simplified
and practical version of traditional feminine dress or radical “utility” fashions, such as the
Bloomer dress and the Mother Hubbard dress (Helvenston, 1986). Although these utility fashions
provided westering women comfort and freedom for their new roles, they would not have been
considered socially acceptable in eastern society.
Some pioneering women violated gender role expectations for dress in an even more
ostentatious manner than wearing utility dress, adopting men’s clothing and a male appearance
50
(Helvenston, 1990; Walker, 1998) for reasons of physical comfort, social convenience, and
personal safety as well as to participate in male-dominated roles. Thus, many women adopted
androgynous dress (i.e., body modification or body supplements that unite male and female in an
attempt to neutralize gender differences [Arnold, 2001]) and cross-dressing (i.e., body
modifications or supplements used to adopt a different gender [Arnold, 2001; Butler, 1990]) as a
means of negotiating changing gender roles and performing tasks necessary for survival on the
frontier. For many women, not having to follow fashion provided a sense of relief and liberation
(Helvenston, 1990). As women took on these new identities and learned different ways to
consider themselves, they felt both more self-sufficienct and empowered (Blunt & Rose, 1994;
Roberson, 1998). Thus, androgynous dress and cross-dressing became forms of “hybridity” for
negotiating changes in geographic space, bodily place, identity, and hegemonic power
relationships between men and women on the frontier (Blunt & Rose, 1994, p. 17).
Dime Novels as a Reflection of National Character
The term “dime novel” encompasses a wide range of commercial, mass-produced popular
fiction narratives published between the 1840s and 1890s and sold for anywhere from five to
twenty-five cents (Denning, 1998). Although, as a body of literature, the dime novel often was
regarded as cheap, sensationalist popular fiction, many scholars consider dime novels to be an
important primary source of information about working-class culture, pioneer and western life,
and 19th century Americans (Denning, 1998; Jones, 1978; O’Brien, 1922). Of particular interest
in the present work is the Western dime novel, and in particular, the Deadwood Dick series. It
has been said that as mid-19th century America was undergoing labor strife, economic worries,
and increased industrialization, the Western dime novel “functioned increasingly as a vehicle for
social criticism and spiritual reaffirmation” (Jones, 1978, p. 56). Western dime novelists often
51
concentrated their stories on one protagonist, or “hybrid hero,” who participated in multiple plots
by creating multiple identities, “simply by changing [her] clothes” (Jones, 1978, p. 42). Female
protagonists often adopted androgynous dress and/or cross-dressing to pass as a male, neutralize
gender differences, perform traditionally masculine roles more effectively, and switch between
various identities (Jones, 1978). Both male and female dime novel characters used androgynous
dress and cross-dressing as a means of achieving “hybridity” (Blunt & Rose, 1994) in space and
place and of creating the “hybrid hero” identity (Jones, 1978).
The Deadwood Dick series was penned by dime novelist Edward L. Wheeler between
1877 and 1885 and traces the adventures of Deadwood Dick, an outlaw road agent in the Black
Hills of Deadwood, South Dakota. Calamity Jane, a major recurring female character in the
series, is “the feminine counterpart of Deadwood Dick” (Smith, 1978, p. 117). Owing to a
mysterious event in her past, Calamity Jane is transformed from a refined young woman to a
ruthless, gun-slinging character who acts as an outlaw road agent and drinks whiskey, smokes
cigars, plays cards, swears, fights, shoots, and dresses like a man (Jones, 1978; Smith, 1978). Her
dress and appearance often are described in great detail, perhaps owing to the fact that, during
the 19th century, it was unusual for women to adopt the dress of men.
Theoretical Groundings
Reflection Theory
Reflection theory proposes that “cultural products such as literature in some way mirror
the social order” (Griswold, 1981, p. 740). As such, reflection theory is useful in understanding
the complex relationships between society and literature. According to White (1980), literature
provides unique access to social structures and history of a given society and/or time period that
other cultural or linguistic artifacts cannot. In particular, White notes that literature has the
52
“power to transcend, criticize, or at least self-consciously comment on the structure of those
social conditions under which literary works are produced” (White, 1980, p. 364). Thus, literary
works such as dime novels have the ability not only to provide insight into culture and society,
but also to critique and comment on the social conditions of the times. Examining dime novels
through the lens of reflection theory will allow themes regarding the social and cultural
conditions of society, as well as themes about dress, appearance, gender, and identity to emerge.
Performativity
Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical perspective proposes that, in everyday life, people stage
(role) performances of the self as they behave and appear before others. Key to the notion of
performance is the personal front, which includes expressive equipment (e.g., dress, gender,
speech) that the performer utilizes in order for the audience to identify him or her. Overall, the
goal of the actor’s various presentations of self is to gain acceptance from the audience through
the manipulation of fronts, manners, and settings (Goffman, 1959). During social transactions
and performances, reviews (evaluations about the wearer by the audience) and programs
(evaluations about the wearer by the wearer) can coincide or clash, leading to either the
validation of the self or to the modification and redefinition of self (Stone, 1995).
Judith Butler’s (1990) work on the performative nature of gender is relevant to the
present work in that it proposes that gender performances serve to create and shape rather than to
reflect individuals’ identities. Thus, according to Butler, men and women may create and
maintain gendered performances that society deems socially acceptable and appropriate through
the “stylization of the body” (Butler, 1990, p. 191). On the other hand, they may choose to go
against society’s gender norms by taking part in subversive bodily acts such as drag, crossdressing, and androgynous dress, which allow for experimentation with a variety of gender
53
identities and create “expand[ed] possibilities” of what it means to be a man or woman (Butler,
1990, p. 3). In this vein, Butler proposes that gender is unstable and can be manipulated in
various ways to create different performative identities, such as androgyny and cross-dressing,
through the manipulation of acts, gestures, appearance, and dress.
Research Questions
Although dime novels are recognized as a valuable reflection of 19th century working
class culture and mores, to date, very little scholarly attention has been dedicated to examining
how the female characters of this literary genre are portrayed. The Western dime novel provides
a rich sample of 19th century American culture and dress norms from which to examine the uses
and effects of androgynous dress and cross-dressing. In particular, dime novels provide insight
into how androgynous dress and cross-dressing were important in assisting “hybrid hero”
characters in creating various identities in order to participate in multiple plots (Jones, 1978). As
such, the present narrative inquiry was undertaken to fill gaps in the literature by addressing the
following research questions: What roles do female characters play in the Deadwood Dick
series? How does the author of the Deadwood Dick series use dress and appearance to describe
female characters? How is gender performed in the Deadwood Dick series? How is androgynous
dress and cross-dressing used by female characters to perform gender in the Deadwood Dick
series? How does dress create a sense of identity and place for female characters? How do dime
novels from the Deadwood Dick series reflect 19th century American values and social concerns?
Method
Narrative inquiry – the examination of spoken, written, and/or visual materials – was
used to analyze the manipulation of gender, dress, and appearance of dime novel characters in
the Deadwood Dick series. This method of qualitative analysis is useful for analyzing long
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accounts with a common form and is different from other qualitative approaches, such as
grounded theory, in that accounts (i.e., stories) are kept intact and “treated analytically as units”
rather than theorizing across multiple cases by using categories (Riessman, 2008, p. 12). That is
not to say that narrative inquiry does not generate categories or general concepts through close
reading of individual cases; in the case of narrative inquiry, categories can emerge, but more
attention is paid to details such as “how and why incidents are storied….For whom was this story
constructed, and for what purpose” (Riessman, 2008, p. 11). For this study, thematic analysis
was the most fitting form of narrative analysis because it is commonly used to analyze written
materials (Riessman, 2008).
Sample and Data Collection
Five western dime novels from the Deadwood Dick series were selected for analysis.
Given the focus of this work upon the dime novel as a window into the lives of frontier women,
only Deadwood Dick novels featuring Calamity Jane were chosen for the sample: Deadwood
Dick, the Prince of the Road; or, The Black Rider of the Black Hills (1877); Deadwood Dick on
Deck; or, Calamity Jane, the Heroine of Whoop-Up (1878); Deadwood Dick’s Doom; or,
Calamity Jane’s Last Adventure (1881); Deadwood Dick’s Big Deal; or, The Gold Brick of
Oregon (1883); and Deadwood Dick’s Diamonds; or, The Mystery of Joan Porter (1885).
Data were collected by extracting all references to women’s appearance included within
the texts of the selected novels. Appearance includes dress and the situated body and its
attributes (Lillethun, 2007). Using Roach-Higgins and Eicher’s (1992) definition of dress,
references to body modifications (e.g., hair, skin, nails, muscular/skeletal system, teeth, breath)
and body supplements (e.g., enclosures, attachments, and hand-held objects/accessories) were
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identified for analysis. References to the situated body and its attributes (e.g., age, health, skin,
color, stature, and mood) also were extracted for analysis.
Data Analysis
In keeping with the conventions of the thematic analysis approach, the researcher read the
data multiple times to identify key words and phrases that represented core meanings or ideas
within the data. These core meanings and ideas were grouped into an initial set of general
content categories. Then, through the process of re-reading and tacking back and forth “between
the primary data, the literature, and the researcher’s own reflexive voice,” overarching and minor
themes emerged and were further clarified (Sanders, 2011, p. 273). Redundant themes were
eliminated or combined, resulting in the development of a coding guide that was applied to the
data through a coding process, such that excerpts representing various themes were grouped and
organized. The emergent overarching and minor themes revealed connections and conclusions
about appearance, dress, and gender among female characters in the Deadwood Dick series, as
well as the relationships between dime novel literature and 19th century American society by
situating the findings within the historical context (Riessman, 2008).
To ensure the trustworthiness and dependability of the data analysis process, an audit
coder also worked with the researcher to check her (a) identification of text for inclusion within
the sample and (b) application of the coding guide to the data. In both cases, an interrater
reliability coefficient was calculated by dividing the total number of agreements by the total
number of decisions made. All disagreements in decision-making were negotiated between the
researcher and the audit coder. The interrater reliability coefficients for inclusion of text within
the sample and for the application of the coding guide were both 91%.
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Results
Analyses revealed the importance of dress and gender performance as a means of
situating female characters in their geographic and bodily spaces and places on the frontier. As
discussed below, three overarching themes were identified within the data: (a) traditionally
feminine dress juxtaposed against constructions of 19th century American womanhood, (b) the
role of androgynous dress in creating nontraditional gender identity, and (c) cross-dressing as a
means of navigating temporary changes in space and place.
Traditionally Feminine Dress Juxtaposed against Constructions of 19th Century American
Womanhood
The majority of female characters in the Deadwood Dick series wore and used traditional,
feminine dress, with some consideration for social context apparent. Dresses, skirts, jewelry,
parasols, and hand bags constituted the backbone of the traditional, feminine appearances in the
series, with characters donning more elaborate dress for outings and meetings with male
characters and simpler dress for physically demanding tasks. The author’s descriptions of Virgie
Verner’s and Madame Minnie Majilton’s dress, respectively, provide representative accounts of
the traditional, feminine dress commonly worn by female characters in the series:
The young lady evidently was not over seventeen or eighteen years of age, but was the
possessor of a fine figure, and prettily chiseled features, set off by starry black eyes, and
wavy brown hair. She was attired with a long ulster duster over her dress, a silk scarf
about her throat, and a vailed [sic] hat upon her head, and was by all odds the trimmest
little craft that had anchored in Death Notch. (Deadwood Dick’s Doom, 1881, p. 2)
The madame…was looking most royally beautiful in a suit of silk and lace, with
diamonds at her throat and pendent from her ears. Her blonde complexion made her ever
fresh and lovely looking, and then her superb form greatly heightened her personal
beauty. (Deadwood Dick on Deck, 1878, p. 18)
The dress described in the excerpts above reveals that Virgie and Minnie sought to maintain
vestiges of their femininity on the western frontier by dressing in the latest fashions of the era.
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This commitment to maintenance of fashion on the frontier was a trend that cut across the entire
Deadwood Dick series and the majority of its female characters. That is, the components of
traditional, feminine dress described – silk and lace garments, two-piece dresses, the Ulster,
veiled hats, and accessories such as scarves and diamonds – remained quite constant throughout
the series and reflected the latest trends of the time (Tortora & Eubank, 2005).
In addition to adopting traditionally gendered dress, the majority of female characters
performed in conventional ways, conducting themselves as “proper” ladies and embodying the
virtues of True Womanhood – including piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity – in their
performances (cf., Welter, 1966). Components of gender performance that supported these
virtues included emotional reactions to danger and stress, gestures of weakness and distress,
dependence on and deference to male protectors, and engagement in activities of the domestic
sphere. Words used to characterize female gender performances – such as pretty, pure, sweet,
proper, sensible, emotional, and helpless – supported traditional gender binaries and constructed
women as something to be “looked at” and as delicate, sensitive, and at the mercy of their
bodies. The following excerpts demonstrate such constructions of womanhood:
Redburn gave an involuntary cry of incredulity and admiration as his eyes rested upon the
picture—upon the pure, sweet face, surrounded by a wealth of golden, glossy hair, and
the sylph-like form, so perfect…. (Deadwood Dick, the Prince of the Road, 1877, p. 4)
There was a scream of agony, just here, and a heavy fall. Anita had fainted! Redburn
sprung from his seat, ran over to her side, and raised her tenderly in his arms. ‘Poor
thing!’ he murmured, gazing into her pale, still face, ‘the shock was too much for her. No
wonder she fainted.’ (Deadwood Dick, the Prince of the Road, 1877, p. 11)
The notion of gender conformity is supported here in that there is accordance between social
expectations of femininity and the appearances and behaviors of female characters. These
idealized performances of women as pretty, passive participants in the private sphere support
Goffman’s (1959) proposition that generally speaking, performances “exemplify the officially
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accredited values of the society” (p. 35). The characters above, Miss Terry and Anita, provided
idealized performances of femininity by adopting values deemed socially acceptable by 19th
century society, thereby reaffirming their geographic and bodily locations or identities (Jacob &
Cerny, 2004; Stone, 1995).
Within the context of the Deadwood Dick series, however, the portrayal of female
characters was not limited to gender performances defined by the virtues of the Cult of True
Womanhood; the adventures of these fictitious, westering women – like those of real pioneers –
sometimes necessitated modified gender performances that challenged these virtues and that
were more reminiscent of Cogan’s (1989) conceptualization of Real Womanhood and the New
Woman movement. Throughout the series, there were instances in which female characters were
forced to act outside of the private sphere and to alter their dress and gender performances,
accordingly, most often for purposes of survival. Here, then, female characters such as Virgie
Verner and Madame Minnie Majilton donned subdued, practical dresses that lent themselves
well to the physical tasks at hand and/or added hand-held objects such as revolvers or knives to
their personal fronts, juxtaposing these weapons against a backdrop of traditionally feminine
dress. Although these characters’ performances did not follow the expectations of society in
every regard, their appearances remained feminine, albeit altered, in order to better situate
themselves in their new expanded spheres and locations.
The Role of Androgynous Dress in Creating Nontraditional Gender Identity
In contrast to the majority of female characters, who adopted traditional, feminine
appearances, Calamity Jane, the series’ recurring female protagonist, utilized androgynous dress
and appearance to create a nontraditional gender identity that she felt best embodied and
reflected her sense of self. Viewing Calamity’s gender performance through the lens of
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Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical perspective and Butler’s (1990) work on the performative
nature of gender reveals the importance of appearance and manners in creating believable
androgynous gender performances and identities. In addition, Stone’s (1995) work on
appearance is helpful in understanding the influences and outcomes of judgments on characters’
presentations of the self and identity management/formation.
Appearance. Although the younger, more feminine Calamity Jane was featured in the
Deadwood Dick series only as part of the character’s “backstory,” the author invokes her past
life to demonstrate the effects of westward movement and the “politics of relocation” on her
adult gender identity (Roberson, 1998). That is, by detailing the metamorphosis of Calamity Jane
from a demure and femininely dressed 16 year old to an androgynously dressed and behaving
adult woman, the author effectively demonstrates the ways in which the demands frontier life
and a growing disconnect with her feminized identity necessitated that Calamity reconfigure her
gender performances. The author sets her transformation into motion with a mysterious event –
the details of which are not disclosed to the reader – that prompts Calamity to move westward,
where she abandons the trappings of the feminized version of the self. This change in her
appearance is incited, in part, by the sheer practicality and utility of an androgynous appearance
for life on the frontier. Calamity, herself, recognizes as much in the following excerpt from
Deadwood Dick on Deck: ‘I don’t allow ye ken beat men’s togs much for handy locomotion an’
so forth’ (1878, p. 24). Other characters in the novels, too, share Calamity’s assessment of the
expediency of her androgynous frontier appearance, including Colonel Joe Tubbs, who remarks
that Calamity’s wearing of men’s attire is prudent, owing to the risks of traveling and living
alone as a woman on the frontier.
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Beyond practical considerations, Calamity’s abandonment of her feminized self and her
subsequent adoption of an androgynous appearance seemingly reflects a felt disconnect between
her embodied physicality and the mandates of her culture, which had previously pressured her to
conform to cultural expectations of womanhood and domesticity:
‘But, excuse me, please, you’re a woman, are you not?’ ‘Well, yes, I reckon I am in flesh,
but not in spirit o’ late years. Ye see, they kind o’ got matters discomfuddled w’en I was
created, an’ I turned out to be a gal instead of a man, which I ought to hev been [sic].’
(Deadwood Dick on Deck, 1878, p. 23)
She justifies her gender performance and appearance by suggesting that it accurately represents
her true sense of self, which does not wholly efface her female sex, but instead incorporates
components of both feminine and masculine appearance and performance. Thus, consistent with
androgyny’s attempt to neutralize gender difference by bringing together male and female in one
body, the author’s descriptions of Calamity Jane provide a glimpse into both the feminine and
masculine aspects of her appearance.
She was the possessor of a form both graceful and womanly, and a face that was
peculiarly handsome and attractive, though upon it were lines drawn by the unmistakable
hand of dissipation and hard usage….The lips and eyes still retained…their girlish
beauty...the face proper had the power to become stern, grave or jolly in expression,
wreathed partially as it was in a semi-framework of long, raven hair that reached below a
faultless waist. Her dress was buckskin trowsers [sic], met at the knee by fancifully
beaded leggings, with slippers of dainty pattern upon the feet; a velvet vest, and one of
those luxuries of the mines, a boiled shirt, open at the throat, partially revealing a breast
of alabaster purity; a short, velvet jacket, and Spanish broad-brimmed hat, slouched one
side of a regally beautiful head. There were diamond rings upon her hands, a diamond pin
in her shirt-bosom, a massive gold chain strung across her vest-front…A belt around her
waist contained a solitary revolver of large caliber; and this, along with a rifle strapped to
her back comprised her outfit. (Deadwood Dick on Deck, 1878, p. 4)
Insomuch as the above description juxtaposes traditionally feminine with traditionally masculine
characteristics – such as hard-living and dainty, girlish and stern – along with components of
appearance – such as faultless waist and buckskin trousers, breast of alabaster purity and boiled
shirt of the mines, and diamond rings and weapons – it highlights well the androgyny and
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hybridity of Calamity’s character. Also implicit here is Butler’s (1990) assertion that “various
acts of gender create the idea of gender,” although, in Calamity Jane’s case, the presentation of
that gender is clearly a nontraditional, amalgamated one (p. 190).
Although Calamity Jane’s character and appearance initially come off as “reckless” and
haphazard, the preceding passage and others like it also reveal that Calamity may, in fact, engage
in some “thoughtful, behind-the-scenes planning” in which she purposefully selects various
components of masculinity and femininity for her various audiences to (re)view and evaluate
(Jacob & Cerny, 2004, p. 125). Such reviews – or assignments of value words and value-laden
responses (Stone, 1995) by various characters in the series – provide further insight into the
hybridity that characterizes Calamity’s appearance, and in particular, into the changing norms
and gendered dress behaviors of mid- to late-19th century American society. For instance,
throughout the series, there were over 60 instances in which value words were used by the author
and characters to review Calamity Jane’s appearance, including: girl-in-breeches, girl dare-devil,
boss gal, mountain knight, eccentric girl/creature, and reckless bucchario of the hills. Although
many of these value words further substantiate the androgyny of Calamity’s character by
incorporating masculine and feminine value words, some of them demonstrate the negative
responses of some characters to Calamity’s nontraditional gender performance. The first two
books of the series, in particular, included numerous negative reviews of Calamity Jane’s
appearance, by both female and male characters. Typically, these reviews were made in response
to her use of men’s pants rather than traditionally feminine dress and included reactions of
incredulity and confusion:
‘I don’t suppose because a woman wears male attire that she is necessarily a fool; though
why a female must lower her sex by appearing in men’s garb, I see not. She must be an
eccentric creature—rather a hard case, is she not?’ (Deadwood Dick on Deck, 1878, p. 2)
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Interestingly, in the last three books, Calamity’s appearance was not described to the same extent
as in earlier novels, and the use of value words in the descriptions significantly decreased. The
reactions and responses to Calamity’s appearance also became more accepting, particularly
among male characters. The decrease in attention paid to her appearance and in characters’
acceptance of her gender performance may be attributed to the audience’s and characters’
familiarity with Calamity Jane’s character throughout the series. However, it also may reflect
changes in gender norms and gendered dress behaviors brought on by the New Woman
movement occurring in the final years of 19th century American society (Heilmann, 2000). Much
of the discourse on the New Woman movement was created in popular literature such as dime
novels, featuring heroines like Calamity Jane who appeared and behaved in resistance to socially
constructed ideals of masculinity and femininity (Heilmann, 2000).
Manners. Goffman (1959) refers to manners as “those stimuli which function at the time
to warn us of the interaction role the performer will expect to play in the oncoming situation,”
and notes that the audience expects there to be consistency between appearance and manner in
performances (p. 24). Along with appearance cues, the actions and gestures of Calamity Jane
give further clues as to the intention of her performances. Calamity, outfitted in buckskin
trousers, vest, shirt, boots, revolvers and rifles, further reinforces her androgynous gender
performance by taking part in traditionally masculine acts and by adopting certain gestures more
commonly invoked by male characters. In Deadwood Dick on Deck (1878), a male character
describes Calamity Jane’s manners as such:
‘She’s a dare-devil, Sandy….She ar’ the most reckless buchario in ther Hills, kin drink
whisky, shute, play keerds, or sw’ar, ef et comes ter et; but, ‘twixt you an’ me, I reckon
ther gal’s got honor left wi’ her grit out o’ ther wreck o’ a young life [sic].’ (p. 2)
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Throughout the male character’s description, he hints at his simultaneously conflicting feelings
of admiration and incredulity at the masculinity and femininity embodied in the character of
Calamity Jane. These conflicting reviews are rich with value words and value-laden responses –
such as the comparison of her honor and grit versus her wreck of a life – and echo those of other
characters and the author.
The consistency between Calamity Jane’s appearance and manners was an important
aspect of creating and maintaining a convincing gender performance and identity. There were
over 50 instances in which the use of traditionally masculine aspects of dress were central in
making her actions and gestures more believable. In particular, the use of weapons and
cigars/cigarettes gave Calamity a measure of credibility among male characters that allowed
unprejudiced participation in gun fights, rescuing and defending others, and gaining admission
into saloons.
As she entered the High Jack saloon…she advanced to the bar, and ordered a glass of
wine, which she paid for, and drank….Leaving the bar, she sauntered over to a poker
table, where Fen Franklin and Halsey were playing poker, the faro game having ‘petered
out,’ for the night. ‘Howdy, gents. How’s luck running, tonight?’ she said, taking a
cigarette from her pocket, and lighting it...‘D’ye think you can make a run on
it?’….‘Perhaps you were afraid to bluff!’ the girl sport said, with a smile, as she drew a
chair to the table….Calamity now dove down into her pocket, bringing forth several gold
pieces, and a roll of bank notes, among which hundred-dollar bills were not wanting.
(Deadwood Dick’s Diamonds, 1885, p. 4)
Whereas weapons gave Calamity power over male characters and assisted in asserting her
independence, the use of other hand-held objects and accessories such as cigars, cards, canes,
and hats provided important finishing touches to her appearance that lent her an air of
authenticity and respect, allowing her to participate in several traditionally masculine activities
like gambling, drinking, and socializing at saloons. The authenticity and congruency between
these two aspects of performance aided Calamity in moving successfully and easily throughout
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the western male-dominated public sphere and in being a “hybrid hero,” which enabled her to
participate in multiple plots through changes in appearance (Jones, 1978).
The consistency between her androgynous appearance and manners, particularly the
masculine components, created a genuine and straightforward gender performance for her
audience. Although not all characters were able to fully understand Calamity Jane’s character,
they did accept her gender performance as a compulsory part of her role as a frontier woman,
road-agent, and detective. The accordance between programs and reviews of Calamity’s
appearance resulted in the long-term adoption of an androgynous gender identity. The general
responses of male characters to her nontraditional gender performance became more accepting
and respectful over the course of the series. These validating responses coupled with her
character’s sense of self created conditions in which Calamity did not appear to feel pressured to
make changes to her appearance, which often was the case with female characters who attempted
to cross-dress. Further, it allowed her the freedom to move about the public and private spheres
with ease and without harassment. Thus, the ability to move freely about society and the
generally validating reviews from the audience resulted in an androgynous gender identity that
Calamity Jane maintained for much of the series.
Cross-Dressing as a Means of Navigating Temporary Changes in Space and Place
Female characters in the Deadwood Dick series utilized cross-dressing as a means of
navigating temporary changes in space and place, such as westward movement, and for
participating in the public and private spheres. As the New Woman movement was taking hold in
the final decades of the 19th century, women were asserting their independence by entering the
workforce and going to school, as well as by challenging traditional dress norms. The ideals of
the New Woman also were demonstrated by female characters featured in popular fiction;
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Heilmann (2000) notes that “female cross-dressing developed as a theme in fin-de-siècle feminist
fiction,” which conceptualized “concerns of the first women’s movement in the metaphor of
masquerade” (p. 85). Two specific uses of cross-dressing were discovered throughout the series:
cross-dressing for disguise and cross-dressing for survival. Although cross-dressing for purposes
of disguise was presented as a more acceptable form of cross-dressing, for the most part,
characters who cross-dressed were able to gain empowerment through their performances.
Cross-dressing for disguise. Cross-dressing for disguise was adopted primarily by
Calamity Jane. Although androgyny was Calamity’s preferred gender identity, various plot
developments necessitated that she frequently adopt alternative “hybrid hero” identities and
modes of dress and appearance in order to disguise her unmistakable “girl-in-breeches”
appearance (Jones, 1978). This was done in order to lend assistance to and rescue male
characters in trouble and to solve mysteries and wrong-doings. In one scene, Calamity disguised
herself in order to rescue Deadwood Dick, her husband and “pard” at the time, by infiltrating the
gang of men who kidnapped him:
Dick uttered an ejaculation of surprise as his gaze rested upon Calamity Jane, the same as
he had seen her in Goldburg [wearing a buckskin suit, short curly hair, and a black
mustache], except that she was covered in dirt. ‘How in the world did you get in here!’ he
cried, in an undertone. She smiled, oddly. ‘Why, I was here every minute as soon as you
were….I managed to make myself one of the pursuing party, without any one but myself
being the wiser for it.’ (Deadwood Dick’s Diamonds, 1885, p. 10)
Most often Calamity disguised herself as a rough miner or an older man. The adoption of male
dress and appearance, including facial hair, allowed her to move with even more ease in public
places such as saloons, banks, and mining camps because she was not recognized as being a
woman in male attire; rather, she blended in as just another male character.
Although Calamity’s androgynous appearance received mixed reviews, her crossdressing performances received more positive reviews consistent with those made of male
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characters. Value words – including youth, pleasant, armed, and beardless – used in descriptions
of and responses to her disguises indicate the author’s and characters’ acceptance of Calamity as
a male character in those instances.
Seated at a table in a somewhat retired corner were two persons engaged at cards. One
was a beardless youth attired in buck-skin, and armed with knife and pistols….Still the
youth kept on, a quiet smile resting on his pleasant features, a twinkle in his coal-black
eye. The youth, dear reader, you have met before. He is not he, but instead—Calamity
Jane! (Deadwood Dick, the Prince of the Road, 1877, p. 7)
The temporary nature of Calamity’s adoption of cross-dressing for disguise, may, in fact, explain
the lack of attention paid to her nontraditional gender performance. Because the use of disguise
promises the audience and the reader that it is a temporary adoption of a nontraditional gender
performance, the reactions and descriptions vary from those of her androgynous performance.
The author offers a somewhat nonchalant presentation of the character, in that the descriptions of
dress and appearance are more succinct and are treated with less distinction than are those of
androgynous dress or cross-dressing for survival.
Cross-dressing for survival. Whereas cross-dressing for disguise was utilized in order to
assist characters and solve mysteries, cross-dressing for survival was enacted for purposes of
westward movement, especially to escape and hide from a male character. In the 19th century it
was not customary for women to travel alone, especially not cross-country into the largely
unsettled West. The most prominent cross-dressing female in the dime novels analyzed, Dusty
Dick, first took on a masculine appearance in the East when she was escaping from her abusive
husband. She relied on her masculine appearance to safely move westward in search of a new
beginning until one day she was discovered sleeping by one of the male protagonists of the story,
Sandy, who originally thought her to be a young boy, but quickly began to question this initial
assessment of gender identity:
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Sandy…gazed into the sheltered little nook, where a plump, graceful form was lying—
that of a boy of eighteen, with a pretty, beardless face, which was so composed and at
rest, in slumber, and curling chestnut hair which reached down upon the finely-shaped
shoulders. A boy; was it a boy? The form was clad in male habiliments, and there was a
boyish look to the finely-chiseled features, which defied the suspicion of femininity in the
sleeper. A plain frontier costume of coarse cloth, neatly fitting the graceful form of only
medium hight [sic]; the feet incased in knee-boots of a fine leather, and a Spanish widerim felt hat lying upon the grass, were items of the beautiful sleeper’s outfit. Weapons he
carried none, outwardly exhibited—yet, here in the depths of the mountain, lying in sweet
repose, was the youthful waif—who was it? (Deadwood Dick on Deck, 1878, p. 7)
The components of dress and appearance that alert Sandy as to the ambiguity of Dusty’s gender
were the lack of facial hair and weapons and the long curling hair. Alternatively, the frontier
costume, boots, and wide-rim hat signaled the possible masculinity of the character.
Upon Dusty’s awakening, she was startled and reacted in a traditionally feminine way, trembling
with fright. This lapse in masculine performance by Dusty confirmed Sandy’s suspicions,
causing his reaction towards her to be that of a protector rather than that of an equal.
After agreeing to help Dusty Dick maintain her cross-dressing performance and to take
her in as his “pard,” Sandy considers how best to improve her disguise: “I reckon a false
mustache would make more of a man of you, and you would then pass muster. You can turn a
hand at cooking, and occasionally, to avoid suspicion, can peck away in the mines” (Deadwood
Dick on Deck, 1878, p. 7). It is interesting that although Sandy seeks to make Dusty’s
masculinity more believable by affixing a false mustache on her face and having her occasionally
work in the mines, he also expects her to cook. Thus, Sandy is willing to assist Dusty in creating
an authentic masculine performance for the public’s view but is unwilling to allow her masculine
performance in the private sphere, perhaps because it would require him (and readers) to accept
such a blatant violation of social and gender norms. The (in)ability of his character to accept
Dusty’s masculine performance reflects the social realities and tensions present and in flux on
the western frontier in the 19th century.
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Once Dusty Dick’s cross-dressing disguise was finalized, the novel’s focus turned to
ensuring that the other aspects of her performance, manners, and settings were consistent with
her appearance. That is, Sandy did not deem Dusty’s performance sincere or believable until she
fully adopted masculine manners and participated in male-dominated settings. Sandy advised
Dusty to “forget you are a woman, and all will go well,” (Deadwood Dick on Deck, 1878, p. 8).
Initially, Dusty found this advice difficult to heed, with her masculine performances frequently
featuring slips of the personal front that revealed her feminine identity (e.g., femininely “coded”
emotions and reactions). Thus, although the male characters in Whoop-Up were taken in by
Dusty’s masculine performance, the female characters saw through these performances, with
Madame Minnie proclaiming her to be “no more of a man than I am” (Deadwood Dick on Deck,
1878, p. 8). After the women’s declarations of Dusty’s femininity, Sandy encouraged Dusty to
play her part and reaffirm her masculine gender performance in a male-dominated setting. To
this end, Dusty demonstrated her mastery “of the vernacular and bravado of the mines”
(Deadwood Dick on Deck, 1878, p. 13) when she visited a saloon:
‘Let out ther sherry wine for me, ye galoot!’ Dusty Dick replied, ranging himself along
the bar, and addressing the barkeeper. ‘Hurry up yer stumps, or I’ll get over ther an’ grab
a hold o’ ther ribbons myself.’ The bottle was quickly forthcoming, and Dick swallowed
a few drops of the wine. (Deadwood Dick on Deck, 1878, p. 13)
This convincing performance – in which Dusty Dick adopts the dress, language, and
manner of a hard-working, uneducated, and tough man – represents a turning point in the novel,
after which both Dusty Dick as well as her audiences embrace her masculine gender
performances, particularly within public spheres. For much of the first half of the dime novel,
Dusty appears masculine, but behaves femininely; however, upon realizing the believability of
her masculine performance, she appears and more often behaves masculine within the private
sphere. That is, the confidence experienced by Dusty while socializing in public, coupled with
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male characters’ acceptance of her as a male miner, influenced her private sphere self. Despite
Dusty’s success at presenting a masculine gender performance, she does eventually give up
cross-dressing and marries Sandy. As is the case with Dusty Dick, Heilmann (2000) notes that it
is common for cross-dressing heroines to return to traditionally feminine appearances and
“occupations” once their agendas and goals within the public sphere have been met. Crossdressing served its purpose as a tool of concealment from her abusive husband and as a tool of
survival in the male-dominated western frontier. Further, cross-dressing allowed Dusty Dick to
negotiate temporary changes in geographic space – as she was relocating and living on the
western frontier – and bodily place during the negotiation of her social place and identity as a
single woman in male-dominated contexts (Roberson, 1998).
Conclusions
As reflection theory reminds us, popular literature such as the Western dime novel may
provide insights into the values and social concerns of the time period in which it is produced.
Indeed, such is the case for the Deadwood Dick novels, which were written during a time of
social unrest and change and which provide a glimpse into the sexual, social, and political
concerns of late 19th century American society. As noted, late 19th century society saw many
changes for women, which in turn, prompted changes in gender norms and gendered dress
behaviors (Myres, 1982). Connections between the fictional characters of the Deadwood Dick
series and real western pioneers became apparent as issues related to gender norms and
appearance in the dime novels reflected those of 19th century society (Cogan, 1989; Helvenston,
1986; White, 1980). Through the manipulation of appearance, gender performance, and identity
among female characters, the author, consciously or not, provided a critique of cultural and
political anxieties by breaking down social constructions of gender. That is, whether traditional
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feminine dress, androgynous dress, or cross-dressing was used by female characters in the series,
each reflected aspects of change in space and place experienced by real pioneer women.
The transition in ideological views of 19th century womanhood is reflected in the dime
novels by alterations in appearance and gender performance that enabled traditionally feminine
characters to act in expanded spheres of knowing and being (Cogan, 1989; Roberson, 1998). In
exchange for the more impractical and cumbersome aspects of traditionally feminine dress, both
pioneer women and dime novel characters adopted utility dress (oftentimes including weapons)
better suited for the demands of frontier life (Myres, 1982). Many pioneer women revealed in
their diaries that they liked their “Western appearance,” while other women commented on their
androgynous dress; Mary Alice Shutes wrote in her journal, “I am dressed like Charles and
straddle my horse” (in Roberson, 1998, p. 230). Calamity Jane’s androgynous appearance and
hybridity resonate well with the real-life experiences of pioneer women who adopted aspects of
masculine appearance in order to better situate themselves in their new and changing geographic
spaces and bodily places (Helvenston, 1990; Roberson, 1998). For many women, not having to
follow 19th century society’s constructions of gender resulted in feelings of relief and liberation
as well as the confidence to participate in activities outside of the private sphere (Helvenston,
1986; Walker, 1998). Such were the feelings of cross-dressing pioneer women and dime novel
characters who, through acts of personal and political resistance, reflected women’s growing
“discontent with the restrictive norms of femininity,” a leading force behind the New Woman
movement of the late 19th century (Heilmann, 2000, p. 83). For the “New Woman,” instances of
real-life cross-dressing tended to be temporary and for the purposes of accomplishing a task –
including admission into male-dominated professions, feminist activism and rebellion – as was
the case with female dime novel characters (Heilmann, 2000). Thus, the examination of female
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characters’ appearance and gender performance in the Deadwood Dick series provided insight
into 19th century culture and society, as well as a critique on the social realities of the time, thus
providing an apt reflection of the evolving American national character and the tensions present
in 19th century American society (White, 1980).
The present analysis contributes to the body of textiles and apparel scholarship by
demonstrating the ways in which the evolution and manipulation of gender (role) performance
and appearance among fictional dime novel characters is reflective of the experiences of
historical pioneer women of the 19th century. In addition, the present work demonstrates the
usefulness of applying narrative inquiry to popular literature to glean meanings about dress and
appearance. In the future, it would be beneficial to examine masculine appearance and gender
performance, including cross-dressing in western dime novels, to gain a richer understanding of
gender performativity on the western frontier. Further, it would be useful to expand the present
work’s use of narrative inquiry to a larger sample of dime novels, as the current work was
limited by a rather small selection based on format, genre, and series. Although the sample size
and scope of this research is not representative of all (western) dime novels, it provides a
framework for further analysis.
72
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