Graduation Year
2025
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Media Studies
Reader 1
Carlin Wing
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
2025 Abbie O Arroyo
Abstract
Be the Cowboy interrogates the romanticized myth of the cowboy as a symbol of justice and freedom through the lens of racialized and gendered trauma. Centered on two Korean American sisters, the film explores the aftermath of a sexual assault and the ensuing quest for justice, highlighting the emotional and ethical tensions between retribution and healing. Drawing from postcolonial, trauma, and feminist theory, the project critiques the cowboy archetype’s historical entwinement with white patriarchy, colonial violence, and the aestheticization of marginalized suffering. By reimagining the Western genre through a racialized and gendered perspective, Be the Cowboy challenges dominant cultural narratives and centers the complexities of survivor agency, silence, and sisterhood. Ultimately, the film offers a powerful meditation on justice, identity, and reclamation—both personal and collective—underscoring the urgent need for narratives that confront rather than reproduce systemic violence.
Recommended Citation
Arroyo, Abbie Oh, "Reckoning with the Cowboy: Justice, Trauma, and the Myth of Freedom in Be the Cowboy" (2025). Scripps Senior Theses. 2638.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/2638
Included in
Asian American Studies Commons, Film Production Commons, Other Film and Media Studies Commons
