Susan Lee Johnson Response Paper

The Susan Lee Johnson article, “Bulls, Bears, and Dancing Boys: Race, Gender, and Leisure in California Gold Rush,” illustrated how Anglo-men in the mining towns coped without Anglo-women present. The pattern of behavior from men in the Californian Gold Rush is reminiscent of the female gender roles assumed by men in the early establishment of Jamestown, Virginia. Although, factors such as; inadequacy, spare time, and clashing cultural concepts about the womanhood and race in California created more exaggerated distortions to the behavior of Anglo men.

The author focused on Alfred Doten, John Doble, Timothy Osborn because they exemplify the prevalent struggles, which Anglo men succumbed to during the Gold Rush. Alfred Doten came to California young, arrogant and inexperienced. He assumed he was entitled to success because he was an Anglo-man; unfortunately, like many Anglo men whom ventured to California he became disabled in a mining accident. Programmed with Protestant ideas about women, he also experienced a culture clash in California. He naively pursued and mistook the sexual motives of the matrilineal native women. (25) Furthermore, like many Anglo-men in this environment he partook in sexual relations with other men for comfort. (25) I believe that his sexual pliability may have risen from his feelings of insecurity. John Doble took a different course, he tried to uphold his Anglo Protestant values. He resisted from the temptation of women, but he still fell victim to other temptations by gambling and drinking. He also exhibited “homosocial behavior,” (20) men formed bonds to cope with the lack “proper women” and “society.” Doble had close ties to a man who he looked up for representing his ideal of morality. Lastly, T...

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...ith “sex, drinking, and gambling” during the Gold Rush. The more they engaged in these activities, the worse they probably felt, since they failed to be real men who showed self-control. The idea of a woman's role was detrimentally ingrained in the Anglo-men, it was probably easier for them to excuse their immorality than to take responsibility for their actions.

Consequently, non-Anglo women benefited from the lack of Anglo women present and they expanded the accepted ideas of femininity. Mexican women gained an elevated status; they were unattainable and they took on traditional gender roles like food preparation. Moreover, French women gained power through supervising the gambling and bars. Ultimately, the lack of women, the financial power of the non- Anglo, unfruitful mining, and culture clashes commonly worked together to displace Anglo men in the Gold Rush.