Queer as Folk Art: Cutting Into Kentucky Mountain Manhood

My research uses Queer theory to explore the male dominated tradition of wood carving in Appalachian Kentucky by deconstructing depictions of virility they produce. I interpret portrayals of masculinity in folk art using audience and reception theories and theories of the gay male gaze. I investigate Edgar and Donny Tolson’s representations of Adam (the proto-male), the devil-men of Ronald and Jessie Cooper, a woman’s view of maleness from Carolyn Hall, the sexualized kinetic sculptures of Hugo Sperger, Earnest Patton and the cult of the beard, the intricate dioramas of inmate Marvin Francis, and other knife-wielding traditionalists who transform wood into idols of manhood. Is the notion of manliness a universal absolute, or can folk art manifestations thereof inform us intellectually, culturally, and aesthetically? Artifacts of hyper-masculinity produced in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky will be examined through a queer lens to determine parallels between virility-laden straight ephemera and fetishized gay male erotica