Brokeback Mountain in the context of New Western History

It turns out the history of the American West is much more diverse and complex, and less individualistic than the version we've always been fed. And of course, Brokeback Mountain shows that "Western individualism" only applies to heteros.

Brokeback Mountain, thus, suggests that the West is hardly a region where the individual is free from the constraints of social
expectations and mob violence employed to enforce social norms.

Essay by Ron Briley, posted on George Mason University's History News Network.