Local cowboy cosplayer Brandon is opting out of the womanly facemask and going for the ballsier bandana to cover his face. “Sure, it falls off literally all the time and basically makes it useless,” he said, “but at least I look like a pudgy Butch Cassidy.”
For Brandon, this is just another way to show that he barely even thinks about the pandemic despite posting about it on Facebook nonstop. “Honestly, I wore this before COVID,” he said while waltzing into his local saloon. He says a lot of people do mistake him for an Old West cowboy, but mainly because of his views on women and gay rights date to that time period.
Wearing the bandana has helped Brandon continue to cultivate the badass image he has spent years building by drinking Bud Light and complimenting motorcyclists on the sounds of their vehicles. He says this inner sense of masculinity must be carefully cultivated. “Sure, I’m manly enough to punch a hole in drywall, but my masculinity couldn’t take the blow of wearing one of those lady masks.”
Brandon admits that, like many others, his concept of self is only as strong as the pieces of clothing he decorates his body with.
- Jacob Nuckolls, Terminal Times
The Terminal Times 