Unpopular McHanzo Opinion
For some reason, the McHanzo fandom thinks that "cowman" is a super cute nickname for Hanzo to give McCree instead of cowboy, but, imo, it's fucking stupid.
Idek where it came from.
Is it supposed to be a "joke" on Hanzo not being American? Because if it is, it sure as hell doesn't hold up. First off, his family's fucking rich and also Yakuza, so you bet your ass his English language tutoring's going to be top notch. He's not going to be floundering around like "hm, this dude with a stetson and chaps and spurs is a MAN" and I guess the association is with cows? Or maybe he just remembers the "cow" part of cowboy, but can't think of the rest of it? But, again, TOP NOTCH ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING and if he knows enough to put together the stetson + chaps + spurs image = cow-something, then he's going to fucking remember that the whole image was labeled as cowboy. Which, to go on from that, the entire aesthetic itself would've been taught to him as the Western or the Cowboy aesthetic, with horses and not cows involved. I looked up "cowman" and while it is associated with the term "cowboy," it's unrelated to, as they referred to it, the "Cowboy Culture," which is where you'll find the hat and the country music and all that.
Which leads me to the next bit, which is I've seen in at least one fic where McCree insists he's a cowMAN, taking cowBOY to be an emasculating insult (I guess????), which implies that HE doesn't know the difference which, considering who he is, is LUDICROUS. And this is also coming from a fandom and a community that's all about female empowerment and shit, but then still depict characters feeling like they're "less manly" just because their "label" has "boy" in it, which, again, ludicrous, because not ONCE has cowBOY been used as an emasculating insult, unless it was in actual reference to actual cattle farming.
EXAMPLE ONE:
cattleman: you'll never be a cattleMAN if you don't settle down and start your own ranch, cowBOY.
cowboy: well maybe I prefer free-range cattle to your ranches, cowMAN! maybe I like the open ranges of the American West!
Because, literally, THAT is the difference: cattlemen were cattle farmers who had their own ranch, while cowboys dealt with free-range cattle, often out in the western plains of America.
So the REAL conversation would actually go like (and now we're making it McHanzo, with the implication that Hanzo's a silly Japanese man who doesn't understand the difference between cowmen and cowboys, or at least doesn't remember the full vocab term "cowboy" because he'd totally run into cowman as a vocab term when he's learning about American trade in the 2070's for his Yakuza upbringing):
Hanzo: who are you, you... cowMAN?
McCree: the name's Jesse McCree, and it's actually cowBOY. Cowmen had their own ranches, while cowboys tended free-range cattle out in the wide open spaces of the American West, BUT more importantly, cowboy is also the name of the culture that surrounds my general aesthetic - y'know, with the button ups and the stetson and the chaps and the boots with the spurs and my love of Western films and Country music.
Hanzo: ...just for that, I'm calling you cowman anyway.
McCree: ...that' fair.
And THAT is the only excuse I will accept for Hanzo calling McCree "cowman" instead of "cowboy." Now whenever I see McCree being referred to as "cowboy," I will literally cry.
So, I know this whole thing is silly, but the fact that authors aren't doing basic research is silly. Cowman and cowboy aren't interchangeable, and I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M ACTUALLY MAKING A POST ABOUT THIS BECAUSE, TBH, I FUCKING HATE WESTERN MOVIES. But, hey, Jesse McCree and McHanzo deserve better, so, there it is.
Idek where it came from.
Is it supposed to be a "joke" on Hanzo not being American? Because if it is, it sure as hell doesn't hold up. First off, his family's fucking rich and also Yakuza, so you bet your ass his English language tutoring's going to be top notch. He's not going to be floundering around like "hm, this dude with a stetson and chaps and spurs is a MAN" and I guess the association is with cows? Or maybe he just remembers the "cow" part of cowboy, but can't think of the rest of it? But, again, TOP NOTCH ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING and if he knows enough to put together the stetson + chaps + spurs image = cow-something, then he's going to fucking remember that the whole image was labeled as cowboy. Which, to go on from that, the entire aesthetic itself would've been taught to him as the Western or the Cowboy aesthetic, with horses and not cows involved. I looked up "cowman" and while it is associated with the term "cowboy," it's unrelated to, as they referred to it, the "Cowboy Culture," which is where you'll find the hat and the country music and all that.
Which leads me to the next bit, which is I've seen in at least one fic where McCree insists he's a cowMAN, taking cowBOY to be an emasculating insult (I guess????), which implies that HE doesn't know the difference which, considering who he is, is LUDICROUS. And this is also coming from a fandom and a community that's all about female empowerment and shit, but then still depict characters feeling like they're "less manly" just because their "label" has "boy" in it, which, again, ludicrous, because not ONCE has cowBOY been used as an emasculating insult, unless it was in actual reference to actual cattle farming.
EXAMPLE ONE:
cattleman: you'll never be a cattleMAN if you don't settle down and start your own ranch, cowBOY.
cowboy: well maybe I prefer free-range cattle to your ranches, cowMAN! maybe I like the open ranges of the American West!
Because, literally, THAT is the difference: cattlemen were cattle farmers who had their own ranch, while cowboys dealt with free-range cattle, often out in the western plains of America.
So the REAL conversation would actually go like (and now we're making it McHanzo, with the implication that Hanzo's a silly Japanese man who doesn't understand the difference between cowmen and cowboys, or at least doesn't remember the full vocab term "cowboy" because he'd totally run into cowman as a vocab term when he's learning about American trade in the 2070's for his Yakuza upbringing):
Hanzo: who are you, you... cowMAN?
McCree: the name's Jesse McCree, and it's actually cowBOY. Cowmen had their own ranches, while cowboys tended free-range cattle out in the wide open spaces of the American West, BUT more importantly, cowboy is also the name of the culture that surrounds my general aesthetic - y'know, with the button ups and the stetson and the chaps and the boots with the spurs and my love of Western films and Country music.
Hanzo: ...just for that, I'm calling you cowman anyway.
McCree: ...that' fair.
And THAT is the only excuse I will accept for Hanzo calling McCree "cowman" instead of "cowboy." Now whenever I see McCree being referred to as "cowboy," I will literally cry.
So, I know this whole thing is silly, but the fact that authors aren't doing basic research is silly. Cowman and cowboy aren't interchangeable, and I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M ACTUALLY MAKING A POST ABOUT THIS BECAUSE, TBH, I FUCKING HATE WESTERN MOVIES. But, hey, Jesse McCree and McHanzo deserve better, so, there it is.