The National Enquirerbroke the news this spring: “Garth Brooks stands by his two-fisted gay sister: She protected him from bullies, so he’s given her a job in the band.” Once cultural studies joined the age of post-Modernism, tabloid culture entered theoretical discourse as an equal. Good news for people like me. How else could the subject of lesbians and country-and-western music come so reputably to the pages of Artforum, via a column that itself testifies to several decades of secret affection for the wrong end of the radio dial?

Country-and-western music is hot these days. But way back in