Bowling Green: Popular Culture and Beefcake

You've probably wondered through your whole life about Bowling Green State University, the only university in the U.S. where you can get a Ph.D. in Popular Culture.  I wonder about the job prospects in an academic climate where you will be ostracized for admitting that you own a television set or have heard of the X-Men.









Of course, it's not just watching tv.  The most recent issue of the Journal of Popular Culture had articles on:

"The Motion Picture Trailer and Problematic Synecdoche"
"Quilts and Community in Barbara Graham's Southern Cozies"
"The Multimodal Appeal of Instagram Poetry"
"Patrick Bateman, Donald Trump, and the Hermeneutic Maelstrom"
"Authenticating Identity Claims in the Craft Beer Inudstry"

Well, what did you expect?  Chemistry and physics have a specialized vocabulary, too.

But aside from the PhD. in pop culture, the biggest question of Bowling Green is, where did the name come from?

It was settled in 1832, named after Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Bowling Green, Kentucky, settled in 1778, was named after either Bowling Green, Virginia or Bowling Green, New York

Bowling Green, Virginia, founded in 1803 -- wait a minute -- was named after the plantation of founder John Thomas Hoomes.

Bowling Green, New York is a park built in Dutch New Amsterdam in 1733 for the purpose of outdoor bowling.



Bowling Green, Ohio is a typical college town with a depressed downtown area and a lot of brewpubs and pizza places, but only one bowling alley.  It's known for the Black Swamp Arts Festival and the National Tractor Pull Competition. 

Kurt Erichsen's gay comic strip Murphy's Manor, which is still being published online after all these years, is set in a gay neighborhood in Black Swamp, Ohio. I had no idea he was reflecting Bowling Green.



Not much beefcake in town.  Bowling Green High School offers wrestling, swimming, football, lacrosse.














And of course bowling.















There's also a swim club. 300 pictures arranged boy-girl-boy-girl.  I couldn't decide on a boy, so I just removed the girl.

But Bowling Green State University doesn't have a wrestling team, a swim team, or any powerlifters, at least none who get photographed.

For that matter, they don't have a bowling team, either.

I guess everyone is too busy studying popular culture.

See also:Gay Comix of the 1980s