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“What the f*ck?”

This question drives Kimberly A. Williams’s examination of the Calgary Stampede in Stampede: misogyny, white supremacy, and settler colonialism. With personal anecdotes, scholarly research, and dry humour, Williams dissects the “Greatest Show on Earth,” revealing the problematic origins and goals of Canada’s largest rodeo. By the end of its 200 pages, readers will see the Calgary Stampede as, at best, a questionable PR stunt, and at worst, a disgusting display of racism, sexism, homophobia, and capitalist excess.

Williams is a self-proclaimed “feminist scholar-activist,” and coordinator of the Women’s and Gender Studies program at Mount Royal University. Her background as an educator permeates her writing, with the first chapter serving as a lesson on how to approach and understand the rest of the book. Williams expertly weaves her experiences and thought processes into the text, humanizing an otherwise very academic read. Stampede feels like a college elective chosen on a whim that made you think about changing your major.

The depth of Stampede’s research is astounding — it took nearly 10 years to write this book, and it shows. Williams notes early on that she is the “perfect person” to ask questions of the Calgary Stampede, and then proves it: she cites psychologists, sociologists, poets, and draws upon her own expertise as a feminist researcher to push her arguments forward. Each aspect of the Stampede, be it the annual parade (“a pseudo-religious oil-soaked pilgrimage”) or the First Nations Princess (“unhelpful in the project of truth and reconciliation”), is meticulously broken down to its most basic elements, showing the reader how complex these symbols are. Occasionally, this can feel a bit tedious, especially when the sentences start to go past the half-page mark. Even Williams can sense her audience getting overwhelmed in the third chapter, recognizing it may seem like she’s “reading too much into this.” Despite a few lulls, Stampede manages to keep an engaging tone and pace, assisted by well-placed puns and sarcastic jabs.

Stampede seeks to determine who benefits from the Calgary Stampede and who gets left behind. Williams encourages the reader “to become ‘critically vigilant’ about the world in which we live,” and the connections she makes throughout the book certainly put the reader on that path. But despite her best efforts, Stampede, like the Stampede, leaves some people behind, too. This is, after all, a “scholarly” book, and those who are already educated or active in feminist circles are likely to get the most out of its analysis. This type of writing appeals (largely, but not exclusively) to people who already had alarm bells going off in their heads, who were already questioning the status quo the Stampede enforces. The hard-partying “petro-cowboys” Williams describes likely wouldn’t be caught dead reading Stampede. But one wonders if the book’s language limits its audience, if it could have traded in a few words for a wider reach. This is not to say the research should be less rigorous. Nor is it to suggest Williams tone down her arguments to pander to a racist, misogynist crowd. But its curb appeal to the very people it is mean to persuade is low.

Just as Williams was finishing up writing this book, the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the country, and the Calgary Stampede had to adapt. Although it’s never a good time for a deadly virus to shut down the world, the Stampede’s ability to shift gears so quickly makes Stampede’s arguments all the more credible. Williams asserts that Alberta and the Calgary Stampede don’t have to be awful places for women and people of colour; the pandemic proved they are capable of massive change. The recent election of Calgary’s first female mayor, Jyoti Gondek, finally feels like a step in the right direction. It will be interesting to see what a post-pandemic Stampede will look like in Gondek’s Calgary. Stampede’s success extends far past its pages. As people around the world resume gathering for events like the Calgary Stampede, Stampede equips its readers to spot the inequality in the symbolism and structure of these celebrations. Books like this should make petro-cowboys quake in their boots — if they ever get around to reading them.

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