Ranting & Raving – Politics, Sex, Censorship, and America

The War on Freedom:  DIXIE CHICKS BANNED BY NBC
by W. Andrew Powell

Sometimes I have to admit that I find it remarkable what people can complain about. No matter where you turn there’s some outraged group suing people or making a fuss because nipples were exposed, or people spoke their minds about current affairs. There’s no question – sometimes they have a right to complain, but on a whole you really have to wonder where the word tolerance fits into our modern dictionary.

A great example of this is a movie coming out called Shut Up and Sing – a film that looks at how the Dixie Chicks were banned and insulted quite widely across the United States because lead singer Natalie Maines publicly stated that she was ashamed that President Bush was from their home state of Texas.

Now of course, God help you if you’re American and you say such a thing. Especially back then when solidarity was a prime directive for the U.S. and an attack on anything American was considered an attack on the country as a whole. Never mind that there didn’t seem to be a good reason to attack the Middle East – you can’t disrespect the rich white guy who runs the country…

Things have changed a lot since then and the band has found a few more supporters, but what I find newly controversial is that it seems like the movie about them has now decided to censor the girls just a little. Take a look at the original photo below shot for the cover of Entertainment Weekly, and then take a look at the doctored version that’s now running as part of the movie’s poster campaign.

Not exactly such an awful thing wrapping them up in the sheets, but it kind of takes away from the message just a little bit, doesn’t it?