Forget James Brown, country music is the real "man's world."

[kellinator]

I'm probably going to get flamed for this. Ah, screw it.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/03/music.country.reut/index.html

Gist of the article: Now the Dixie Chicks are in trouble because Natalie Maines wore a shirt with the letters "F.U.T.K." to an awards show. Everyone interpreted this as "fuck you Toby Keith." Apparently the two have been in a feud since Maines criticized Keith's song "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" (which for my money is a dreadful, embarrassing song, but that's not the point). Keith has therefore stated that Maines isn't nearly as good a songwriter as he is (of course not, he's a man), and has taken to "showing on big screens behind the stage [in his concerts] the doctored photo of Maines and Saddam Hussein."

Now, I'm not denying that the shirt stunt was just stupid, but it's so country music to criticize a woman for responding in kind to an accusation of treason. *slap* Now get in the kitchen and make me some pie!!

Stuff like this makes it embarrassing to be from the South. (You know why the South has started going heavy Republican? I'll tell you in one word: racism. And if you're Republican and you're offended by that, I'm sorry, but you're the ones who let Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms, and Trent Lott speak for yourselves. Aren't you guys the ones who insist you're judged by the company you keep? If you want to be well thought-of, then it's up to you to take control of your party back from the "disagreement is treason" jingoists.)

Comments

[39orangestreet.livejournal.com]

why do you think gender has anything to do with it? i mean, i'm a big defender of natalie (mostly because her father is a god to me) and a big hater of most mainsteram country music, but it hasn't been obvious to me that the fact that she's a dixie chick instead of a dixie dude has made her get treated worse through this whole thing...

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

I guess my "evidence" is based on living my entire life in the South and seeing the way that things go (not that I have any evidence that it's better elsewhere). Steve Earle got bitched at a little over "John Walker's Blues," but the relative size of the firestorm probably has more to do with his lack of mainstream exposure. But the whole attitude of this -- how dare she! and such foul language! she's not being very ladylike! -- is what I've been kicking against my whole life.

[39orangestreet.livejournal.com]

I can't really think of a comparable situation with a man, so it's hard for me to see if gender has something to do with it. Certainly the Martin Sheen's and Sean Penn's of the world are getting/got as much flack as the Janeane Garofalo's, which is why I think it's more of a anti-lefty-pinko-commie thing than an anti-woman thing. I guess I just haven't heard nearly as much of the "she's not being very ladylike" rhetoric as I have of the "She's not being a very good american".

(and i lived enough of my life in the south to have some credibility on the issue, even if i did manage to escape a couple years ago...)

[canela.livejournal.com]

She's not only not one of the "Good ol' boys" ....she's attacking one of them. It's getting a lot of people riled. I agree with kellinator, the South hates change. It is, after all, why the Civil War even happened...

Alot of women in the south are still seen as the "don't speak until spoken to", "get in the kitchen and get me a beer", can't do anything for themselves type of people by a good many men.

In Maines' case, she's also now been painted as unpatriotic and anti-American... which, is only adding reasons for people to hate her and the group.

Notice Toby didn't get any repercussions at all when he stooped to the childish levels of using the doctored photographs and stating that she wasn't of "his level" in talent. For as much as I liked his music, it is food for thought before buying another cd... Just my $.02

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

You said this so well. Thanks!