The Eternal Irony of the Community": Prophecy, Patriotism, and the Dixie Chicks (original) (raw)

2009, Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies

This essay returns to the Dixie Chicks "incident" in order to reexamine the backlash against them. Their critics claim that patriotism and their contract with country music are at stake; I argue that the backlash is old-fashioned misogyny. My examination considers the concepts of prayer, patriotism, and the American Pledge of Allegiance. These words, though used loosely, are part of the central criticism of the Dixie Chicks actions. To accomplish my task, I turn, on the one hand, to Levinas and Heschel, and on the other to Hegel' s reading of Antigone. On March 10 th , 2003, ten days before the U.S. invaded Iraq, and responding to the anti-war, anti-U.S. protests in the streets outside the London concert venue, Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks announced to the audience, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." The comment, reported in the British media, was picked up by the AP, and shortly thereafter made its way through American blogs and conservative news outlets before it completely exploded in the mainstream media. For most people, this comment was an innocuous, even if disrespectful, insult. However, for others, the Dixie Chicks' words represented the epitome of American decay. The accusations ranged from disloyalty to treason, with words like "betrayal" peppered into the epithets hurled at them. From the people who believed these women had transgressed certain lines of right behavior, punishment was delivered swiftly and severely. To say that the response to the Dixie 1 Information about the Dixie Chicks incident is cited from the documentary, Dixie Chicks: Shut up and Sing, Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck, Woolly Puddin' Films, 2006. 2 In response to Maines' s question in this song, Frank Kogan asks, "OK, Natalie, try to answer your own question. What is it about the Dixie Chicks that provoked such a hysterical reaction, given the puniness of what you said?" ("Shame and Sensibility," Village Voice, July 25, 2006). Although Kogan asks several rhetorical questions about why this incident might have happened, he does not present any clear answers.