Analysis Of Dixie Chicks Not Read To Make Nice

If the Dixie Chicks were around during the time of the Woman’s Rights Movement, their Grammy Award winning record “Not Read to Make Nice” would have been one of the theme songs played at rally’s during the duration of the fight. The backlash that transpired from comments made by the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks was noted as the inspiration behind why the song came to fruition during an interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Country stations across the United States pulled the Dixie Chicks from playlists following reports that lead singer Natalie Maines said in a concert in London that she was "ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." At the time that Natalie’s comments were made, The Dixie Chicks had the number one country

album in the United States on the Billboard charts called "Home" and the No. 1 single with "Travelin' Soldier”. The exile that the Dixie Chicks faced after Natalie made her statement came from lead singer simply exercising her first amendment right in a legal way. The correlation between the creation of the song “Not Ready to Make Nice”, and the message behind what Susan B. Anthony and the other pioneers of the Woman’s Suffrage woman stood for during the fight for woman’s rights in the 1800’s is quite simple. “Not Ready to Make Nice”, addressed the intersectionality of oppression experienced by cisgender identified women, theories of gender inequality, and discrepancies of mass culture.
The Dixie Chick's song, “Not Ready to Make Nice” illuminated the intersectionality of oppression experienced by cisgender identified women by highlighting the conventional limits often placed on a women’s first amendment right. Often when a bold statement is made by a woman, a Hester Prynne like condemnation is the consequence she’s dealt with for being unapologetically outspoken. The song “Not Ready to Make Nice” came following an arguably unfavorable comment made by group member, Natalie Maines during a Dixie Chicks concert that took place in London. Disheartened by the former U.S. president George W. Bush decision to go war with Iraq, Natalie Maines voiced her disapproval for the war and the president during a 2003 concert in London. The backlash from the statements made by Nathalie included ridicule, death threats, and the removal of the Dixie Chicks songs on the radio. Although, things like freedom of speech comes at the cost of repercussion from opposing parties. America is not a country that condones nor commends a nation that is governed by a system of dictatorship. America was founded on the ideas and principles of democracy. Speaking out against any political agenda or law that a citizen in this nation does not agree with should be applauded in America, not viewed as a cause for ostracization. The problem with the ostracization that Dixie Chicks were subjected to is their male counterparts who made similar statements didn’t receive the same amount of exile. On the contrary, males that made negative comments about the war on Iraq and the president faced no social repercussions at all.
One of the most notable male protest came from the film make Michael Moore, who used his acceptance speech at the 2003 Oscars, just days after the invasion in Iraq, to declare, "We live in a time where we have a man (President Bush) sending us to war for fictitious reasons.

Whether it’s the fictitious duct tape or the fictitious orange alerts, we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And, whenever you've got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up.” Although, Moore was booed off stage at the Oscars once his comment was made. According to Moore on the day after he criticized Bush and the war at the Oscars, attendance for his film "Bowling for Columbine" went up 110% in theaters around the country. A documentary written and filmed by Moore titled “Fahrenheit 9/11”, was released just a year later his Academy Awards comments were made and the documentary went on to become the highest grossing documentary in U.S. history. Ironically, the documentary consisted of Moore taking more ill-advised shots at Bush and “The War on Iraq”. A female activist group named the Guerilla Girls made a claim that, “the advantages woman artist are destined to look forward to is seeing their ideas live on in the works of others”. The prolonged negative backlash that Dixie Chicks received compared to Moores’ short lived boos on the stage at the Oscars prove the Guerrilla Girls claim to be true. Maines made her statement first and her group suffered being silenced by country radio stations across the country. Moore’s Oscar speech wasn’t reported to cause none of his current, present, or future films to be pulled of any network. The cisgender identified male Moore also did not report the sending of, any death threats after he denounced the president and the war. The shocking differences that both entertainers faced from a country that they both call home shows that the Dixie Chicks faced far worse repercussions than their male counterpart

because of the intersectionality of oppression experienced by cisgender identified women when they choose to exercise their first amendment right while forgetting to be “lady like” in the process.
The second thing that the record “Not Ready to Make Nice” addressed are the theories of gender equality. During the chorus of the song the Dixie Chicks state “that they’re not ready to make nice, nor are they ready to back down, it’s late to make what was said about the president right, they probably wouldn’t if they could, and they can’t bring themselves to do what it is people may think they should.” The lyrics mentioned in the hook shed light on the gender binary present in American society. According to the gender binary the Dixie Chicks were expected to make nice and back down once they realized one of the members of the group had views that weren’t liked by everyone. Traits being talked about in the chorus of the song are often linked to traits associated with being feminine. Woman’s rights leader Susan B. Anthony would’ve sung along to the chorus of “Not Ready to Make Nice”, because it correlates with how lines she used in her famous “Women’s Right to Vote” speech. Susan b. Anthony gets arrested twice for voting, although it was against the law, was her show the men in the United States during the 1800’s that she was not ready to make nice, nor was she ready to do what the arresting officers think that she should do. And Susan stating in her Woman’s Right to Vote Speech after her arrest had taken place that “It shall be her work to prove to the people in thus voting, she not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised her citizen's rights, guaranteed to her and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny showed that she was not ready to back down”; showed that she was not ready to back down either. A problem that Susan B. Anthony was arrested for was a problem without a cause since the men in the country who arrested her were overlooking the “we” that she so brilliantly mentioned was written in the constitution. She stated that “It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people - women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government - the ballot.” The problem without a cause that Susan address shows that the two votes that she cast are too late to make it right, but she probably wouldn’t if she could. The problem without a cause was also the problem that had no name described by, Betty Frieden. The traditions of gender binaries that woman heard repeatedly encouraged by the Freudians sophistication that they could desire no greater destiny than to glory in their own femininity was something the song Not Ready to Make Nice and Susan B. Anthony refused to adhere to or endorse. One last issue that “Not Ready to Make Nice” addressed was mass culture. The push to remove The Dixie Chicks songs on country music stations in the U.S. came after the negative comments made about the president and the war on Iraq at their show in London. The irony in minimizing the groups airplay is that some of the biggest news channels in the U.S. where releasing data, and polls, given to taken by their viewers, which insinuated that an immense number of citizens were against going to war with Iraq. CNN was one of the main protagonists when it comes to the release of polls and surveys. CNN reported in 2003 that the approval rate for the war was at 57 percent. An approval rate in the fifty’s shows that America was a country that was in some ways divide over what the president was doing at the time. CNN broadcasting that over forty percent of Americans were opposed to the war didn’t get the network banned of Cable T.V. In the Declaration of Rights written by, Olympe De Gouges Article ten of her declaration establishes that “no one is to be disquieted for his very basic opinions; woman has the right to mount the scaffold; she must equally have the right to mount the rostrum”. If the Dixie Chicks are receiving death threats that means that they can be executed. According to Olympe if execution can occur, woman should be able to speak. “Not Ready to Make Nice” address the mass culture issues that Olympe addresses. If a threat on their life was able to be sent to them through fan mail, fans that agreed with how group member Natalie felt should be able to be hear her on the radio. Mass culture should’ve never been allowed to silence the female group. In Conclusion the song “Not Ready to Make Nice” left its mark on the music world. The Grammy’s were able to recognize that lyrics collectively addressed the intersectionality of oppression experienced by cisgender identified women, theories of gender inequality, and discrepancies of mass culture. The song was honored with Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Country Song in 2007. If there was an honor that the song could receive from the likes of Susan B. Anthony, Betty Friedan, Olympe De Gouges, The Guerrilla Girls, and other female writers and activist who have taken a stand for woman’s rights, those awards would be sitting in the Dixie Chicks trophy room today. No woman should stay silent. No matter the backlash she may face. A woman should never be made nice, or back down, when legally exercising their first amendment right.