Need someone to swipe from. Jaquandor posed a similar, and more expanded query. Mine is more reductivist:
Do you boycott an artist (musician, actor, writer) because you find that person's politics abhorrent - racist, a birther, Holocaust denier? This assumes that the work itself is not abhorrent. Actually remember going to see The Green Berets, starring John Wayne and David Janssen in the day, even though I wasn't a big Wayne fan. Additionally, I knew I'd hate the politics of the film, and I did, but I found it instructive to have seen it. But, no, I see movies by Gary Sinese. I listen to Wagner. I don't buy Ted Nugent music, but then I NEVER bought Ted Nugent music.
Do you support an artist who is the subject of a boycott or other negative action? Heck, yeah. When Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks spoke the truth about George W. Bush in March 2003, just before the US invasion of Iraq, and took a lot of heat, immediately, I ran out to the local Rite Aid and bought the Dixie Chicks' then-current album. Likewise, when Linda Ronstadt said something complimentary about Michael Moore and subsequently had some difficulties, I ended up buying her box set from Amazon. This is not that I might not have purchased them eventually anyway, but certainly the events specifically prompted the purchases.
ROG
Demographics of cigarette smoking
19 hours ago
3 comments:
I'm boycotting the Eagles because of Michael Vick.
Strangely enough, after seeing the latest Sacha Baron Cohen movie,I walked out swearing I would never spend another penny on one of his movies. Much as I appreciated what he exposed "Borat", I was appalled at the wanton cruelty and narcissism of "Bruno". In "Borat" he made fun of people who richly deserved it. In "Bruno" he made a horror movie that took everyone for a fool, from homosexuals to Middle East intellectuals earnestly trying to find a way out of the conflicts to even the moviegoers who had paid to see him. Has this movie been playing there for two years already? It came out in the spring here in Paris...
Deborah
After thinking a bit, I think it kinda-sorta boils down to this: if I like someone's work a lot before I discover they have beliefs I dislike, I'm likely (although not guaranteed) to keep following them. But finding out someone I'm unfamiliar with to begin with is someone who believes things I find odious, then I'm highly UNlikely to bother reading their books or listen to their music or whatever.
Likewise, I'm not necessarily more likely to buy someone's books or music just because I find that I agree with them in politics and the like. But again there are exceptions; like you, I rushed out to buy the Dixie Chicks' album as soon as that whole stupid controversy broke out. (Although I was already predisposed; not a week before, the local Borders had been playing the concert DVD during a visit of mine and I'd thought, "Huh -- I rather like their sound." So the controversy was as much an excuse to buy the album as a prompt.)
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