#19: Ellen/the Dixie Chicks- Politics in the Realm of Entertainment

Personally, I take no objection to anyone, regardless of their perceived position or place in the media or everyday world, voicing their mind.  This concept has actually risen immensely after the shootings at Charlie Hebdo, but of course that's another matter entirely.  With regards to entertainers playing initiators of change, I'm all for it.  As entertainers these people have considerably more power than the average person in that anything they want can become instantly public and on peoples' minds (of course sometimes the reaction of the public is quite contrary to 'what they want', as in the case of the Dixie Chicks).  I feel that entertainers have a right to use this power as they feel, be it to initiate change, send a message, or take the Eminem road and do what you do for you and not worry about the public at all.  I definitely think that at each of the time periods in question (the pre-Iraq tension in the USA and the beginnings of non-htereosexual relationships in television), there was a need for outspokenness, and a need for change.  The fact that the choice to speak out on each of these issues considerably dampened the futures of both parties, Ellen in non-talkshow television, that is, I feel is merely a reflection on the willingness of our society to accept change, or lack thereof, and the closed-mindedness of the general populous towards people venturing away from what they've been stereotyped as being.