Enter Duck Dynasty.
A&E thought it would be Honey Boo-Boo with a Beverly Hillbilly twist. In the Robertsons, however, we see a redneck family that viewers actually admire. They cover the genre by serving up plenty of over-the-top high jinks. But they aren’t buffoons, just a nice family who knows how to laugh at themselves and have a little fun. It doesn’t hurt that they’re also rich and famous with a successful business and a close-knit community of extended relations who actually seem to like each other.
How can it be surprising that Americans love the Robertsons? They show us a world in which men can be manly and women womanly, while children are happy and numerous.
Where most reality shows revel in petty sin and vice, Duck Dynasty depicts a side of America that its 12 million viewers actually like. A&E tried to rein in the red state love-fest by asking the family to tone down their Christian references. They declined.
They attempted to edge the show down-market by inserting bleeps where no cursing had actually occurred. Phil Robertson went to the press and complained.
In the midst of the controversy a number of people have asked: do liberals even watch Duck Dynasty? Isn’t it a little ridiculous to put rednecks on the air and then censor them for saying redneck things? Why doesn’t GLAAD just use this to “start a conversation” about backwoods bigotry and what we should do about it?
The answer to these questions reveals how outrageous this entire controversy really is. If Robertson were the hapless hick he was intended to be, he probably could quote controversial Bible passages without getting the boot. But
viewers like him, and
GLAAD can’t allow Americans to like a homophobe. He is in the rare position of being an entertainer who was fired for being too popular.
This controversy is as much about anti-redneck prejudice as it is about anti-Christian prejudice. America shouldn’t stand for an entertainment industry that permits and perpetuates this kind of bigotry.
