Yesterday it was announced that the Radio City Rockettes are to perform at the inauguration ceremony for Donald Trump on 20 January.
The Rockettes are the major draw card at the Radio City Music Hall and, since they first performed there in 1932, have become an American cultural icon and a perennial favourite for tourists and other visitors to New York.
Shortly after the announcement, one of the Rockettes, the enticingly-named Phoebeopearl, took to social media and posted a rant in which she declared her embarrassment and disappointment about performing for a man who ‘stands for everything we’re against’, claimed that the Rockettes have been performing ‘with tears in our eyes and heavy hearts’ since the announcement, and concluded with the #notmypresident. Phoebe’s trauma is not apparently shared by her employer, the Madison Square Garden Company, whose CEO Jim Dolan said that it was an honour to be chosen to perform for the President-elect.
Such tantrums have been commonplace since Trump booted Hillary Clinton from the steps of the White House to quiet walks in the New York back woods, and the reactions to them have ranged from the muted disagreement of ‘everyone is entitled to their opinion’ to the downright absurd. In universities and publicly-funded workplaces across America, calls went out for counsellors, tissues, therapy dogs and hot chocolate, all to be carefully arranged in designated safe spaces. Some chancers even managed to convince their re-educators to cancel the forthcoming exams.
Private enterprise is, however, made of sterner stuff, probably because when your bank account is on the line, attention tends to remain firmly focused on the core activity of earning the money to pay the bills, and even the occasional labour organization understands the consequences of defying your employer in a country that generally practices employment at will. The American Guild of Variety Artists gets the point, because it promptly issued an email addressing the sobs emanating from Instagram, that reminded its members in the Rockettes that they are ‘employees’ and that while they have a right to an opinion there is ‘no room for this in the workplace’. Notably the email included the following:
‘This has nothing to do with anyone’s political leanings (including AGVA’s), it has to do with your best performance for your employer, period. I will reiterate that if Hillary Clinton was the President-elect, nothing would be different, and there would probably be those who would not want to be involved because of her. It is a job, and all of you should consider it an honor, no matter who is being sworn in. The election is over and this country will not survive if it remains divided.’
Of course, if Phoebe feels that strongly about performing at Trump’s inauguration, she could put her principles first and resign, although that seems unlikely. The employment rate for dancers in New York is apparently 1.4%, and full-time work is the rarest of all opportunities, so flouncing out of a paying job at Radio City Music Hall in a political huff probably isn’t the best decision Phoebe could make.
The whole episode is, however, a refreshing response to Generation Snowflake’s relentless and tedious posturing.
Photo by skvidal 