Free speech has been much discussed since the death of Charlie Kirk. Our founder, and Postindustrial Columnist, Tamara White is concerned about whether artistic expression is also under fire. [reprinted from Postindustrial Magazine, September 16, 2025]
I have been thinking a lot about the murder of Charlie Kirk and the varied responses by news outlets and on social media. The reactions have been as divisive as any since Trump came on the scene, yet what has surprised me is the attack on free speech.
As someone who collects provocative art, I wonder what will emerge from the recent event.
How might artists, writers, musicians, and creatives respond to what is happening in our country? Social media, cancel culture, and the current divisive climate create a dangerous and vulnerable backdrop in which we are expected to operate. I vehemently disagreed with Kirk’s views and extreme messages. Yet he had every right to assemble and speak his opinions. Just as artists, comics, and creatives should have the right to express their opinions. But that is not what is happening.
The author and trans woman, Gretchen Felker-Martin, who wrote the latest iteration of DC Comics’ Red Hood series, posted the extreme message, “thoughts and prayers you Nazi bitch” to her BlueSky account. Almost immediately, she began to receive hundreds of death threats and attempted doxings. Furthermore, in addition to her BlueSky account being suspended for a week, Felker-Martin was informed that DC was cutting its ties with her and canceling Red Hood. Meanwhile, Kirk was a staunch adversary of the trans community, going so far as to say that trans people were an abomination.
Felker-Martin is not alone. A Sucker Punch Productions artist, a subsidiary of Sony and PlayStation, posted a message on BlueSky, referencing the Mario character, in hopes of a Mario joining Luigi, in reference to Luigi Mangione, who killed United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year. Other journalists and media pundits have been fired for their comments, most notably, the journalist Matthew O’Dowd, who questioned whether Kirk’s death could have been attributed to someone shooting their gun off in celebration.
This censorship is not new. America has a history of picking and choosing what is acceptable and what gets censored. A friend once noted the proclivity of seeing nude bodies on European televisions during regular broadcast hours, while the United States deems violence more acceptable than nudity, as it proliferates all media channels and outlets without a second thought.
Some of the more historically notorious censored artists include Robert Mapplethorpe, whose retrospective exhibition in 1989, The Perfect Moment, featured images of gay males involved in the sadomasochistic subculture. The planned exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, was cancelled, and the next venue at the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati experienced police raids and obscenity charges.
In 1989, the artist Dread Scott was arrested for burning an American Flag on the steps of the US Capitol in defiance of the Flag Protection Act of 1989. This event followed Scott’s installation, “What is the Proper Way to Display a US Flag,” which was displayed at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where the artist was a student. The installation required participants to walk on a US flag to reach a notebook, where they could offer their opinions on how to display the US flag.
More recently, the Smithsonian Museum removed Amy Sherald’s painting of a transgender Statue of Liberty from the planned exhibition to avoid provoking Donald Trump. Rather than agreeing to the change, Sherald chose to cancel her show and instead restage the exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
The complete list of censored art is too extensive to list individually. And whether I agree with any of Kirk’s statements or not is irrelevant. We must support freedom of speech. We must support artists who use their talent to shift perspective and writers to use their words to express insight.
As the situation with Kirk continues to unfold, and the world becomes increasingly divided, I can’t help but wonder how artists will respond. It begs the question: Will artists self-censor out of fear of backlash? Or will they create even more provocative work as a form of resistance? The current trend of censorship reveals much about the health, or lack thereof, of our democracy. I hope that we survive this and that the creatives that walk amongst us can continue to use their voice.
What do you think?