There’s only one thing we need to remember about Dolly Parton. It’s not the fact that she embodied an American rags-to-riches story, rising from abject poverty to great wealth, which she was extremely generous with.
It’s not her songwriting legacy, which includes 25 solo number one hits, 55 top-ten hits, and over 100 charted singles in the country music genre (BTW, she wrote or co-wrote a total of 3,000 songs. Let that sink in!), her 55 Grammy nominations or her 11 wins.
It’s not her acting, which included an extensive TV career, and fantastic performances in movies like “Steel Magnolias” and “Nine to Five” (if you haven’t seen these, stop reading immediately and go watch them), or the 2 Golden Globe nominations she got for her screen work.
It’s not her loving, 50 year marriage to her husband Carl Dean, who passed away earlier this year. They had no children but they raised some of Dolly’s younger siblings together, and took good care of their extended family.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it’s not even Dolly’s philanthropy, which is extraordinary. To choose just one example, in 2016 she gave $1,000 cash per month to over 900 families who lost everything in the Great Smoky Mountains wildfires. She did this with no strings attached for 6 months. This action was meticulously studied and catalogued by social scientists at the University of Tennessee, who concluded that it was the most impactful way to help people in the wake of disasters. She made such a huge difference that she was given a community leadership award by the FBI. I’m not making this up!!!
But to find the one thing we need to remember about Dolly, we’re going to land on her personal style, because that’s where the secret of her true genius resides.
It’s simply what she says in this interview.
She was completely sure of herself, and loved herself enough to keep evolving with intention, and to demand that the world change for the better, for everyone. She never claimed the label of Feminist, but everything she did in her life and career proved that she embraced those values to the core.
I think some previously unknown facts are going to come out about Dolly now. I’ve always suspected that she might have been the victim of childhood sexual abuse, maybe even incest. I feel quite certain that, like her character in “Nine-to-Five”, she had to endure violent sexism in the course of her career. She thought of herself as a “unifier” who was loathe to take a political stance on anything. But I thought about her almost every day during the #MeToo revelations a few years ago. I wish she had named some names, because the music business is chock-full of Weinstein-style predators. I wonder if she had an abortion or two, or maybe more than that. She might have tried to hide all of these things, for fear of what would happen to her career if the public found out.
It’s also possible that, like many people who try to change the world for better, Dolly’s actions may have caused collateral damage in some people’s lives and communities. Yet you cannot argue that her intentions were always to increase compassion, unity and social justice of all kinds. I hope we can keep that in mind when the time comes to weigh the balance of her actions as a public figure.
Regardless, Dolly’s robust self-regard and self-confidence were the engine that powered the extraordinary good she did in her life.
My god, can you imagine what every woman could do if we found those same qualities in ourselves?
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This article originally appeared on WomanCake and was syndicated by MediaFeed.co.
