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The Dolly Parton promotional machine is in high gear ahead of the release of her album Rockstar in November. She gave an interview to The Guardian that has some fascinating moments in it. Dolly is famously apolitical, though she did speak out in support of Black Lives Matter and has been a vocal LGBTQ ally for many years. But in this interview, she talks a lot about political issues, or rather, she talks around them. Dolly’s too nimble with interviews to give anything much away. But if you read between the lines, there are some interesting nuggets here. She admits in this interview that she won’t speak on politics because she doesn’t want to alienate her fans. But she also says that political discussions have become so heated in her own family since Tr*mp was elected, that they can’t have an extended family dinner without people fighting. (I wonder if she ever pipes up during these family brawls.) Dolly says she’s not a feminist because of the connotation the word has and she believes in “living an example” instead of “preaching it.” Oh, and I think one of her new songs on the upcoming album could reference climate change? Which I did not see coming.
She won’t call herself a feminist, but she believes in equal pay: “If you do something great, you should be recognised and paid for it. So if that makes me a feminist, yeah.” Is Dolly Parton admitting to being a feminist? She laughs. “That title just never seemed to fit right with me, although there’s not a feminist out there that don’t say, ‘Dolly Parton does her job, a good example of what a strong woman can be.’ I’m all about living an example rather than preaching it.”
Why she has always been apolitical: “Because you’re going to lose half your audience,” she says. “Even within my own family, especially the last few years since Trump and Biden, all that, it’s like we can’t even go to a family dinner any more. Especially if people are drinking – they get in a damn fight at the table.” She is dismayed at how polarised politics has become. “Don’t get so trapped where if you’re a Republican, you got to be this way, if you’re Democrat, you got to be that way. You’re not allowed to think nothing else. Well, how crippling is that? I’ve got as many Democrats as I do Republicans as fans, and I’m not going to insult any of them because I care about all of them. I ain’t that good a Christian to think that I am so good that I can judge people. That’s God’s job, not mine. So as far as politics, I hate politics. Hate politics.”
Her upcoming song World on Fire might be about climate change (?): “I tried to say what I was thinking about all of it – can’t we rise above, some love, step up and make a change?” She looks momentarily exasperated, but she’s still smiling. “Whether it be about the world being on fire with hate and greed and climate change or whatever, you’re not even allowed to say you believe in certain things because you’re going to just lose a whole bunch of people that are so set in their ways, they wouldn’t believe it.”
Dolly also refuses to say whether she supports or opposes the abortion ban in Tennessee. But she wrote songs about unwanted pregnancies back in the early days of her career. “Down from Dover” is the most famous example, and there’s also “The Bridge,” a story about a young woman who falls pregnant and is then abandoned by the father, so she commits suicide. Dolly treats the women in both of these songs with compassion–there’s nothing judgmental in the lyrics. She clearly thinks this kind of story is worth telling. The fact that she wrote these songs in the 1960s as an up-and-comer in (notoriously conservative) country music was a big risk. Based on those details, and everything else we know about her, I’m extrapolating that Dolly is probably not in favor of the ban and is just staying out of talking about it on principle. I think it’s fascinating that Dolly tries so hard not to alienate people. You can tell when an artist does that just because they don’t want to lose market share (ahem, Taylor Swift before roughly 2019). But Dolly has taken that stance because she tries not to judge people. That’s not easy. I think Dolly is trying to hold space for the possibility that people can evolve and grow, which is…kind of a radical thing to believe right now.
I love Dolly and I think she does a good job of putting out what collectively we can all agree with.
She has defined feminism by living it. Will always love you, Dolly.
Dolly you keep doing you it hasn’t failed you yet. I love Dolly.
Okay, am freaking out here, is something wrong with my eyes? Where is the rest of Dolly’s left hand in that first picture? Anyway, her voice reminds me of honey, dont know why.
I feel like Dolly personally stands for a lot of things that would alienate some of her fans. Her disavowal of the word feminist irks me but I can still appreciate the stands she does take and her philanthropy with literacy and children is unmatched.
I understand the irking. If it helps, Dolly came up and got famous during a time when white feminists were criticizing her left and right due solely on her appearance. Back then feminism was often (not always but definitely often) rigid and also racist. Dolly’s idea of feminists probably is skewed on that image rather than on the modern intersectional feminism that is slowly growing.
Dolly has always supported women so she may not call herself a feminist but she has shown, day in and day out, she exemplifies intersectional feminism.
She truly does practice what she preaches. Love her, love her, love her!
❤️ DP.
One of the most important lessons we can all learn from her – holding space for making mistakes and growing from them while not judging and putting dismissive, derogatory labels on people which both liberals and conservatives have been overdoing for years now. It really doesn’t matter what your politics are if you are being a kind human. And even in disagreeing you don’t dehumanise and tear people down, devaluing their life experiences.
She is gentle, kind and a light of humanity really.