From Gloria Steinham, 1987:
“People who haven’t listened to Dolly Parton or to feminism may be surprised to learn that they go together. In fact, she has crossed musical class lines to bring work, real life, and strong women into a world of pop music usually dominated by unreal romance. She has used her business sense to bring other women and poor people along with her. And her flamboyant style has turned all the devalued symbols of womanliness to her own ends.
If feminism means each of us finding our unique power, and helping other women do the same, Dolly Parton certainly has done both.
ew singers make a successful transition into films, but Dolly Parton accomplished that, too. Her debut performance in 9 to 5 was praised by surprised critics. Later performances opposite Burt Reynolds and Sylvester Stallone combined humor, sexuality and strength.
Even fewer performers control their own economic lives, but Parton’s down-home business sense is evident in everything from Sandollar, her own film and television production company, to The Traveling Family Band, a 1970s road show that enlisted many of Parton’s own family members as ambassadors of country culture and mountain music.
All this has been accomplished with her country accent intact, and a populist taste for tight, bright clothes that emphasize—and never apologize for—a body that is as mythically female as the Great Goddess statues of prehistory. Like Better Midler, she has taken all the ridiculed modern symbols of femininity, from makeup and platform shoes to wigs and false eyelashes, and infused them with humor and a conscious power.
But staying true to herself as a country artist, a strong businesswoman and a mountain woman with loyalty and love for her roots, Dolly Parton has brought her own world into a larger one, and so added richness and understanding to them both.”