As the well-deserved accolades are pouring in for Dolly Parton, RIP, there is one blind spot I am seeing in the coverage. I just released a collection of fictional stories about strong women, so I have a thought or two.

As a GenX-er, I fondly remember Dolly at the absolute peak of her ~70-year career. 

Her talent was undeniable; but she was born a poor girl. So, I found it interesting how she allowed herself to be something of a punch-line in order to get a foothold in a man's world. To be clear: as a kid, you heard about her chest size long before you heard her music. This was deliberate (plastic surgeries, eg). She leaned into and allowed the initial focus to be on her physical beauty: "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap," she joked.

But then, when she would appear on a talk show or get interviewed, whenever any (nearly always male) host would try to lean into that or be crass about it, she'd pivot and steer the conversation into something more productive and wholesome—while always, ALWAYS presenting as a strong, intelligent woman.

At every single step of her legendary career, as her fame grew into icon and eventually legend status, and as her wealth and personal influence grew and grew, she always used her platform to do tremendous good. That's lesson #1.

But, she expressly created a brand that existed within the existing power structure in order to reform that power structure. That's lesson #2.  Ju jitsu-ing our cultural biases into creating a new, better version of that culture. 

But how would Dolly's presentation go over today? On Social Media, would the techbro bots and female clicktivists—high on their own cluelessness and dark triad personalities—permit a female artist to try something like that again? 

Or would the next Dolly be derided and cancelled for allowing herself to surrender to the 'male gaze' and be a 'victim' (I have a hard time believing Parton was a victim of anyone) of 'systemic oppression'? 

I think we know the answer.

And I hope that people who really care about social justice and women's rights start to remember the old way of doing activism. Reform over (imaginary) re-building. True power (which often is behind the scenes, or uses the system against itself)* over tokenism. Real feminism has largely disappeared.** 

But maybe it just needs a lift?
~~~


*- Regarding Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's early activism: "She chose plaintiffs carefully, at times picking male plaintiffs to demonstrate that gender discrimination was harmful to both men and women. The laws Ginsburg targeted included those that on the surface appeared beneficial to women, but in fact reinforced the notion that women needed to be dependent on men." (emphasis added)

Hm, male plaintiffs. "Centering" men in order to help women. Imagine that? 

**- This post dedicated to my Mom.