I missed this Vox piece about Dolly Parton when it was published last week, but a friend suggested I check it out. And yes, there is something very strange in a way that is hard to put your finger on. To get the point, you should probably read the whole thing, but I’ll try to pass it on to you and give you some thoughts on what’s going on.
First, the play, entitled “How Dolly Parton Became a Secular American Saint,” is set up as a somewhat neutral explanatory piece. This is kind of true with Vox’s core mission, that’s a bit neutral just explain the news label on what is almost always biased special plea of the progressive left. In this case, the piece starts off pretty well. There’s really something unusual about Dolly Parton. In a time of bias, she seems to be that rare person that everyone loves or at least respects everywhere:
Dolly is the living legend who sold out arena tours in her 70s. She is the genius for songwriting who wrote ‘Jolene’ and ‘I Will Always Love You’ on the same day. In recent decades, feminists have begun to reclaim her as a feminist icon. She is an impeccably dressed glamor queen, a business titan whose brand includes her own theme park, a philanthropist whose literacy program has sent free books to millions of children, and in addition has helped fund Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine – and then refused to jump the rope to get a dose early. She is so beloved that WNYC has devoted an entire podcast series to exploring how a single figure can be worshiped by blue and red states.
The piece spends some time explaining how Dolly went from ‘walking boob joke’ to a feminist icon. Much of this seems to have to do with her decision to dress her long beforehand rather than trying to appeal to men (though you would say she covered it up). Then there was her business acumen and ambition. She was not ashamed even 40+ years ago when it might not have been considered a woman. Part of the reason so many people are like her is her sense of humor. She created this meme on Instagram last year with the caption “Get yourself a woman who can do anything.”
Many celebrities, including Oprah, quickly jumped on the bandwagon. I do not know if she has a social media staff who came up with it for her, maybe so. But at least she approved of it and it alone shows an attractive sense of humor. She is not a stuffy, rich old lady who can not take a joke at her own expense.
Whatever it is about Dolly, many people all over the world like her a lot. Vox reports: “By 2006, Parton’s tours were sold out again. In 2009, it started selling stadiums. In 2014, he was head of the Glastonbury Festival. And in the article it is suggested that there is something ghostly about the way she influences people, especially personally:
In 2008, Roger Ebert returned to his Dolly Parton profile in 1980, noting that it missed something he considered very important: her presence, which he writes, “envelops” him. “It had nothing to do with sex appeal,” he says. ‘Far from it. It was as if I was enchanted by a benevolent force. I left the room in a cloud of good feeling. ‘
Ebert adds that the next day Siskel talking to his writing partner Gene Siskel about Parton felt the same way: ‘It would sound crazy,’ he said, ‘but when I interviewed Dolly Parton, I almost felt like had his healing. power. ”…
‘I say this with humility and as someone who is not a believer, ” Dolly Parton in America host Jad Abumrad told Billboard in 2019: “There’s something very Christian about her.”
And that’s when the article literally turns dark. Here is the following paragraph:
But 21st Century America is no time for a secular pop saint. And there’s a dark side to Dolly’s ability to call on Christ to all people at all times.
Yes, it turns out that all the build-up was such that the author could spend the last half of the piece finding Dolly Parton’s dark side. He spends a lot of time on her refusal to take sides in any political debate, even against President Trump. Does that mean she secretly supported him? Well, there is no evidence, because Dolly does not take sides, but it is portrayed as very suspicious.
Then there is a section on wages and benefits at Dollywood, which is modest (but above the minimum wage). Vox admits that none of this contributes to her being a bad person or even a less good person.
The idea that Parton’s theme park is not a labor paradise is probably not enough to get Dolly Parton canceled. Nor the idea that she refuses to talk about politics in public, or that she allows racists to like her, or that she rewrote her international anthem to sell Squarespace. But it’s the kind of thing that starts Dolly’s reflective modern worship, like a recent petition to replace all Confederate monuments in Tennessee with statues of Dolly, ‘the’ Jesus of Appalachia ‘- a bit lazy, even cartoonish. bird. .
I’m not sure what’s going on here, but it’s my opinion based on far too much time reading Vox over the years. Vox always jumps in to write the columns “Ackshully …”, ie the contradiction accepts any conventional wisdom. It is no different. When people say that Dolly is wonderful and virtually a saint (even if Dolly does not say it herself), Vox is ready and eager to take her off a notch.
The fact that they do not have much evidence to deal with it should probably make them reconsider, but it never does. In this case, the author admits that here is not even enough to excite the easily aroused, canceled cultural gangs on social media. It’s a pretty low bar these days. If you can not offend the people, try to give it up. But this is Vox, so you still get this formulaic attempt at a removal that no one wanted or asked for.
Read the whole thing. You would think no less of Dolly Parton, but you might think that Vox is probably a very strange work.