I missed this Vox article on Dolly Parton when it was published last week, but a friend suggested I take a look. And yes, there is something very strange about it in a way that is difficult to define. To really get an idea, you probably need to read everything, but I’ll try to guide you and offer some ideas on what’s going on with that.
First, the play, which is entitled “How Dolly Parton became a secular American saint”, is framed as a somewhat neutral explanatory piece. This is kind of true for Vox’s main mission, that is, putting a little neutral just explaining what’s new etiquette in what is almost always a special partisan appeal of the progressive left. In this case, the play starts very well. There is really something unusual about Dolly Parton. In a time of partisanship, she seems to be that rare person that everyone everywhere loves or at least respects:
Dolly is the living legend who sells arena tours at the age of 70. She is the songwriter who wrote “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” on the same day. In the past few decades, feminists have begun to claim 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 sent millions of children free books and, in addition, she helped finance the Covid-19 vaccine. da Moderna – and then refused to skip the line to get a dose earlier. She is so loved that WNYC has devoted a complete series of podcasts to investigate how a single figure could be adored by both the blue and red states.
The play takes some time to explain how Dolly went from being a “walking joke” to being a feminist icon. A lot of that seems to have to do with her decision, a long time ago, to dress in a way that appealed to her, rather than trying to attract men (although you might say she had it covered). Then there was his business knowledge and ambition. She was not shy until 40 years ago, when it could have been seen as something non-feminine. Part of the reason so many people like her is their sense of humor. She created this meme on Instagram last year with the caption “Get a woman who can do anything.”
Many celebrities, including Oprah, were quick to join the movement. I don’t know if she has a team of social media people who invented this for her, maybe so. But at the very least, she approved of that and that alone shows an attractive sense of humor. She is not a boring, wealthy old lady who can’t take a joke at her expense.
Whatever it is about Dolly, many people all over the place really like her very much. Vox reports: “In 2006, Parton’s tours were running out again. In 2009, she started filling stadiums. In 2014, she was the main attraction at the Glastonbury Festival. ”And the article goes on to suggest that there is something a little scary in the way it affects people, especially in person:
In 2008, Roger Ebert returned to his 1980 Dolly Parton profile, noting that he had missed something that he considered very important: her presence, which he writes “involved him”. “It had nothing to do with sex appeal,” he says. “Far from it. It was like I was being hypnotized by a benevolent power. I left the room in a cloud of good feelings.”
Ebert adds that when he spoke to his writing partner Gene Siskel about Parton the next day, Siskel reported the same feeling: “This is going to sound crazy,” he said, “but when I was interviewing Dolly Parton, I almost felt she had a cure. powers. “…
“I say this humbly and as someone who is not a believer, ” Dolly Parton’s America Presenter Jad Abumrad told Billboard in 2019: “There is something very much like Christ in it.”
And that is where the article takes a dark turn, literally. Here is the next paragraph:
But America in the 21st century is not the time for a secular pop saint. And there is a dark side to Dolly’s ability to appeal, like Christ, to all people all the time.
Yes, it turns out that all this construction was done so that the author could spend the last half of the piece trying to find the dark side of Dolly Parton. He spends a lot of time on her refusal to take sides in any political debate, even against President Trump. Does this mean that she secretly supported you? Well, there is no evidence anyway, because Dolly doesn’t take sides, but is painted as very suspicious.
Then there is a section on wages and benefits in Dollywood, which are modest (but above the minimum wage). Vox admits that none of this really means that she is a bad person or even less than really good.
The idea that Parton’s theme park is not a work haven is probably not enough to cancel Dolly Parton’s cancellation. Neither does the idea that she refuses to talk about politics in public, or that she allows racists to like her, or that she has rewritten her anthem of labor rights to help sell Squarespace. But it’s the kind of thing that makes Dolly’s reflexively modern worship – like a recent petition to replace all Confederate monuments in Tennessee with Dolly statues, “the ‘Appalachian Jesus'” – start looking a little lazy, even a cartoon.
I’m not sure what’s going on here, but this is my opinion based on a lot of time spent reading Vox over the years. Vox always jumps to write the “Ackshully…” columns, that is, the opposite opinion about any conventional wisdom. This is no different. If people are saying that Dolly is wonderful and practically a saint (even though Dolly herself is not saying that), then Vox is ready and eager to bring her down a little.
The fact that they don’t have much evidence to do this would probably make them reconsider their approach, but it never does. In this case, the author admits that there is not even enough here to excite the mobs of the culture of cancellation, easily excited, on social networks. This is a very low standard these days. If you are not able to offend these people, maybe you should give up trying. But it’s Vox, so you still get that stereotyped attempt to take down that nobody wanted or asked for.
Read everything. You won’t be thinking about Dolly Parton any less, but you might end up thinking that Vox is probably a very strange place to work.