I missed this Vox piece on Dolly Parton when it was published last week, but a friend suggested I check it out. And yes, there’s something really weird about it in a way that’s hard to put your finger on. To really get a sense of it, you should probably read the whole thing, but I’ll try to walk you through it and give you some thoughts on what might be going on.
First, the piece entitled “How Dolly Parton Became a Secular American Saint” is framed as a somewhat neutral explanation. That’s kind of true to Vox’s core mission, which is to make a slightly neutral one just explain the news label on what is almost always partisan special advocacy of the progressive left. In this case, the piece starts off pretty well. There is really something unusual about Dolly Parton. In an age of bias, she seems to be that rare person everyone everywhere loves or at least respects:
Dolly is the living legend selling out arena tours in her 70s. She is the genius for writing songs that 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’s an impeccably dressed glamor queen, a corporate titan whose brand includes her own theme park, a philanthropist whose literacy program has sent free books to millions of children, plus she helped fund Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine – and then declined about the dash to get a dose early. She is so loved that WNYC devoted an entire podcast series to exploring how a single figure could be worshiped by both blue and red states.
The piece spends some time explaining how Dolly went from “walking boob joke” to a feminist icon. Much of that seems to have to do with her decision long ago to dress in a way that pleased her rather than trying to talk to men (although you could say she got the hang of that). Then there was her business knowledge and ambition. In fact, she was shy not more than 40 years ago, when that might have been seen as not ladylike. Part of the reason so many people like her is her sense of humor. She created this meme on Instagram last year with the caption ‘Buy a woman who can do anything’.
Many celebrities, including Oprah, were quick to jump on the cart. I don’t know if she has a staff of people on social media who came up with this for her, maybe she does. But she at least approved of this, and that alone shows an appealing sense of humor. She’s not a stuffy, rich old lady who can’t take a joke at her own expense.
Whatever it is about Dolly, a lot of people all over the world really like her. Vox reports: “In 2006, Parton’s tours were sold out again. In 2009 she started selling stadiums. In 2014 she headlined the Glastonbury Festival. And the article further suggests that there is something a little creepy about the way she affects people, especially personally:
In 2008, Roger Ebert returned to his 1980 Dolly Parton profile, noting that it had missed something he thought was very important: her presence, which he writes “ enveloped ” him. “This had nothing to do with sex appeal,” he says. Far from it. It was as if I was mesmerized by a benevolent force. I left the room feeling good. “
Ebert adds that when he spoke to his writing partner Gene Siskel about Parton the next day, Siskel reported the same feeling: “This will sound crazy,” he said, “but when I interviewed Dolly Parton, I almost felt like they were cured. was. powers. ”…
“I say this with humility and as one who is not a believer Dolly Parton’s America presenter Jad Abumrad told Billboard in 2019, “There’s something very Christian about her.”
And that’s when the article literally takes a dark turn. Here’s the next paragraph:
But America in the 21st century is no time for a secular pop saint. And there is a dark side to Dolly’s ability to address all people Christ-like at all times.
Yep, it turns out that all that build-up was such that the author was able to spend the second half of the play finding Dolly Parton’s dark side. He spends a lot of time refusing to take sides in any political debate, even against President Trump. Does this mean she secretly supported him? Well, there is no evidence anyway as Dolly is not taking sides, but it is being painted as very suspicious.
Then there’s a section on wages and benefits at Dollywood, which are modest (but above the minimum wage). Vox admits none of this makes her a bad person or even a less than really good person.
The idea that Parton’s theme park isn’t a work paradise probably isn’t enough to get Dolly Parton canceled. Nor is the idea that she refuses to speak politically in public, or that she allows racists to like her, or that she rewrote her labor rights anthem to help sell Squarespace. But it’s the kind of thing that makes Dolly’s reflexively trendy adoration – like a recent petition to replace all of Tennessee’s Southern landmarks with statues of Dolly, ‘the’ Jesus of Appalachia ‘- a little lazy, even cartoonish. .
I’m not sure what’s going on here, but this is my opinion based on way too much time spent reading Vox over the years. Vox always jumps in to write the columns “Ackshully …”, ie the contrary one takes over any conventional wisdom. This is no different. When people say Dolly is amazing and practically a saint (even if Dolly herself doesn’t say that) then Vox is ready and eager to push her up a notch.
The fact that they don’t have much evidence to back it up should probably prompt them to rethink their approach, but that’s never the case. In this case, the author admits that there isn’t even enough here to even excite the easily excited canceled culture mobs on social media. That is a fairly low bar these days. If you can’t get those people offended, you may just have to give up. But it’s Vox, so you’re still getting this formula attempt at a takedown that no one wanted or asked for.
Read the whole story. You won’t think less of Dolly Parton, but you might think that Vox is probably a really weird place to work.