'I am sure of myself': A look back at Dolly Parton's unspoken feminist legacy

Twelve "Women of the Year" are pictured smiling on the January 1987 cover of "Ms." magazine, co-founded by feminist pioneer Gloria Steinem. They include a US senator, a renowned novelist, a former nun who helped Central American refugees and, smiling brightest of all, Dolly Parton. The beloved country superstar, who died this week at 80, never embraced the feminist label. She eschewed it when asked, just as she carefully avoided political labels. But when Parton was building her groundbreaking career in music, more telling were Parton’s life choices, social alliances and especially her lyrics – words that made clear how fiercely independent the woman beneath the wig and rhinestones truly was, and what she believed in. “People who haven’t listened to Dolly Parton or to feminism may be surprised to learn that they go together,” Steinem wrote in that 1987 magazine issue. “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 women to her own ends.” “If feminism means each of us finding our unique power, and helping other women to do the same,” Steinem wrote, “Dolly Parton certainly has done ...