Commentary: In '9 to 5,' Dolly Parton shattered stereotypes and became an unexpected feminist icon
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Set us as preferred There are a million and one reasons to love and celebrate the life of national treasure Dolly Parton, who died Tuesday at 80.The voice, the songs, the smile, the wigs, the wit, the boundless energy, varied performances, unflagging generosity and palpable spirit of kindness.
If she didn’t already have her own theme park, it would be our cultural duty to erect one; she is among the most talented and universally beloved artists our country has ever produced.She was also, in her own unique way, a dedicated revolutionary, rarely letting an opportunity pass to use her appearance to point out the perils and absurdity of stereotyping.Five foot nothing and famously curvaceous, with impossibly platinum hair teased to gravity-defying heights above big heavily made-up eyes and a lipstick smile as sweet as a Christmas angel, Parton leaned into the persona society was least likely to take seriously — the peroxide bombshell, the perky little blond — for the purposes of proving them dead wrong.“I look one way and am another,” she told Ladies’ Home Journal in 1982.
“It makes for a good combination.”And never better, or more norm-shattering, than in her acting debut as Doralee Rhodes in the 1980 film “9 to 5.” Entertainment & Arts Dolly Parton’s death has left the music, film and television worlds reeling, with stars and luminaries across those industries and more paying tribute to the beloved entertainer’s life and legacy.For women who, like me, came of age in the 1980s, “9 to 5” was a canon event, a feminist manifesto wrapped up in a hit comedy.After suffering under the commonplace tyranny of their arrogant, sexist boss Franklin Hart (Dabney Coleman), three women — secretary Doralee, glass-ceiling-trapped supervisor Violet Newstead (Lily Tomlin) and timid housewife turned new hire Ju...