An Indiana University professor who teaches a class called the Anthropology of Dolly Parton reflected on the beloved star’s death and legacy.
“Dolly Parton really embodied the American spirit,” professor Sarah Phillips said. “You know, that spirit of dreaming, that spirit of a little girl growing up in the in the Smoky Mountains with no water, no electricity, believing in herself and believing that she could become a global superstar. So it's that work ethic as well.”
Parton died Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee, at age 80. Along with being a singer-songwriter Parton was known as a philanthropist, actress and author. She created a free book program, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, for children from birth to age five regardless of a child’s family income.
For the last couple of years Phillips has been teaching an anthropology course at IU based on Parton. The class, she said, is a way to introduce students to sociocultural anthropology through the lens of Parton.
“I realized that through this amazing being who was Dolly Parton, you can look at so many facets of human culture and human society,” Phillips said. “You can look at kinship, class, gender, language, music, entertainment, folklore-just so many aspects of life that we all share. We can learn about them through Dolly Parton as the example.”
Parton has served for a model for young women taking the class with the hurdles she overcame in life being a woman in a man’s world of country music, Phillips said.
Parton will be remembered through her generosity and being a “loyal daughter of East Tennessee,” Phillips said. When East Tennessee suffered from wildfires and floods, Parton helped with disaster relief.
With Parton’s death, Phillips said she is thinking about incorporating a module for the class on how Parton will be memorialized. Discussions would be around the way Parton’s community in Sevierville in East Tennessee will memorialize her and the reactions of the LGBTQ+ community and that of different parts of the world.
“It'll be really fascinating to see how culture and history and politics plays a role in how people remember Dolly Parton,” she said.
Phillips said Parton was known as being apolitical and wrote about what she cared about in her music.
“She always said, ‘My music speaks for itself. Listen to the music. Listen to the stories that I'm telling. Hear the voices of the people that I'm channeling in my music, and you'll see, you know, you'll see what my priorities are. It's love, it's care, it's acceptance, and it's helping those who are marginalized and having empathy,’” Phillips said.
Phillips has started a book on Parton inspired by her the anthropology course on the star. The book will focus on different aspects of Parton’s biography.
For example, a chapter about stereotypes of hillbillies and rednecks and how Parton leaned into it in her music but also undermined it. Another example is a chapter on Parton’s gender performance and the way she called herself Backwoods Barbie.
“I think we are going to miss that unifying figure, the person who makes us laugh, the person who has the perfect song from her decades and decades and decades of songwriting and performing to touch our hearts just when we need it,” Phillips said.
