Music icon Dolly Parton is a female trailblazer, but don't be so quick to call her a feminist icon.

It&rsquo;s not hyperbole to say the world would look different without <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop%20culture/reasons-to-love-dolly-parton-music-philanthropy-fashion" target="_blank">Dolly Parton</a>, who turns 75 today. With a record-setting music career, the nine-time Grammy-winner has not only introduced classics like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixrje2rXLMA&amp;ab_channel=DollyPartonVEVO" target="_blank">&ldquo;Jolene&rdquo;</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKsQR72HY0s&amp;ab_channel=DollyPartonVEVO" target="_blank">&ldquo;I Will Always Always Love You&rdquo;</a> (immortalized by <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/palace-whitney-houston-charity-capsule" target="_blank">Whitney Houston</a> in The Bodyguard), but written over 3,000 songs, contributed to film and TV as an actress and producer, supported children&rsquo;s literacy through her philanthropy, and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/17/entertainment/dolly-parton-covid-moderna-vaccine-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">helped fund a COVID-19 vaccine</a>. With her incomparable talent and wide range of work, there&rsquo;s a lot to unpack about Parton. From her well-said <a href="https://people.com/country/dolly-parton-best-quotes-and-dollyisms/?slide=5506534#5506534" target="_blank">Dollyisms</a> to her carefully navigated <a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dolly-partons-america/episodes/dollitics" target="_blank">Dollitics</a> (that&rsquo;s Dolly + politics) to <a href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/dolly-parton-great-unifier" target="_blank">Dollyology</a> (the study of Parton&mdash;it&rsquo;s a thing!), it&rsquo;s clear that there&rsquo;s no one quite like Dolly. She&rsquo;s a trailblazing female figure in country music and the entertainment industry at large, and has become an unintentional feminist figure in the process. But she&rsquo;s not a fan of that label.

Parton has been asked about her stance on feminism in several interviews over the years and she typically sticks to her Dollitics, her brand of politics that avoids being too political. With a diverse following&mdash;from conservatives to liberals, Bible-beaters to <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/best-drag-queen-fashion-of-all-time-rupauls-drag-race" target="_blank">drag queens</a>, Gen Z to her fellow septuagenarians&mdash;Parton has mastered staying apolitical, not wanting to alienate any of her vast fanbase. When it comes to the topic of feminism, she&rsquo;s given middling answers that usually renounce the title for herself, but acknowledge her actions as being feminist.

dolly-parton-young-feminism.jpg

In a February 2019 interview with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/feb/24/dolly-parton-on-sexual-politics-ive-probably-hit-on-some-people-myself" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, Parton said, &ldquo;I must be if being a feminist means I&rsquo;m all for women, yes. But I don&rsquo;t feel I have to march, hold up a sign, or label myself,&quot; she explained at the time. &quot;I think the way I have conducted my life and my business and myself speaks for itself. I don&rsquo;t think of it as being feminist.&quot;

Parton echoed the sentiment in a May 2020 <a href="https://time.com/5840666/dolly-parton-coronavirus-time100-talks/" target="_blank">Time100 Talks: Finding Hope</a> conversation, saying, &ldquo;I suppose I am a feminist if I believe that women should be able to do anything they want to&hellip;I just really feel I can live my femininity and actually show that you can be a woman and you can still do whatever you want to do.&rdquo;

dolly-parton-9-to-5-feminist.jpg

On <a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dolly-partons-america" target="_blank">Dolly Parton&rsquo;s America</a>, a 2019 <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop-culture/best-celebrity-podcasts-2021" target="_blank">podcast</a> by Radiolab&rsquo;s Jad Abumrad, however, Parton outright says, &ldquo;No, I do not,&rdquo; when the host asks her if she thinks of herself as a feminist. As Abumrad presses her more, she explains that her idea of feminism is associated with the vilifying of men, and she &ldquo;loves&rdquo; men and &ldquo;relates&rdquo; to them. &ldquo;To me, when you say just the word &lsquo;feminist&rsquo; is like, &lsquo;I hate all men,&rsquo;&rdquo; Parton said on the podcast.

Abumrad continues, though, reflecting on Parton&rsquo;s work and how much of what she&rsquo;s done can be considered feminist. After all, Parton wrote the feminist anthem &ldquo;9 to 5&rdquo; and starred in the movie of the same name alongside fellow leading ladies <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/politics-culture/jane-fonda-activism-feminist-timeline-protest-arrest" target="_blank">Jane Fonda</a> and Lily Tomlin. She even went on to write the music and lyrics for the Broadway musical 9 to 5 in 2008.

Dolly Parton - "9 to 5"

During their conversation, Abumrad tells Parton that there can be feminists in theory and feminists in practice, where &ldquo;it&rsquo;s about how you live.&rdquo; Getting Dollitical, she tells him, &ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s a good way of saying it. I live it. I work it. And I think there&rsquo;s power in it for me.&rdquo;

Her career has certainly been shaped by a feminist outlook, whether she sees it that way or not. One that allows her to be a fierce creator and businesswoman, while also flaunting bleach blonde hair, acrylic nails, and her <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dolly-parton-breasts-country-singer-the-girls_n_2206102" target="_blank">famously insured breasts</a>. While Parton seems to think that femininity and feminism exist on separate planes, she&rsquo;s proof that they don&rsquo;t. Unafraid to own her body and bedazzled image, Parton has remained an inspiring figure to women around the world for over 50 years.

Is Dolly Parton a Feminist?

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