Growing up amid Kansas wheat fields and airplane factories, Sarah Smarsh witnessed firsthand the particular strengths of women in working poverty. Meanwhile, country songs by female artists played in the background, telling powerful stories about life, men, hard times, and surviving.

In her family, she writes, "country music was foremost a language among women. It's how we talked to each other in a place where feelings aren't discussed." And no one provided that language better than Dolly Parton.

In this "tribute to the woman who continues to demonstrate that feminism comes in coats of many colors", Smarsh tells readers how Parton's songs have validated women who go unheard: the poor woman, the pregnant teenager, the struggling mother disparaged as "trailer trash". Parton's broader career, from singing on the front porch of her family's cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains to achieving stardom in Nashville and Hollywood, from "girl singer" managed by powerful men to self-made mogul of business and philanthropy, offers a springboard to examining the intersections of gender, class, and culture.

Format: Paperback
Published: USA, 2021
Publisher: Scribner
Pages: 208
Language: English
ISBN 13: 9781982157296
ISBN 10: 1982157291