โTake It From Meโ is a TODAY.com series where experts use their wisdom to explain trends or make recommendations within their fields. In this latest installment, an anthropology professor explains what Dolly Parton has to teach us all.
The news of the Dolly Partonโs passing at the age of 80 led to an outpouring of tributes from peers in the industry and fans.
After hearing the news, anthropology professor Sarah Phillips spent part of the afternoon of โcurled in a ballโ in her office, โjust outright mourning Dolly and all that weโve lost.โ
โItโs been a real roller coaster. Like many people, I think I never really believed she was mortal,โ she tells TODAY.com.
For Phillips, Partonโs death felt personal. An associate professor of anthropology at Indiana University Bloomington, Phillips taught a course called โThe Anthropology of Dolly Partonโ for two years in a row.
โWe have graduated around 120 โDolliologists,โโ Phillips says.
The course, which is taught every spring semester with the help of four undergraduate teaching assistants and a graduate associate instructor, uses Parton as a lens to study sociocultural anthropology.
Phillips says Partonโs story is one-of-a-kind, in that by following its arc, a person can learn about regional differences in America, class, fame, femininity, workersโ rights, womenโs rights, queer culture, education and more.
โI canโt think of anyone else that this approach would work as seamlessly as it does,โ Phillips says.
By now, Partonโs rise is the stuff of legend. Born the fourth of 12 siblings in a one-room cabin in Tennessee, Parton exhibited a love of music at an early age. By 13, Johnny Cash had introduced her at the Grand Ole Opry. She moved to Nashville after graduation. Her big break came in 1964, when she was hand-picked by Porter Wagoner to co-star on his syndicated TV show. Her decision to go solo and leave the show inspired the song โI Will Always Love You,โ one of her biggest hits.
She was known as much for her song-writing prowess as her distinct appearance, entrepreneurship and philanthropy. She was also a devoted wife, aunt and godmother. Parton was beloved in her home state for many reasons, including investing in the local economy by building Dollywood in Pigeon Forge.
The class uses Partonโs story as a way to talk about, well, America.
โWe talk about regional stereotypes. We talk about language and dialect. We talk about the history of different forms of music, especially country music, and how it moved from different parts of Europe through the United States down to the South, and how Dolly and her people were part of that movement.โ
At one point in the semester, the class watches โ9 to 5,โ the 1980 film Parton starred in with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda and wrote the lead song for, and connects it to the real-life office workersโ movement originating in Boston.
Another class is a lesson on regional stereotypes in the U.S, like how the idea of the hillbilly and redneck are curated and challenged in Partonโs album art and different periods of her career.
She also tries to impart Partonโs message, which she summarizes like this: โIf you have a dream and you put in the work, because she sure did work, you can do anything that you want to. Despite the hurdles that are going to be put up in front of you by naysayers, by people who want to see you fail, by people who think they have your best interests at heart but are giving you advice โ listen to your heart.โ
What also fascinates Phillips is Partonโs undeniably wide appeal, and what caused it.
โShe was so genuine beneath the big hair, beneath the rhinestones, the acrylic nails, the over-the-top look that she curated. As she would say, โWhere it counts, Iโm real.โ And she really connected with people on a personal level,โ Phillips said. โDolly Parton often said, โWhen people come to see me, theyโre really coming to see themselves,โ and so she knew that people looked to her as a reflection of all that was good in themselves, and she really leaned into that.โ
Phillips says the students leave the class inspired by Partonโs story. Many have reached out in the wake of her death, hoping to gather.
โThey want to go out and change the world, and they want to do so in a way that is caring and kind and energetic and in line with their moral compass, and they see how Dolly did that, and it really inspires them,โ she says.
While not everyone can take โThe Anthropology of Dolly,โ Phillips provided us with a mini curriculum. She says the course was inspired by the nine-episode podcast โDolly Partonโs America.โ
โStart with โDolly Partonโs America,โ there is a treasure trove. Thereโs so many wonderful people interviewed in that podcast, so many different perspectives presented,โ Phillips says. โThen, go after those authors, see what theyโve written.โ
Thereโs another thing Phillips says we do: โKeep her memory alive.โ
โI have no doubt that thatโs going to happen, but we also have to think through these questions that youโre asking me,โ Phillips explains. โWhat made her so special? What made her this uniting figure? Something that you know the one person all Americans can agree on, and can we all try to cultivate that just a little bit in ourselves? It would be a much better world if we could.โ