I'm so angry that when I was a kid, all I knew about Dolly Parton was the size of her chest. And her hair color, I guess. Imagine taking all that talent and decency and goodness and organization -Imagination Library!!!- and reducing it, dismissively, to jokes about her appearance

I don't even know where that impression came from - movies? comedians? other kids? -but I remember it. And yeah, she hadn't done everything then that she has now, but that kind of proves my point: you focus on appearance, you miss what someone has done AND what they're capable of

AND she had already written Jolene and I Will Always Love You among many others. Why wasn't her main reputation, the first thing you learned about her, that of a major songwriter like Dylan or Paul Simon or ..?

(I know why)

this makes me furious because it's such a clear example of what our society is CONSTANTLY doing to women, people of color, fat people, disabled people, anyone who doesn't fit the image that we're sold of what power, cool, artist, genius, look like.

and because those people who don't fit get dismissed, we only see that narrow segment of appearances representing those categories, that image is reinforced over and over again. I hope it's starting to change, a little.