You wanna have big hair and big boobs and wear rhinestones? Then do it.

She, w- I believe was the pioneer on that one.

Sort of like, you know, the way that, um, the way that evolution happens, there's, at, at any given moment, there's, like, some deviation, and then it takes, it takes time for that to swell and natural selection to take place.

Like, among a, a field of second-generation flowers, she was like a third-generation spirit.

[gentle music]

The thing to know about Sarah is that she grew up poor 40 miles outside of Wichita, Kansas.

She said one of her chores growing up was, quote-unquote, "slopping the hogs." She ultimately was able to scrape together enough money from four jobs and a scholarship to enter the University of Kansas, which was just a few hours up the road.

But she told us that you can't overstate how far those two worlds feel from each other.

And given the kind of ribbing that she's endured for her appearance, why do you think she has maintained her look over five decades?

Well, this really gets at the heart of what I think Dolly Parton is all about.

So she leaves East Tennessee and this poor hauler that she came from and very much loved and still loves in the 1960s.

And she set off to become a star in Nashville and then eventually conquered the whole world as a crossover in so many ways in popular culture.

Well, Over the course of all of those decades, of course, she had the money and the smarts and all the other resources that would be required to sort of transform herself if she so chose.

By transform herself, I mean class herself up, if you will.

Quit with the too tight clothes and the too low neckline and the too high hair and the too much makeup.

Why did you feel compelled to write about working class women in relation to that election?