The Joke's On Us: Dolly Parton's Secret to Outsmarting Nashville's Boys Club Dolly Parton's legacy as a musical trailblazer is well documented, but one of her most ingenious moves was using humor to outwit the industry's patriarchal power structure.
By making men the punchline in many of her songs, she turned the tables on an industry that had long relegated women to secondary roles.
Parton's rise to stardom coincided with a time when women were fighting for recognition and respect within country music.