In a 1977 television interview for ABC, journalist Barbara Walters subjected Parton to a series of condescending questions about her appearance.
At one point, she asked the singer to stand up and display her figure, while pressing: “You don’t have to look like this… You don’t have to wear the extreme clothes. Right?”
Parton responded that it was a choice she made for herself so she would not blend into the crowd.
Walters then delivered the most cutting line: “But do you ever feel that you’re a joke? That people make fun of you?”
Parton’s reply was immediate and unflappable: “Oh, I know they make fun of me.”
Smiling from ear to ear, she added, “But actually, all these years that people have thought the joke was on me, it’s actually been on them. I know exactly what I am doing, and I can change that anytime.”
She also admitted that she makes more jokes about herself than anybody else.
In that moment, Parton shifted the narrative from being viewed as a caricature to revealing herself as a strategist with complete control over her image.
At one point, she asked the singer to stand up and display her figure, while pressing: “You don’t have to look like this… You don’t have to wear the extreme clothes. Right?”
Parton responded that it was a choice she made for herself so she would not blend into the crowd.
Walters then delivered the most cutting line: “But do you ever feel that you’re a joke? That people make fun of you?”
Parton’s reply was immediate and unflappable: “Oh, I know they make fun of me.”
Smiling from ear to ear, she added, “But actually, all these years that people have thought the joke was on me, it’s actually been on them. I know exactly what I am doing, and I can change that anytime.”
She also admitted that she makes more jokes about herself than anybody else.
In that moment, Parton shifted the narrative from being viewed as a caricature to revealing herself as a strategist with complete control over her image.