She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs

by Sarah Smarsh

you have two choices: hang your head and cry or tilt your chin up and let the tears inside you turn into a salty form of power.

There is, then, intellectual knowledge—the stuff of research studies and think pieces—and there is experiential knowing. Both are important, and women from all backgrounds might possess both. But we rarely exalt the knowing, which is the only kind of feminism many working women have.

Sometimes a woman who knows her worth ought to lean in. But sometimes she ought to just leave.