Dolly Parton Updates '9 to 5' to Accommodate Contemporary Capitalism: Burnout, Baby!
EntertainmentMusic
Dolly Parton is wise. Her single “9 to 5,” written for the 1980 film of the same name, criticized the modern working environment for women, highlighting capitalism’s inherent inequalities: “Barely gettin’ by / It’s all takin’ / And no givin’,” she sang, “They just use your mind / And they never give you credit / It’s enough to drive you / Crazy if you let it.”
The film, too, is a comical revenge fantasy following three working women who keep their lecherous boss in captivity and “transform their office into a place that actually serves the needs and desires of its exclusively female workers, not the male bosses who continually deny them the pay and respect they deserve,” as Hazel Cills wrote for this website. “Together the women forge their boss’s signatures again and again on changes to their workplace, all of which ultimately make the company more profitable and the women workers happier.”