I was born in Tennessee, but when my parents split I moved to Ohio. Forever after, I’ve found myself chasing that need to come back home. To belong to this land and to fit in with these people, my one true original community. And I’ve been blessed to be raised by so many wonderful women along the way: my mom, her sisters, my dad’s sisters and in-laws, grandmas, cousins. But there’s one iconic Tennessee woman whose voice will always sound like home: Dolly Parton.

As a kid in the 80s, I watched the movie adaptation of Robert Harlan’s play, Steel Magnolias. It was a movie filled with people I knew, voices I craved, and a Southern community I missed so much it hurt. And even though I wasn’t a woman, I grew up among these women. I gained an ear for their joys, their sorrows, their gossip, their wisdom, for their delicacy and their grit. I’m surrounded by them still: in the jobs I’ve worked, in the classes I teach, in my friend groups, in my church.

But America now is not the America I knew growing up. Steel Magnolias matters in an America that has grown to reject women. We vote them down not because of policies but because “her laugh is silly” or “she’s a liar, lock her up.” We watch a man who famously exploited women get elected to high office, who publicly shouts at a woman reporter, “Quiet! Piggy!” We demonize the word “feminism.”

While America seems quicker than ever to belittle, silence, or distrust the very women who build our families and communities, Steel Magnolias stands like a nostalgic 1980s look back at an easier time. It reminds us how much we owe to the women who lift us, who mother us, who teach us, who keep us together.

With Honors is a Free Zone Radio production. You can find With Honors and our new show, Second Stage, on platforms like

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