Personifying a country ideal, Loretta Lynn tackled sexism through a complicated lens

Loretta Lynn is often credited with saying: "You either have to be first, great or different." In the history of country music, Lynn was the greatest. As a singer, songwriter and commercial artist who savvily crafted her persona as someone who exuded a rural, blue collar authenticity, no one else has better personified country music. What made Lynn exceptional was not how she was the first woman in country music to sing outspoken material about women's issues, or that she presented herself differently in the context of country music, but that she best exemplified common, even cliched definitions of what it means to be an empowered woman in the genre.

Loretta Lynn wielded unique agency in crafting her country identity. Through a compelling autobiography-turned-Oscar-winning film, , that gave listeners all the evidence they wanted to view her as the quintessential authentic country artist who lived the songs she wrote, to endorsements with that boosted her country cooking bona fides, she persuaded), but that she recognized the value of channeling a backstory as an artist and candidly voicing her reality and rebelliousness through the veneer of a pure, unadulterated country identity.