During a 1991 appearance on the Oprah Show, Dolly Parton said, “We are really like products, whether we like it or not,” (Scofield, 666). In the spirit of “diva brands” I wondered, what kind of product would a fusion between me and Dolly create? It felt important to challenge myself to find a creative outlet for my pastoral ministry. And at the urging of Helen Morales, featured on the podcast Dolly Parton’s America, I decided to take Parton’s “sad ass songs” as a serious starting place. From this vague orientation, I settled on making “Dolly Devotionals” — a collection of Dolly-inspired prayer cards.
First I dove deep into Parton’s Discography. Her songs are so deeply in my bones from years of Dolly worship that I, too, had failed to take her lyrics seriously, consuming them one after the other like any other delicious two and a half minute old time country song. But the more I listened the more her talent mesmerized me, and the more her songwriting moved me. As a result, I wanted to address my prayers to the Dolly who wrote those “sad ass songs” as a balm for her pain. I also wanted the prayers to apply to Parton’s diverse and adoring audiences. Mostly, though, I crafted the prayers for me based on the feelings, memories, and associations that emerged through my personal listening experience. Writing the prayers took a very long time! It was exhausting to listen to songs like “I’m Not Worth The Tears” on repeat, though that sonic empathy was crucial for my prayers to contain emotional sincerity.
Regarding her representation as a contradiction, Dolly was quoted as saying, “But my inner sadness and joy are as real as my hair and nails are fake. That’s what I like — looking like one thing and being another,” (Scofield, 668). So Dolly isn’t just sad — she’s also hilarious, sexy, and playful — a veritable genre (and gender!) bending artist (Hubbs, 73)! Thus, as a counterpoint to the excessive earnestness of my theological reflections, I decided that the second side of the “Dolly Devotional” cards would be an irreverent photo of me paying homage to Parton.
It was important not to try to and copy her aesthetic directly (who could?), primarily because of its origins in “a vernacular of the rural” that is radically different from my midwestern, suburban, upper class, Jewish/Greek upbringing (Scofield 668). This was easier said than done, because there is considerable overlap between Parton’s poor rural Southern trash aesthetic and that of my queer community’s urban youth trash aesthetic (whose origins I am unfortunately only vaguely familiar with). I aimed to affirm that tension, allowing the slippages to come through (my real bangs underneath the wig’s fake ones) at the same time as our genuine overlaps (the heap of wood I was sitting on was lugged by me and my arborist coworkers).
With one exception, all of the clothes and accessories were already in my closet — my wardrobe consists at this point of probably 35% “costume” clothes because of my enthusiasm for ostentatious get-ups and exaggerated styling (something Parton and I seem to share). My sweetheart took the photos in locations we frequent in our Troy neighborhood. It was so much fun for both of us — does Parton have this much fun at her job? Perhaps because of how “normal” the clothes were to me, I was struck by how much the photographed looks read as drag. The wig, it seems, contains serious powers. It makes me curious to learn more about how certain hair styles get coded with gender, race, and class.
There is so much more to say, but I’ll end with the exasperated declaration that Photoshop skills would have saved me lots of time and energy! Given Dolly’s perfect imperfection, though, I think the cheesy graphics suit the project just fine (Scofield 661).
Works Cited:
Hubbs, Nadine. “‘Jolene,’ Genre, and the Everyday Homoerotics of Country Music: Dolly
Parton’s Loving Address of the Other Woman.” Women and Music: A Journal of Gender
and Culture 19 (2015): 71-76.
Scofield, Rebecca. “’Nipped, Tucked, or Sucked’: Dolly Parton and the Construction of
the Authentic Body.” The Journal of Popular Culture 49.3 (2016): 660-677.
Doll’y Parton’s America podcast. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dolly-partons-america