Project No. 3 - More Real Than The Real Thing Research Report
Who I Chose + Thesis
Dolly Parton pushed country music forward for women in country with her lyrics and feminine persona. In her early years, she’s utilized her outfits and attractions outside of music to contribute to this forward thinking in this field. She has done this by discussing “controversial” feminine topics in her music despite the [time] not being in favor of them.
I chose to present Dolly Parton since her name has stood the test of time. Dolly Parton is recognized and admired by many - both fans and respected big names. Her music and her presence continues to follow her after 65 years in the music industry. Her songs such as “I Will Always Love You”, “9 to 5”, and “Jolene” stay being her biggest hits and have recently been transformed for modern day audiences to enjoy her music.
About Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton has been exposed to the music world since she was a child, but she got her foot in the door around 13 years old when she and her uncle Bill Owens performed at the Grand Ole Opry in 1959, where Johnny Cash introduced them to the crowd. From there, it was a rocky road for Dolly Parton to maintain her stardom, especially with her and her uncle bouncing from one publisher/recording label to another. First they were signed by Tree Publishing with a record deal from Mercury Records, then moved to Music and Monument Records, and then opened Owe-Par Publishing Company. Once she got her balance in the music industry, she was making hits left and right. She’s received various Hall of Fame recognition and has won many grammys during her career. She then expanded her skills into film and a theme park.
Dolly Parton’s Attire
Dolly Parton has been notorious for her appearance - her giant wigs and her stylized country outfits. She donned her wigs early on in her career; this was done since her previous stylists have always taken their time to do her hair, and she didn’t like how time consuming and damaging it was. To save time and her hair, she made wigs a part of her look permanently, She officially debuted her wig on The Porter Wagoner Show in 1967. From there, she’s made her wigs more exaggerated the more she went to perform.
As for her outfits, she’s turned casual cowboy attire into fashion. While in current times it’s not that unusual to see flashy outfits, it was not the norm in the 60s. According to her, “I just wanted my stuff to be shiny, flashy, and colorful, and I still do .... I can’t get enough rhinestones, enough color, enough gaud, because it fits my personality.” (Parton) She also had her makeup match the exaggeration on her outfit and wigs. Her routine to achieve her makeup was that “[The makeup girls] would do their basics, and then I would add on to that....I’d go right in there and start adding more to my eyes or to my lips. I just have to kind of enhance things” (Parton) However, her appearance itself wasn’t attempting to make a statement; it was just truly how she wanted to present herself. This presentation did pave the way for the country genre to introduce womanhood to be expressed by other women in country - one of these women who has credited Dolly Parton for influence being Shania Twain.
Dolly Parton's Songs
As for Dolly Parton’s songs, her music, as all lyricists, was her way of conveying her thoughts and feelings. What made her stand out from other musicians, though, was that she did not sugarcoat what she would feel. Whatever she felt was necessary to write and sing, she would do so. This included topics concerning women’s rights and mistreatments, war, prostitution, and more. To her, it was important to “never shield away from any topic, whether it was suicide or prostitution or women’s rights or whatever.” (Parton)
One song that she’s written - Just Because I’m A Woman (1968) - addresses a personal experience of being looked down upon for having prior relations. This song was about her partner giving her the cold shoulder after they got married because she’s been with other people before him. She mentions how it’s not fair that he looks down on her for something they have both done by singing “No, my mistakes are no worse than yours/Just because I’m a woman”. Another of her songs - Your Ole Handy Man (1967) - reveals what work housewives do at home and how exhausting the work is. She sings in the perspective of a housewife singing to her man that “I do everything for you. You never help yourself.”(Parton) “Your woman’s gettin’ tired of being your ole handy man.” (Parton) One more song - Daddy Won’t Be Home Anymore (1967) - is set during the Vietnam war, where Dolly Parton sings in the perspective of a mother who struggles with the loss of her husband - her father to her kids - and tries to move forward.
Connections to Simulations: Political Incantations
For the connections to simulations, this ties closely to Political Incantations since these lyrics tie to politics. The book regards this idea as “Same operation, though this time tending towards scandal as a means to regenerate a moral and political principle, towards the imaginary as a means to regenerate a reality principle in distress.” (27) It's already been said that her lyrics were controversial in some sense, but allowing these topics on a public broadcast contributed to the acknowledgements of these issues and pushing for improvement. Especially with her celebrity status, she used her words and her social standing to make this known to a broader audience. As for the 1960s in general, it was a decade of reform for a lot of things. According to the U.S. News & Reports, “Gradually, Americans came to accept some of the basic goals of the Sixties feminists: equal pay for equal work, an end to domestic violence, curtailment of severe limits on women in managerial jobs, an end to sexual harassment, and sharing of responsibility for housework and child rearing.” (Walsh)
Dollywood + Connections to Simulations
Her excellence continues to exceed her music career with her contributions to her own theme park: Dollywood. Dollywood is a theme park Dolly Parton partnered with park owners Jack Herschend and Pete Herschend that opened in 1986. It was rebranded to fit a Dolly Parton theme given that she wanted to bring more attention to Tennessee, and the Herschend brothers were also on board with this. Sharing her name’s likeness in exchange for her to expand her enterprise, Dollywood was born - doubling the size of the crowd than the previous rebrandings of the amusement parks. During the first opening, she unveiled a restaurant named Aunt Granny’s for visitors to eat at, and it’s named as such since it is what her nieces and nephews call her. These contributions connect to Hyperreal and Imaginary, specifically by creating an imaginary world based on Dolly Parton’s life. The book mentions that theme parks’ “imaginary world is supposed to be what makes the operation successful.”(23) With her popularity, she allowed everyone to see and feel her accomplishments in an exaggerated personal sense. She also gradually adds new attractions to the park to keep the audience intrigued. In doing so, the repeated attractions don’t become a pastime, but rather make the park new every time.
Why I Was Late Turning This In Late
Ideally, I would have presented this in class. Unfortunately, I was having issues returning back to campus from my little sister’s quinceañera. I went this past weekend given that this was a family matter - one that I absolutely could not miss. There were some things at the event that got cut out at the last minute which was a shame, like her court dance and the ceremony. There were a decent amount of family members that made it to the event. Dinner is what started off the quince. It lasted about 2 hours, which was quite lengthy but had to be so since my own little sister was late for her quince and my oldest sister was making sure no one important would miss the ceremony. After dinner is when the dances started. Normally, this would only be a mother/father dance with the quinceañera; instead, this started off with my sister dancing with a picture of our mom, then passed off the frame to dance with her dad, then our oldest sister, then our older sister, then our oldest sister’s partner, then like 3 other people, then our older brother, then me, and finally our younger brother (yes there’s 6 of us siblings). I’m pretty sure that this was more of an homage to those who contributed to the quince. The party itself finally started then got cut off for the new “court” dance, which was my little brother’s football team doing the iguana dance (I don’t remember what the song itself is called). The party continued, the cake got cut, and was overall pretty fun.
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