What’s The Greatest Story Dolly Parton Ever Wrote?

I started the reading for my Dolly Parton passion project with Sarah Smarsh’s She Come By It Natural for no other reason than it was new and in stock at my local bookstore (Flyleaf Books). That is to say, for no good reason at all.

I don’t intend to review these books, including Smarsh’s. Just assume that I think you could do way worse than read the things I’ll discuss over the coming weeks.

Two things jump out from my readings so far. One, Dolly Parton has transcended country music as much as she has defined it. The “moment” appears pegged to the early 2010s. I am not yet sure what the conditions were or why they were right for Dolly to cross the rubicon from pop-country memorabilia into popular culture’s post-wave feminist totem. The search for a good reason starts with a good timeline. I will be starting one soon.

The other thing that jumps out of Smarsh’s text is an earnest desire to situate Dolly’s monomyth within our current racial discourse. Readers have done our own bit of transcending. Smart people listen to NPR and know that “people of color” is not the same as “colored people”. Intersectionality has happened and well-meaning folks want to apply that framework to their understanding of the world. All of that comes out in Smarsh’s artful acknowledgement that being born poor and white is still a kind of privilege. But it really becomes a challenge for me, as a reader and Black consumer of whatever Dolly’s selling, when Smarsh looks for today’s “Dolly”.

Smarsh settles on Nicki Minaj. She is citing Jade E. Davis’ essay on Dolly and Nicki. Davis (disclaimer: only my best friend and such a delight to see her cited here) argues that:

Even though they’re pop stars, Parton and Minaj exist far outside the non-threatening spaces of acceptability. It’s okay to admire them, but you cannot emulate them in your everyday life. Parton’s “dirt poor” roots and Minaj’s Trinidadian heritage means they’ll never be “mainstream” or aspirational.

Smarsh acknowledges in the foreward that the reference may be dated. This book began as a series of articles. Smarsh has chosen to honor the temporal context of the original argument. She says that if she were writing it today she may have chosen Lizzo.