As a bony teenager, her hyper femininity had me shookFemale contours have gone through many a push and pull down the centuries. If one period in time dictates padding, another period frowns on the slightest bulge. Through corsets and underwire to minimisers and binding, flesh must bend to the fashions of that era. Occasionally though, someone like a Dolly Parton casually and atrociously comes along to blur body image; the big hair, the small waist, the high pitch, the rhinestone-studded jacket… She made DD the size to flaunt.In 9 to 5, a movie I watched as a bony teenager often mistaken for a boy, I wasn’t sure what to make of her flamboyant curves or curls. Should I envy this voluptuousness, real or unreal, and aspire to such open, perhaps even manipulative, femininity, or patronisingly smirk at her obviously commercial reasons that were almost feminist? Even now Dolly has me torn over such a self-knowing authenticity, easily dismissed as loud and flashy, but simultaneously adored for its uniqueness. Women are aware of the male gaze, yes, but also the female gaze. Making pasta from scratch need not negate being a pin-up.Dolly herself never won the Dolly lookalike contest she once sidled into – too many people were more Dolly than Dolly! She did say, ‘If something is bagging, sagging, or dragging, I’ll tuck it, suck it, or pluck it.’ The waist of 20 inches and carefully set hair is the banner headline. The inside story has to be more human. We do know she rarely bared her arms – apparently because of scars – and went in for pastel tattoos to cover them up. At 5’1 she kept a steady low weight except for a brief period in the early 1980s, as photos show. No one has seen her without a wig either, though it’s cosy to think of her watching TV with hair in a scrunchie, no dimple on display.The visual effect of Dolly combined with the soprano in her songs point to a hyper femininity that most women, and men in drag, make peace with in their own timeline at some point in their life. Especially now. When plastic surgery is going through its least judgy phase, and signature looks are carefully curated at high costs, we can only marvel at what were decidedly bold choices. You blend in and blend in, and suddenly one day you want to stand out and do a Dolly.
Disclaimer: Views expressed above are the author’s own.
