Tede Matthews interview in Another Mother Tongue: Gay Words, Gay Worlds by Judy Grahn (1985)

it takes guts to be a woman under patriarchy. I mean, Dolly Parton is like an image of a super-femme, but she has this certain brassiness, she just has to have total guts to survive around men and to have her image be so female. She's the kind of person that a drag queen would emulate, because she is using that female, or femme facade, which is like Marlene Dietrich or Mae West or Dolly Parton or any of those gutsy women over the years who drag queens have chosen to emulate, especially the ones who do female impersonation. There's the other edge to them besides the femme facade that is totally gutsy and a real survivor of the world

— Tede Matthews interview

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "it takes guts to be a woman under patriarchy. I mean, Dolly Parton is like an image of a super-femme, but she has this certain brassiness, she just has to have total guts to survive around men and to have her image be so female. She's the kind of person that a drag queen would emulate, because she is using that female, or femme facade, which is like Marlene Dietrich or Mae West or Dolly Parton or any of those gutsy women over the years who drag queens have chosen to emulate, especially the ones who do female impersonation. There's the other edge to them besides the femme facade that is totally gutsy and a real survivor of the world" in the context of "Tede Matthews interview in Another Mother Tongue: Gay Words, Gay Worlds by Judy Grahn (1985)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Dolly Parton" (Quotes about Parton) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Dolly Parton

About Dolly Parton

Dolly Rebecca Parton (born 19 January 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, actress, author, and philanthropist, known primarily for her work in country music.