Dorothy Allison- What did you Expect?-- Post 1

“Dorothy Allison, What did you Expect?” is Dorothy Allison’s reflection on being photographed for a magazine by a well known professional photographer. The photographer wants to capture her “sprinkled with powdered sugar.” Dorothy refuses stating, “Do I look like the kind of women who should be dipped in powdered sugar?” Dorothy had never lived the pampered life and lived an average life in the south. I feel that Dorothy views herself as an average person, and doesn’t feel the need to look elegant or pampered. This is revealed when she tries to check into her hotel. Dressed in comfortable clothes, with no makeup, and a broken suitcase, the clerk behind the desk doesn’t believe she is Dorothy Allison, the well known author. I don’t think she was trying to rebel or go against people’s expectations, rather I think she was just trying to make a point, that this is who she is and she’s not going to change. She also states she doesn’t want to be one of those women that our culture views as “seamless” and perfect. She feels that women are often over looked and not recognized in society.
Dorothy is finally photographed towards the end of the narrative, not sprinkled with powdered sugar, but in a laundry mat. She still disagrees with the pose of being sprinkled with powdered sugar, and states, “no one is ever going to get a picture of me like that.” She doesn’t feel that any of the poses presented by the photographer represent her identity, but settled for the pose in the laundry mat, after turning down many other requests. I feel that no photo could represent Dorothy’s identity, because she feels a person’s identity cannot be captured in a photograph. There are images incorporated throughout the narrative. The first image is of Dorothy Allison at the age of nine. It is a simple picture of her looking into the camera, which is very different from the requests made by the photographer. I feel she wanted to include this to represent her average life as a child. There is also an image of Dorothy’s novel, “Bastard out of Carolina,” which has a picture of a young girl with her face covered by her hair. I think this image best describes Dorothy’s outlook on her image.