It is a truth universally acknowledged that all sane and decent people like, if not love, Dolly Parton. Another universal truth is that Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” is one of the greatest country songs ever written. But one of the truths of life in 2024 is that modern pop culture degrades everything it touches. Nothing more clearly illustrates that fact than Beyoncé’s aggressively “girl boss” version of Parton’s classic song. It’s a travesty and a metaphor for so much of the damage leftism has inflicted on the world.

The original Dolly Parton song sees Parton begging the breathtakingly beautiful Jolene to leave Dolly’s man alone. Dolly shares her utter despair as she sees the love of her life fall desperately in love with Jolene.

The worst thing of all, from Dolly’s perspective is that Jolene doesn’t even love the man Dolly loves so much. Instead, Jolene’s acts are from ego, not love: “Please don’t take him just because you can.”

Unspoken in the song is the fact that Dolly’s love is so deep and true (“I could never love again, He’s the only one for me”) that she might even sacrifice him for true love…but Jolene just offers a narcissistic simulacrum.

Thus, the core point of the song is that there are women so egotistical and narcissistic that they are incapable of love. Or rather, they are incapable of loving anybody but themselves. Naturally, this gets us straight to Beyoncé.

Normally, Beyoncé is associated with generic pop songs, and she’s very good at them. I don’t like her, but she’s won a bazillion Grammys, sells out stadiums, and has a devoted following. She’s also a very beautiful woman.

Having conquered the realm of pop, Beyoncé is now ready to conquer new worlds. Apparently, country music was just sitting there, waiting for Beyoncé to revitalize it.

This probably came as a surprise to country fans, given that Newsweek explained a couple of weeks ago that “Country music is enjoying a huge resurgence this year,” especially through streaming, where 2023’s country music “on-demand audio streams” reflected a 23.7% increase over 2022. No wonder black musicians are trying to break into the market.

At least one critic is thrilled. According to Nicholas Hautman, writing for Page Six of The New York Post, before Beyoncé stepped in to save the day, country music was “on life support.” All the greats are gone, so it was up to Beyoncé, with her album “Cowboy Carter,” to provide “the revival that country music so desperately needed.”

But did it really need for Beyoncé to revive “Jolene”? I will say that there are some good covers out there. Miley Cyrus, who is Dolly Parton’s goddaughter, did a decent cover of Jolene, although it lacks Parton’s extraordinary heart and pathos. A better version is the one Cyrus did with Parton herself:

Emotion, pathos, love, sacrifice…it’s all there. But that’s not what Beyoncé did with the song. Instead, Beyoncé, in her bland, auto-tuned style, has updated lyrics in which the angry girl boss explains that she is the perfect, all-powerful woman whose man will never leave her for someone as inconsequential as Jolene.

Here’s just a sampling of the seemingly endless verses touting Beyoncé’s wonderfulness:

Jolene, I’m a woman too

Thе games you play are nothing new

So you don’t want no hеat with me, Jolene

[snip]

I’m warnin’ you, woman, find you your own man

Jolene, I know I’m a queen, Jolene

I’m still a Creole banjee bitch from Louisiane (Don’t try me)

[snip]

I know my man’s gon’ stand by me, breathin’ in my gentle breeze

I crossed those valleys

Highs and lows and everything between

Good deeds roll in like tumblin’ weeds

Good and happy

There’s nothing there but ego. I mean, if Beyoncé is so incomparable, why is she even bothering to slap around poor little Jolene? The singer isn’t in love with her man. She’s in love with herself and the emasculated slave who runs to her when she snaps her fingers. If this is a romance, there’s only one person involved.

Beyoncé is to country music as Meghan Markle is to…the royal family! Both reflect the horrible damage that leftism has done to women, regardless of race.

Over the last twenty years, young white women have been brainwashed into thinking that because of alleged “white supremacy” they are evil. Meanwhile, young minority women have been brainwashed into believing that they are all queens while still being victims of “white supremacy.” Simultaneously, all young women, regardless of race, have been told that they are victims of the patriarchy.

This is the kind of thing that will drive people mad. No wonder black women break under the strain of acting like self-styled goddesses, while leftist white women just drop into mental illness.

Image made by editing photos of Beyoncé by Raph_PH (CC BY 2.0) and Dolly Parton by Josef Just (CC BY-SA 3.0).