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Beyonce's butchered Jolene! Her 'badass' re-write ISN'T empowering. It's nakedly insecure, faux-feminist and totally misses the point of Dolly Parton's American epic, writes KAT ROSENFIELD
If Bey's a queen, as the song says, and has no doubts about her man's devotion, then why is she threatening to throw hands at any woman who looks at him sideways?
But then, this brand of photogenic but ultimately insubstantial feminism is one that Beyoncé has long trafficked in, dating back at least a decade to her 2014 VMAs performance, where she stood in front of a screen on which 'FEMINIST' was projected in giant block letters. At the time, all eyes were focused on the 'FEMINIST' sign, but when I look at video of that performance now, what strikes me most is the faceless silhouette of her body against it: high-heeled, legs akimbo, virtually indistinguishable from the stock images that appear on the flyers for a certain type of establishment in Las Vegas or Atlantic City. And while the new 'Jolene' struts around with its chest out, making superficially feminist noises (and, as such, acts as catnip for Beyoncé's fans), it's Parton's that imagines women in the greater fullness, that recognizes female power as it exists beyond the shallow archetype of the badass bitch.
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