Susan Boyle: Talent Without Judgment
When a beautiful, under 30-something sings like an angel, she can become an American Idol. When a dowdy, homely 47-year-old woman sings beautifully, it is headline news. I'm certainly not knocking you-tube sensation, Susan Boyle, who stunned even Simon Cowell with her singing ability on "Britain's Got Talent" last week. She is a great singer and I have watched her performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" several times now.
The problem is that recognition of her talent is directly proportionate to her lack of good looks and youth. What does it say about the civilized world that our expectations for greatness are diminished when people are unattractive and/or old? It's no mystery why American Idol screens out any would-be singers over the age of 30. We are a nation obsessed with youth. But does that mean an American Idol couldn't succeed if she or he were 35 or 47 or 67? I'm willing to bet that in the not too distant future Miss Susan Boyle - though still closer to 50 than 30 - will have artfully plucked eyebrows, a new highlighted hairstyle, trendy black trousers and blouse and lots of makeup. It won't affect her singing ability but will certainly make her look more like a potential star.
The results of this obsession with looks stare back at us from the covers of magazines and from our TV screens. Women of indeterminate age with lips resembling those of guppies, people who smile only with their eyes because the rest of their faces are locked into place, women with husbands the age of their grandfathers. When did looks and age become the bar by which we are each judged? Why have we allowed this to happen and how can we hand this legacy off to our children?
I, for one, believe that every line on my face was hard-won and adds to the character that is me. If Joan Rivers resembled something more human and closer to her age, I would like her just as well. And if Susan Boyle stays just the way she is - overgrown eyebrows and all - she will still sing better than her own idol, Elaine Paige. Talent and intelligence and heart are all internal; they don't rely on plastic surgery to sustain them. Looks fade, the years pass and it is a process that is natural and appropriate. Let's applaud Susan Boyle's talent - not in spite of what she looks like, but because it's an amazing talent.
YouTube - Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009 (With ...
Susan Boyle VIDEO: Britain's Singing YouTube Sensation
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I think people like her exactly because she called into question our superficial judgment -- including the superficial judgment of television reality shows. American Idol is disgusting for how it stigmatizes anything that isn't the most bland kind of pretty. I would just like to add that they discriminate quite a bit against the fat. In fact, they often don't even allow us to hear the good fat singers because they're so worried that we might actually like them.
If anyone has seen the poor quality home videos of Susan Boyle performing at a couple of local social clubs, or auditioning at a shopping mall for a tv talent show; then you have seen what she looked like 25 years ago....cute, perky in a Sheena Easton way...and OMG!!! she wears stilleto high heels and knows how to move in them. The assumption that this lady has been a shy, retiring church lady who lived under a rock all her life is a fantasy. I think we are all going to be surprised by her.
Why do so many people call Susan Boyle ugly? She looks like an average person to me which is why I have always preferred foreign films to Hollywood. The characters in them look like real people.
I really believe that all those folks out there (and some of the bloggers also) calling this woman ugly need to take a real good look at themselves and what their priorities and concepts are. I hope this whole issue causes everyone who judges by appearances to re visit their belief system and take a long hard look. These concepts are not even personal, but are concepts handed to the world by Hollywood and those who stand to make money through the blind adoration of their product.
We as a society need to grow up. This is adolescent behavior. This whole business of everything being about sex and looks these days is starting to concern me. This shouldn't even be a topic of discussion, and yet the news, TV, magazines all buy into this. From my view, they adults acting like groups of teens standing in corners giggling and pointing at someone who isn't in their group. Sad.
I think it should be a wake up call to the powers that be that assume the public cannot stand to have an average person seen on the TV. We are happy to see Susan Boyle because, for once, we are looking at something real and hearing something real and it's a relief!
She looks like my next-door neighbor and she sings from the heart. No fake-show-off vocal acrobatics a la.....take your pick. Her voice is great, straight forward, pure and beautiful. That's what she wanted people to see and that's what they saw and the media can't understand it.
Let me preface this with the statement that I love Susan Boyle--my snark about this issue is NOT about her, but about this whole faux-PC media perception thing.
I wanted to thr0w vp when meredith Viera asked her "HOW did you get the courage to walk out there...." She might as well have said, "how could someone as ugly as you ever try to compete...?" It is all so fake and ridiculous. Surely people have heard the voices in their church choirs of the large woman with not much else going for her, singing like a lark.
what gives people the right to be shocked that talent is possessed NOT just by the beautiful?
The very gall that people snickered when she walked out, then suddenly rose to their feet with awe. What sort of a shallow people are we, that we are dvmb-founded by this?
It is patronizing and condescending to act like the MSM. And for that sk1nny, blond, beautiful judge on the show, to say, "oh, I think WE won't do ANYTHING to her." Yeah, right. keep her matronly, so that the beautiful people can treat her like a zoo oddity.
Maybe she would like a hairdo, new clothes, make-up like you do for the pretty girls. Or is $125,000 spent on such, only reserved for the Sarah Palins of the world? Susan is a woman, not the media's latest lap doggie .
Americal Idol sucks. It's fake, it's crappy. They only allow those under 40 to participate. They pick people who clearly have no talent to be on for effect. If they allowed real talent, of any age, size, gender, color and background, it would be just as good as Britain's Got Talent. As it is, I never watch Idol. I go online to watch BGT. Susan Boyle has the voice of an angel.
Susan Boyle rocked the house but show business has always been superficial about physical appearance...It's a show and it's a business...Beauty makes more money...Susan's world is gonna change but show business will stay the same...We are all hard wired to go for the beauty of surface and she reminds us that we all wish we were more beautiful....It's a feeling were not supposed to have.
I only sort of watched American Idol one season because a local young man was on. I drove my son nuts because I would plug my ears and close my eyes when the judges critiqued. I couldn't handle watching the faces of the contestants when they were harshly criticised. Even if they had no talent and were on the show voluntarily, I didn't understand why there was such meanness sometimes.
I could hardly watch the Susan Boyle tape because it starts out with all the snickering faces. Many people commenting are admitting to coming face to face with their own inner uglyness and vowing to change. I hope what comes out of this is a movement toward more kindness. We are all human beings.
Strange how she has changed many of our opinions, perceptions, and judgments regarding beauty and talent.
When I first saw her face before knowing who this person was and listening to her sing, I said to myself..."this sure is one ugly guy".
I regret now making such a judgment concerning any human being.
I don't think she is ugly at all. She looks like a completely normal person to me.
I am glad she got to sing in front of a large audience. I'll be buying her CD when it comes out and I hope no one convinces her to be anything but herself.
She looks like Helena Bonham Carter probably looks like in the morning plus a bit of a chubby double chin. She's probably in better health than Helena, and doesn't need makeup.
What was stunning was her confidence and then.....that voice. I kept waiting for her to hit just one wrong note or blow the phrasing, but it was impeccable.
Just put her in a black or navy blue long velvet dress, a tidy hairdo, some pearls and she'll knock her audience dead. I look forward to her next performance on Britains Got Talent.
It was a total trip to see Snide Simon so gobsmacked.
Genius quite often does not come wrapped in a pretty package.
It's heartbreaking that Susan is being called "UGLY" in headlines around the world. How horrible it must be for her to be on such a "high" after her thrilling audition, only to wake up and find that the world thinks she's UGLY. Oh, yes, we're in love with her talent, but headlines proclaim her as UGLY. I hate that anyone would consider this lovely lady "ugly". No, she's not a "10", but neither is she ugly. She's a normal, middle aged lady who has a heart of gold. Yet when she walked on the stage it was apparent what the audience and the judges expected from her. And Simon was the worst. He stated that he knew the minute she walked on stage we were going to hear something extraordinary - yes!! He expected her to be extraordinarily BAD. But, what a surprise was in store for all of those who were, moments before, snickering and laughing at her. That should be a wake up call for all of us - we simply cannot judge people by the way the look. We, in America, are especially adept at doing this. All that appeals to us is YOUTH and BEAUTY - everything that is shallow and meaningless in this life!! Susan has taught the world a great lesson. God Bless her and I hope she doesn't change unless it is HER CHOICE to do so.
I watched that clip and I was so angry when people started to laugh and roll their eyes before this sweet woman ever opened her mouth. Did they assume that an "ugly" woman cannot sing well? Or did they just not want her to? In this culture, (which spawned that hideous freak show "The Swan"), plain women are supposed to be invisible- doubly so if they are "old".
I was equally angry with all those idiots who suddenly decided Susan Boyle was a worthwhile person only when it turned out she could sing! Oh, so now she has your permission to be seen? How generous.
News flash for those that are calling for poor Susan to be "rescued" by a make-over. Beauty is only skin deep, but music cuts right to the bone.
I agree with all the positive things said here. I wanted to mention because I haven't seen it specifically, that the beauty issue is all about women. There are plenty of homely men on TV, overweight and very old! It's still women who are told they can't be regular people. As a matter of fact, I can't think of a good looking male talking head. . . hmmmmm
Well said and so true. Thanks.
Haha, that's because if you see a truly striking looking man on the tv, then he's either taken for granted as a stupid boytoy, a gigolo, or he's assumed to be so pretty that he's attractive to all sexes and engages in relations with every/anyone.
Beautiful men are never taken seriously. Even the new president has articles written about how he's going grey and losing his looks already, but do we really want a president who's botoxed and has had plastic surgery representing us? I like people who look like real people.
Her voice and rendition of I dreamed a dream could make anyone weep no matter what she looks like. I've listened to the video without visual and it's just as compelling. The fact that she moved many men and women who feel like their unappreaciated for superficial reasons is only half of the story. So let me type this in caps so everyone can memorize this THERE IS NO ONE WHO LOOKS LIKE THEY SHOULD SING LIKE SUSAN BOYLE, HER VOICE IS EPIC AND TIMELESS AND WOULD MAKE ANYONE SURPRISED TO HEAR SUCH AN INCREDIBLE VOICE COMING FROM ANYONE. That is all.
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