Apr 24
Susan Boyle: the good, the bad and the ugly
Cats: music|I watched her three times singing I Dreamed a Dream on YouTube.
The first time I was moved close to tears. She sang like an angel.
The second time my toes curled under with embarrassment. The scorn heaped upon her was sickening.
The third time I felt sad for how nasty people have become. They weren’t even embarassed about jeering and sneeering her.
It was a talent contest, not a beauty contest.
But this is celebrity culture so people think it’s open season on anyone who isn’t young, glamourous and thin.
Whatever happens with Susan Boyle, I’m glad she had the courage to challenge us. She held up a mirror to us and made us look very bad.
April 24th, 2009 at 10:46 am
I’m not looking at your column, because I’m supposed to write something about her for Starpulse and I don’t want to intentionally plagiarize you. I avoid looking at all of the 5 million other articles floating around about her too. Something tells me that my article is not going to be all that original.
Oh, okay, I’ll read yours anyway.
April 24th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Well put. Beckeye posted some excellent commentary and pointed out specific instances of eye-rolling nastiness by audience members.
April 24th, 2009 at 11:19 am
I loved your column. There really did seem to be a “how dare she…she’s not even cute” vibe pervading the entire thing…the audience, judges, backstage…everyone seemed shocked and really a little irritated that a woman who looks like Susan Boyle would dare to put herself out there. I’ve been thinking about this subject a lot, and I have a vague post forming, but it will probably take me weeks.
April 24th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Me too. I was initially moved by the underdoggedness, but it quickly changed to perturbedness. Personally I feel that the whole thing was a deliberate set up. Thery knew she had a wonderful voice so they deliberately lowered the audiences expectations. They made her ugly and unworthy. That’s the sad part.
If I’m right, it gets sadder. Ms. Boyle played into the game for money and publicity.
I suspect we’ll see some more “Boyles” in the not too distant future. My hope is that it will help to condition the public into accepting the atypical talent image, but I fear it will be more of a circus freak show.
April 24th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
I tend to run in the opposite direction when I hear about celebrity “news” so I have to admit that I missed the hubbub about Susan Boyle. Just checked out the video on YouTube though and saw how quickly the derision turned to applause. Shameful how quick people can be to judge on such a superficial level. More shameful still that a person’s dream can so easily be scoffed at simply due to age or looks. Just like Isabella Rossellini getting dumped by her long-time contract with Lancôme because at 40 she was deemed “too old”. Kudos to this woman for living her dream against the odds of societal acceptance.
April 24th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
I don’t get why this is all such a huge deal. The whole thing makes me incredibly sad for our culture that it is shocking that an “unplucked” woman such as herself can sing.
Kudos to her for going to the talent show, but shame on us for making celebrity culture the standard on which we now judge.
/rant.
April 24th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
I’ve been unable to watch the video because I don’t want to be subjected to such human ugliness right now. And I don’t mean Ms. Boyle.
April 24th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Beckeye, aww thanks doll. I’ll check yours out on Starplus and sue you if any of the words are the same.
Bubs, thanks, saw BE’s on her blog – will look further afield next
cdp, tell me when you post it
Dick, cynical, you can see that the way they produced it was cynical – those cut away shots probably had nada to do with Susan Boyle, but I’m not convinced that she was a fake … then again you never know.
April 24th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Kimberly, the Susan Boyle thing says waaay more about us than Susan Boyle
Lisa, I hear ya, luv. I’m like that with certain movies.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:13 am
I have to admit I missed all the goings on, and then the controversy over the goings on and who knew what, and .. you know what, I don;t even know what I am talking about, so I better stop right here.
Carry on talking amongst yourselves,
April 25th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Long live the Susan Boyles of the world who march to a different drummer. I, for one, despise the cookie-cutter culture we are deluged with in magazines, billboards, tv, etc. Susan is a breath of fresh air.
April 27th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Allison, sorry, forgot to reply.
Agreed on all fronts
April 28th, 2009 at 9:53 am
barbara, you make me laugh
cube, she’s like forrest gump