susan boyle susan boyle susan boyle susan boyle
April 22, 2009
Filed under in the news, music
Tags: britain's got talent, cowell, simon, susan boyle
i am starting to get sick of hearing about her. and frankly, the worldwide hype about her, in the manner that it has taken place, is starting to seriously piss me off.
am i out of line? i love hearing her sing, and of course i think it’s remarkable and wonderful that she has rocketed to the top of the world on pluck and guts and awesome talent. is she a beautifully talented singer with a remarkable voice? yes, of course. is she worthy of all the attention she’s getting? of course. should she be on the worldwide stage, melting every heart on this planet? yes!!
but look how we gave it to her. correct me if i’m wrong but the whole POINT of all the hype around her is that this mature, portly woman who would not inspire most adolescent men’s dicks got up on stage, and people expected her to suck, knowing nothing more about her than those surface, appearance-based things. and then BOOM she opens her mouth and the world melts, flowers bloom, angels cry, etc. it’s like everybody’s shocked that she has something to offer. what the f?
the two goons at the side of the stage being like, “betcha didn’t see that comin’ did you!” – why did they say that? what do we know about her that would cause us to not see that coming? and now what is all this fuss over whether she’s been kissed? how did that even come up?
says Amanda Holden, one of the britain’s got talent judges about why she’s not getting a makeover:
“She needs to stay exactly as she is because that’s the reason we love her. She just looks like anybody who could live on your street.
“The minute we turn her into a glamour-puss is when it’s spoilt. That can perhaps come later when she’s signed the album deal and conquered America.
“For now we’ll keep her exactly as she is because that’s why we’ve all fallen in love with her. I think it’s the underdog thing. It’s somebody who’s looked after her mother all her life.”
1. why are we talking about whether she needs a makeover in the first place?
2. it’s spoilt when you acknowledge that the reason you love her is ‘cos she looks like someone you wouldn’t expect to bust out mad singing chops? last i checked, vocal cords have very little to do with a person’s outer shell.
i feel like the very nature of all this hype about her is a slap in the face of people who don’t look like christina freaking aguilera or [what] britney [used to look like]. many mediocre-to-good looking people get up on shows like that and sing as well as she did, but we’re not SHOCKED when they do well. many ok-looking, young-ish people get up and perform arguably as well as susan’s performance, but simon rips each of them a new one. i can understand if part of the obsession is because she managed to get so old with such a talent without being ‘discovered,’ lending to some of the low expectations (“if nobody noticed her til now, why should we”). but there again, it’s such a bizarre, unreasonably low expectation. MILLIONS of artists of all shape, size, age, beauty and talent go undiscovered every day. i don’t think age makes the shock that she can do this less insulting. i can’t get over feeling like we’re all saying “oh, susan, we love you even though you’re old and look like you’ve been punched with a sack of fish. now men who would have been repulsed by you before want to kiss you.” i mean i guess ultimately it worked out fine for susan, but geez.
can we love her without obsessing about physical appearance?
oh and don’t get me started on that website made for tossing around names of the porn she’d be in if she were in one…
I look at it differently – I think the reason people are as big on her appearance are the same reasons you don’t like it.
The belief does exist, unfortunately, that pretty people are more talented performers. The fact that Susan Boyle clearly shows otherwise is a sort of “In your face!” way of disproving the belief to the masses. Hence the reason people emphasize it.
So, it’s not that she is loved in spite of her appearance but because it gives hope to all the below-average people who have stage talent and are ignored because they aren’t beauties.
~DD
i see what you’re saying but that’s exactly my point.
“it gives hope to all the below-average people who have stage talent and are ignored…”
exactly! we are just sitting in different hands. on the your hand, it does give hope, it’s a breath of not-shallow-ness, all this hype does break from of our obsession over physical beauty. on the my hand, it’s still sort of insulting. it’s *still* an obsession over physical features, it just speaks to very low expectations of unattractive people.
let’s say i achieved a major accomplishment like .. get elected to office or something, and everybody started freaking out about how i can be a leader even though i’m short…. i would be offended. i know they would not be not praising me “in spite” of me being short, they would be praising me *because* i’m this teeny tiny person that shocked the world by displaying leadership qualities.
i’m not bleh that people love her “in spite of” her appearance.. i know people love her because of it. i just think all the attention to it is insulting. not only to her (because at the same time that we’re freaking out about her singing, we’re saying she is ugly – it’s just that she seems to be accepting of it and rolling with her frumpy house frau-ness with good humor) – but it is also insulting to every other person who looks like her because it’s evidence that society expects very little of them.
in short, i’m objecting to this the same way that (hopefully) most girls would object to the compliment “You did a good job … for a girl.”
does that make more sense?
I see what you’re saying, and I think if they were saying “You’re good… for an ugly person.” that I’d be in total agreement.
I don’t think that’s what they’re saying though. To me it’s more “She’s frumpy and she’s the most talented person there. To all those who think those are mutually exclusive, HA!”
Taking your example of the sexes, imagine when a woman becomes President of the US. The big deal isn’t that somehow women aren’t fit for the position and yet she made it, but that she had to overcome so many additional obstacles to get there when compared to a white guy. That as an underdog, she succeeded.
I agree with you completely, though, that it certainly doesn’t speak well on our society that it’s a surprise at all. In an ideal world, appearance shouldn’t have a bearing and the fact that the Interwebs are as shocked as they are is surely a sign that our expectations as a society are pretty craptastic.
~DD
Thought of this just after posting –
Then again, maybe the reason she’s so successful isn’t that we’re looking at this ugly British lady sing, but that we’re looking at all the times someone said we couldn’t do something, or when someone sneered at us for even trying. But she succeeded despite that so maybe we can, too.
~DD