I’m a little late to jump on the bandwagon over Susan Boyle, but I’m not interested in talking about how I teared up when I heard her sing, or whether or not she’s real or a hoax perpertrated on the world of YouTube. My concern is the cruelty that was extended to her, the sneers, the guffaws that were seen before she started to sing. The Guardian was quoted as saying that just becasue she’s ugly, we shouldn’t have assumed she couldn’t sing, after all we don’t hold ugly men to the same standards.
My problem is where do we all get off saying she’s ugly, that she needs a makeover before we can applaud her. Even now people are betting on how long before she plucks the eybrows, is lasered, botoxed, cinched in, re-dressed according to our fashion trends. We’re all patting ourselves on our backs because we were generous enough to allow this woman to enter our hallowed halls of beauty, even though we’re hoping she changes fast enough so we don’t have to deal with the chubby figure and over forty (heavens, it’s closer to fifty) person of the female gender. Once she does, she becomes just another YouTube clip and we can return to our smug little lives.
Don’t do it Susan. And keep those judges away from giving you your first kiss, as if they were handing out food to the hungry at a food pantry.