Herald - UK: The Beauty that Matters Is Always on the Inside - Susan Boyle

[Captain Hilts]

http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/featuresopinon/display.var.2501746.0.The_beauty_that_matters_is_always_on_the_inside.php

Susan Boyle's story is a parable of our age. She is a singer of enormous talent, who cared for her widowed mother until she died two years ago. Susan's is a combination of ability and virtue that deserves congratulation.

So how come she was treated as a laughing stock when she walked on stage for the opening heat of Britain's Got Talent 2009 on Saturday night?

The moment the reality show's audience and judging panel saw the small, shy, middle-aged woman, they started to smirk. When she said she wanted a professional singing career to equal that of Elaine Paige, the camera showed audience members rolling their eyes in disbelief. They scoffed when she told Simon Cowell, one of the judges, how she'd reached her forties without managing to develop a singing career because she hadn't had the opportunity. Another judge, Piers Morgan, later wrote on his blog that, just before she launched into I Dreamed a Dream, the 3000-strong audience in Glasgow was laughing and the three judges were suppressing chuckles.

...

The answer is that only the pretty are expected to achieve. Not only do you have to be physically appealing to deserve fame; it seems you now have to be good-looking to merit everyday common respect. If, like Susan (and like millions more), you are plump, middle-aged and too poor or too unworldly to follow fashion or have a good hairdresser, you are a non-person.

[mnhtnbb]

1. The youtube video of her performance was posted here. What talent.

The judges were all apologizing (except Simon, who of course, claimed to know she'd be terrific)
when she finished.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=8690894&mesg_id=8690894

[OwnedByFerrets]

15. I hate to take up for him because I cant stand him, but

what he actually said, tongue in cheek was.....he knew her performance would be "extraordinary"....meaning that he knew it was going to be embarrassing.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. Can anyone watch the video

of her performance on that show and not cry?

I get tears every time I see it.

I hope she has one hell of a career, that she makes a zillion dollars, that she has a wonderful, wonderful time. Her talent is enormous and beautiful ....................................

[Captain Hilts]

3. Me too. nt

[OwnedByFerrets]

16. I know I cant....I've seen it 3 times and each time I cry.

[barbtries]

20. me too

good to know i'm not the only one. amazing performance. enough to make me believe in dreams coming true. as expressed above, i wish all the best for susan boyle. she's terrific.

[Kookaburra]

4. The voice of an angel

[zazen]

5. corny, but I was really struck by her radiating inner beauty--it's so rare on TV it was jolting

I shouldn't even have to point out that she has "inner beauty," but it really was shocking to see that beauty in a world dominated by a very different standard. Her posture and short little steps were charming, her smile was infectious, and her unkemptness compared to the glossy expectations was really refreshing. Kind of like Helen Mirren in National Treasure, who is absolutely stunning at 57 with an apparent disdain for plastic surgery or hair dye. She just exudes a sensual comfort in her body that helps you realize why kings often had older lovers like Diane de Poitiers or Josephine. One had forgotten how attractive older women could be because we've been so brainwashed by these repetitive formulaic images.

But even that's too superficial. This woman's sincerity and courage just slammed you in the face, and that's a beautiful, rare phenomenon to watch.

They'll have to do a "makeover" immediately. No doubt the networks are competing for the honor of carving up her face, straightening her hair, and buying her the hideous new clothes that are in fashion.

[Captain Hilts]

6. An interesting comment. Women should just be themselves. But there's no money in that for

make-up, magazines, and all that crap.

[pnwmom]

10. You got it. All the money's to be made in making people feel insecure.

Buy this -- and feel better! Instead of -- you're just fine the way you are!

[pnwmom]

9. It was the ability to laugh at herself combined with an utter lack of

paralyzing self-consciousness combined with total confidence in what she was about to do that was so appealing to me.

Some of us have that cheerful belief in ourselves when we're about the age of 4, but almost all of us lose by the time we're 14 -- much less 47.

Hurrah for Susan. She's set an example for us all.

[zazen]

11. wow pnymom--what a succinctly accurate description of the human condition

[hlthe2b]

12. I agree totally... To retain it as a much maligned middle aged

woman, is phenomenal. If her mother helped her to remain self-confident and retain her dreams, I have to express my admiration for her as well.

[pnwmom]

14. If only her dear mother had lived to see this.

She has a sister, too, who she says has a beautiful voice (and SHE would know) -- wouldn't it be great to hear them sing together?

[macebowman]

22. Just one can sing?

Susan is the youngest of nine children. She has been singing in the church choir for years and had a couple of years worth of weekly voice lessons. I got some questions about the siblings as well, like why the youngest sis got saddled with the task of taking care of the dying mother solo? We are witnessing Karma in it's finest form, as Susan fullfilled a promise to her mother. The voice of an angel indeed--you would be sadly mistaken if you think Susan was alone on that stage.

[pnwmom]

23. Welcome to DU, macebowman! n/t

[handmade34]

17. well said!

I have always said that by the 4th grade it is lost, thanks mostly to public school...

[pnwmom]

18. I think you're right. After age 9 or 10 it's all downhill . . . .

[hlthe2b]

7. This is a very compelling article about her...

I wish we, as a society, could learn from it and her triumph.

[Captain Hilts]

8. It's a compelling article about all of us. We all react to people's looks...

Look at height in men. People here had a field day with Michelle Obama being as tall as GWB. So what? Neither chose their height. But we are trained from when we are kids to associate height with maturity.

And look how tough it was for Ella Fitzgerald, Julia Child, Eleanor Roosevelt, Katharine Hepburn - yes, Hepburn, Barbara Streisand, Kate Smith, Nina Simone, etc. to make it because they didn't look the way women are supposed to look.

[elleng]

13. Angelic voice and spirit.

'Many have said it was a poor reflection on both the live audience and others watching that they were surprised when a "frumpy woman" turned out to have the "voice of an angel."

Boyle herself has noted the issue but seems to be unfazed. In a British newspaper interview, she said she entered the contest at the behest of her late mother, who had urged her to "take the risk." She said it was "a bit of a shock" to see herself on television, and she thought she looked too fat -- "like a garage."

"Modern society is too quick to judge people on their appearances," she said. "There is not much you can do about it; it is the way they think; it is the way they are. But maybe this could teach them a lesson, or set an example."'


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

[Karenina]

19. . .

:kick:

[Froward69]

21. A grand shot in the arm for all of us Ugly people.

and thus why Marilin Mansions song "the beautiful people" resonates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY0536g_6Wc

listen to the words...