The Virginian-Pilot
©
Far be it from me to rain all over the Susan Boyle-Scottish-Songstress-and-Symbol-of-All-That's-Sublime Celebration, but someone has to do it. Might as well be me.
You know what I'm talking about. Unless you've been spring-breaking in Antarctica you've seen the 47-year-old singing sensation who strode across the stage of "Britain's Got Talent" in sensible shoes and caused even the caustic Simon Cowell to swoon.
Let's be honest. The hype is not about the singing spinster at all.
It's about us. And our guilt.
We enjoy looking at pretty people. Ms. Boyle makes us ashamed of that.
Like the catty eye-rollers in the audience, we were caught with our expectations down when we spied the plain Boyle. (I thought she was a female impersonator; after all, we've been conditioned for antics like that by some of the crazies on reality television.)
Truth is, Ms. Boyle is all woman. She's also a tad overweight with unruly eyebrows and an Ethel Mertz hairdo.
So what? She has a heavenly voice and a lively sense of humor.
Yet the headline out of that TV show might as well have been a shocked, "Plain People Have Talent, Too."
Actually, we knew that already. I mean have you seen Woody Allen?
Still, thanks to the Internet, Boyle was turned into a stern reminder that we worship at the altars of beauty and youth. In the wake of her appearance, the chattering classes began to scold us.
"We're a nation obsessed with youth," they moan. "Why can't we see inner beauty?" they wonder. "Our civilization is shallow and superficial," they gripe.
Our civilization? Please. Does Aphrodite ring a bell? How about Apollo? Cleopatra?
If I'm not mistaken, America fell in love with Mary Pickford during the silent movie era. William Butler Yeats made a fool of himself over Maud Gonne MacBride, the most beautiful woman in Ireland. And the world was smitten with Jacqueline Kennedy in the 1960s. Be honest: Would she have been an icon if she'd looked like Barbara Bush?
We shouldn't apologize for our appreciation of beauty. Michelangelo didn't.
Some scientists say our desire for physical attractiveness is hard-wired into our DNA. We're drawn to healthy, beautiful mates as a part of our primal need to produce strong offspring. Some studies show that even infants prefer symmetrical, attractive faces.
Ironically, Ms. Boyle is famous today because she's not pretty.
She's doing what clever people do, capitalizing on the one thing that makes her different. In Boyle's case, it's her offbeat looks.
Sorry, I don't believe for a minute they don't have tweezers or treadmills in Scotland. Perhaps Boyle wants to look the way she does. That would be smart for her belated singing career.
If she had arrived on stage with those amazing pipes wrapped in a predictably pretty package, we wouldn't be talking about her today.
Susan Boyle seems happy with herself. Pity so many of the rest of us are not.
Kerry Dougherty, (757) 446-2306, kerry.dougherty@cox.net
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Beauty over Character
Kerry, I couldn't agree with you more about our society's obcession with sex appeal and beauty over substance. Why do you think that American Idol is so popular? We just had an election where a large segment of our population voted for the current President who is in office based solely on his looks and appeal with not a clue on what he stood for. In our world of HD TV being more and more available we are getting even worse about this. She may not have been as sexy on the outside as Brittany Spears or Mondona (she wasn't ugly either) but inside, she is very beautiful and brave. I don't believe that audience deserved to hear her beautiful voice but I grateful she sang for them anyways.
Look beneath the surface
European "older" women are deemed sexy, desirable and hot esp. in France. But here in the US they are invisible, non-entities and ready for the heap pile. How come? Because this country is shallow and youth obsessed and has no foundation of substance. Look at Hollywood and what they have done to promote this thinking. When is it going to stop? Like the Velveteen Rabbit, when you are seasoned you are finally "real." And the younger generation coming up is the most narcisstic, shallow and self centered I've ever seen. The old paradigms are going, going and one day hopefully gone.
Hype over singer's beautiful voice
This is even sadder - yes - sure, we are shallow to expect nothing special from an ordinary middle-aged woman...but then she sings and she has the most beautiful voice and all of a sudden she's SOMEONE special and we're ashamed because we pre-judged her as a NOBODY. BUT that still makes us shallow - worse than shallow - because WHAT IF SHE COULDN'T SING...?
mona lisa
Actually, Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa.
Thank you for shining the light of truth
Thanks Kerry for shining the light of truth in our faces. It is true what a shallow and youth obsessed society we live in. Nobody seems to be aware that we are in the best stage our life in middle age. Susan Boyle came along at just the right time to slap us all upside the head and remind us that all that matters is the good we do while here and for people to look inside to see the real person. It's really time for society to get real.
Commonplace
Too true Kerry. There is a lot of talent out there that will never see the light of day because it doesn't come wrapped in a phtogenic package. At the same time empty-headed, conceited, pretty people are made into millionaires and live like royalty. Just for looking good. That is the real travesty!
Fully agree
This should serve as a stark reminder how shallow many people are and how they - me included - must think a beautiful voice such as hers must certainly come from a beauty pageant queen.
As for Michelangelo – ever take a really hard look at his Mona Lisa??
shocking!
Woody Allen has talent?
Thumbs up
Beautifully stated!!
Hey!
I don't mind, actually I love, being pessimistic and negatively judgemental.
However, I love it even more when someone proves me wrong. If one expects bad, when it's good, it's SO MUCH better.