The Susan Boyle phenomenon
April 17, 2009
by Violet Socks, Editor
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Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent
A few hours after Susan Boyle stunned audiences on Britain’s Got Talent, a commenter at my blog posted the link. “Have you seen this?” she asked. Six days later, everyone has seen it. Everyone with a TV or an internet connection, that is.
When I first watched the clip, I was disturbed by the audience’s initial eye-rolling and derisive laughter. This, I thought, is why I have so little tolerance for pop culture. The twits were laughing at Susan Boyle for no other reason than that she was not young and not gorgeous. Apparently it was heinously absurd for a not-young, not-gorgeous woman to even haul herself out there on a stage (boo! hiss! climb back in the Kitty Condo with your cats why don’t you!) much less have the sheer monstrous hubris of thinking she could sing.
But of course she can sing, beautifully, and everyone in the world is now thrilled by this reminder that even not-young, not-gorgeous women still have value. If they can sing.
Don’t get me wrong: I love Susan Boyle. I love her story, I love the phenomenon, I love the comments around the world from people tearfully rejoicing in the triumph of a “normal” person. I hope she sells a million CDs. I guess I’m just wondering what it all means. As Tamar Abrams observes in the HuffPost, “the problem is that recognition of her talent is directly proportionate to her lack of good looks and youth…what does it say about the civilized world that our expectations for greatness are diminished when people are unattractive and/or old?”
Well, I’m going to take a wild swing here and say that it means our civilization is shallow and superficial and crap. It’s also sexist. Abrams asks, “when did looks and age become the bar by which we are each judged?” which of course is a rhetorical question, unless Abrams has just arrived here as an exchange student from the Andromeda Galaxy. Looks and age have always been the bar by which women are judged, at least in male-dominated societies. The only thing that’s changed in my lifetime is that the bar has gotten higher. The pornification of our culture means that we are surrounded by a nonstop effluvient of plasticized fembot imagery, beside which any normal human being looks like Gollum. No wonder real live women are having their parts changed out for artificial bits; they’re just trying to look more like what’s on the Spice Channel.
The double standard is especially obvious in the performing arts. Of course beauty is a big plus for anybody, male or female, but the fact is that men with talent and ability have never been held back by ugliness, chubbiness, hairlessness, or any other -ess I can think of. Pop music, for example, is full of deeply ugly men — and I mean scary ugly — as well as average blokes with paunches and receding hairlines (hello, Elton John and Phil Collins). And can anyone imagine a woman of Meatloaf’s heft having the kind of career he had? My youth was haunted by videos of Meatloaf sweating and howling through 8-minute songs in heavy rotation on MTV, but when Ann Wilson put on a few pounds she was practically banned from the channel. America had to be protected from the horror.
I don’t see things changing anytime soon, but at least the wonderful Susan Boyle has given us a brief bit of breathing space. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Excellent summary Violet.
You have such a brilliant way with words
“The pornification of our culture means that we are surrounded by a nonstop effluvient of plasticized fembot imagery, beside which any normal human being looks like Gollum. No wonder real live women are having their parts changed out for artificial bits; they’re just trying to look more like what’s on the Spice Channel.”
Now the question is what can we do?
I, too, hope Ms. Boyle sells a million CDs. When I saw her sing… I was reminded of this fabulous artist : http://www.mauraoconnell.com/
who refers to herself as “just a singer.”
I saw Ms. O’Connell live once. I can assure you. She is far more than “just a singer.”
I am sure Susan Boyle will prove to be, as well.
Here is a blessing for Ms. Boyle…. from Ms. O’Connell…. through me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6BHib3I3Z0
My first impression of Susan was she looked a lot like an aunt of mine, who can’t sing by the way. I noted her dignity and like anyone would have been, she was nervous but I sensed self assurance, strongly so and the way she walked off the stage when she was done,showed real strength of character. The camera panned in on a couple of young women who were almost grimacing at her before she sang. I thought to myself these are some ignorant people and I don’t regard them as hapless victims of patriarchy, just stupid and very shallow people. I think talent at times still trumps callous sexism and it has here like it did with Mama Cass and Janis Joplin to name a couple. Surely to God at least a few people that looked askance at her because of her physical appearance felt ashamded of themselves afterwards.
Oh, I forgot to say to Stray Yaller Dawg you certainly have a wonderful voice too – how about a duet with Susan…? Just think of the donations you could make to NA once the CDs were selling by the tens of thousands………………. (lol)
Wasn’t that lovely? I’ve sure enjoyed that video!
She broke the rules, she challenged the stereotypes, if only for a few moments. That is incredibly refreshing to see. It makes your whole spirit sing.
I’ve been watching girls in the pop music industry for a couple decades now. I think it’s pretty obvious that they are trapped fulfilling patriarchal stereotypes set for women rather then entertaining us with their talent, and their music becomes irrelevant, way at the bottom of the the list of what they are valued for. And because they must invest so much energy into portraying this image in order to be popular, we’ll never know if they have an actual piece of musical genius hiding inside of them. We’re depriving ourselves of the talents of half the human race once again. The fact that a handful of women do manage to break thru this and produce some magical music is all the more miraculous knowing how the deck is stacked.
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Thank you for posting about Susan on TNA. When I first saw and heard her I thought she could be the “poster child” for what is wrong with pop culture. I have watched the video over and over — not just to hear that angelic voice but to admire her remarkable poise and confidence.
Yes, the expectation of beauty is skewed horribly against women. I have ranted for years about how tv sitcoms might have an overweight, bald male lead, but the female lead is going to be slim and pretty. Same in the movies. The “nerd” always somehow gets a gorgeous woman. Of course she is his “prize” his “trophy” for being so … MANLY.
Now it makes me cringe to think how many people are out there trying to figure out how to “make Susan over.” I pray she stays the same.
Just for clarity… that is not my voice! That is Maura O’Connell… I am just passing along the video, as a blessing.
I can sing. A little. But nothing like either of these two Celtic Divas! (And I mean “Diva” in the best possible way!)
I saw the Susan Boyle video a few days ago. Yes, she is average in looks and style – but one thing I noticed was once she started singing – I saw beauty not only in her voice, but in her face as well. She definitely shines when she sings. Yes, our society is very shallow – but that tends to diminish as we all age. We need TNA to remind society that we are all beautiful is our own way and everyone deserves an opportunity to shine……
Kathy, I agree. When you watch you see, just a second before she even opens her mouth to sing, something sort of transform her. The exact moment, I suppose, when she actually steps into her song. Beauty on every level.
You are right, of course, Violet about the pop culture crap and ugly males and beautiful babes, etc.
Speaking of scary and freaky and revolting…Phil Specter. I digress.
Susan Boyle has touched hearts, and has made people aware, and many are cheering her on because of her talent. I am happy for that, and for making some people think.
Wow… that was an excellent commentary! I’m always commenting on how so many guys in music, especially in the popular Hip-Hop and Rock genres, are absolutely ghastly looking, yet women have to go through incredible “hoops” in order to garner the “crumbs” left to succeed in this highly paid industry. We can all thank Susan Boyle for surfacing with her incredible talent to lift all of our spirits. Her “timing” was perfect, indeed!
Thank you Dr. Socks. Your commentary should be “must” reading for all highschool and university grads. None should leave the halls of “learning” thinking this sexist, appearance-oriented world is real! Hillary Clinton, during the primary, was the recipient of so much sexist abuse and eye-rolling contempt by the Obama thuggish supporters, both male and female. Yet she gathered more votes than the “media phenomenon” named Obama. The Obama brand was marketed to the youth and hte misogynist, ageist shallow media leg-thrillers sold us down the river….
Susan’s rendition does Les Miserables’ Victor Hugo proud. His classic has at last found its true voice….
Violet, so beautifully said. Ironically, I was talking about this very thing this afternoon with my hairdresser as I commended Reese Witherspoon, Kate Willet, and Jamie Lee Curtis, among others, who refused to buy into msm nonsense, refuse to allow their images to be airbrushed, colored and tinted into plastic pseudo perfection and are sufficiently solid in their self esteem as people, women, and talented actors to be able to do so. They are a power of example for everyone who has compared themselves to others and found themselves lacking, or rebuffed someone’s attention because they assumed they weren’t good enough, pretty enough, thin enough, busty enough, or tan enough. Enough with all of this superficial effluvium! Let us celebrate ourselves and others for who we are!
Oh and did I mention that I got chills and teared up as she began to sing?
I don’t think what the corporate media portrays as Americas attitudes toward women is actually what Americans think regarding women. Corporate media is completely out of touch with reality. They are constantly yapping about women’s place in their sexualized world. But who really listens? People don’t sign up for these sexist channels they are forced into peoples homes by the Media Cartel who own all production and delivery of media and who gate keep everyone else out. It is truly sad that corporate media is the picture of the world that neglected kids get, I wish we could do something for them. Corporate media has taken a pornified view of life. They will tell you ugly men are Ok or even funny because women are not sexually visual. All women’s corporate media are devoted to telling women how they can best conform to the pornified standard by buying fashion and beauty products. But these movies and magazines don’t sell to real women, and women don’t watch the corporate “women’s channels”. But now look at “twilight”a movie written, screen written, cast and directed by women. It is probably the highest netting movie of 2008 and it features an average womans encounters with very attractive men. It encourages expression of the half of female sexuality that is usually denied by patriarchy and certainly by corporate pornography, the half where average women sit happily on their sweat panted bums and check out good looking men. Take heart,things are changing and I am sure “Twilight” has the shorts of the old men of corporate media in a knot.
Bes, you raise an interesting point about “women’s corporate media” and the idea that women aren’t sexually visual which is such an obvious lie because the very same media starts out using male imagery to attract female readers with “teeny bopper” magazines. But once the girls get older they are suddenly assailed with images of female “perfection,” a manufactured ideal only attainable with lots of make-up, the right clothes, the right lighting, the right camera angle and the right photo retouching. I find it quite interesting that the very first carrot stick is cute boys. Kinda throws the whole “women aren’t visual” notion out the window. The truth is that a bait and switch con has been implemented. Our culture has warped female sexuality and used it against us. Bes, I sure hope you’re right that things are changing.
I watched Susan’s video several times, paying careful attention to the audience. It showed mostly women — the one guy I saw was just looking at the stage expectantly. The women were the ones making all the faces and rolling their eyes.
I have three friends who have had breast implants. Of the three, one’s husband was very much against it, the other two thought the women looked great without them. I agree that, to a large degree, this female perfection nonsense is much more marketing driven than man driven. Or at least majority man driven.
Great commentary.
I want to give a shout out to the three judges! They too held their own preconceived notions whether the lady had talent. When Lady Boyle sang, like an angel I might add, all three of them said aloud what others were thinking and praised her and her talent accordingly. I don’t know who the female judge is but she really beamed with pride throughout the song; you just know she wanted to get up and hug her.
Brava Violet
This story was so important I emailed Amy a few days ago to ask her to have TNA report on it. Well done.
As a classical composer and music intructor I have witnessed how nearly two generations of Americans have been deprived this kind of pure atristic beauty. Some how the music industry made music a visual art form and a tacky one at that. The video of the audience shows that even the most dreadfully superficial spectators, who saw Susan Boyle as a failure even before she opened her mouth to sing, were enlightened by the very thing that MTV, VH1 and the pop music industry as a whole left behind-ART.
Please expose your children to great classical and jazz composers. Let them know what a real musician is. Take them to the symphony, the opera, jazz concerts and musicals. Don’t let the Lil’ Waynes of the world be their “art.” They are starving for this and what we have witnessed in Susan’ performance was a feast for the hungry.
Excellent commentary, Dr. Socks! Is there anything the New Agenda can do to connect with every other woman out there in the U.S. and Canada at least who feel strongly that something must be done about the ‘pornification of our culture’ that has crippled women’s bodies and spirits and made our young women bimboish robots whose intelligence is to be feared rather than celebrated? Can we educate our misogynist leg-thrillers to cut out their crap and start respecting women in a manner analogous to that of treating racial minorities? Only when sexism is confronted in the same vigorous way as racism will we enjoy freedom from cultural identity-shaping that promotes pornification and self-esteem hara-kiri in our young. Remember what happend, justifiably, to Don Imus on his racist commentary? If our misogynist media were to have treated the female candidates in the primary with the fear of retribution that was present in the Imus affair, the current potus would be female! Time for legislating sexist Hate crimes…
Just one question if anyone would care to comment. Why is the fashion industry itself run by men, mostly gay men who are imposing their own misshaped and twisted version of ‘feminity’ on the millions of unsuspecting women who fall prey to it without questioning it. Mothers these days are contributing to the sexualization and early pornification of their daughters by allowing them and indeed encouraging them to follow ‘fashion’….With child abuse growing by the day and pornographers multiplying in unprecedented fashion, we are now confronted with the decision to take matters in our own hands and defy the fashion-designing men who want to girdle women’s bodies in the image of some imaginably desirable female form existing in their minds only! No wonder some fashion models look so anorexic and physiologically frail, drugged up and abused…. The Susan Boyles should multiply after this and maybe we’ll retire the fashion industry to its earlier demise–to save the 52% of the population anyway.
Susan Boyle has exceptional voice. I wish i had a voice like her.
Susan Boyle has a good singing voice but it is not only the voice that counts if you want to win a singing contest.
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