Susan Boyle: An inspiration? Or just a chance for us to get a case of the warm-fuzzies?
Posted on May 18, 2009 by by Loquacity
In truth, she was merely a source of goodwill to be consumed. It’s like funding an African child through World Vision. Pure Tokenism at its most pernicious, charity by proxy. By doling out a small amount of money – without expending any real effort or making real changes to your consumption patterns which perpetuate the poverty in which such children live – you get a warm fuzzy glow with no strings attached.
This article in Unleashed this morning finally hit the nail on the head for me about Susan Boyle. She’s not an “inspriation” or a “sensation” or an “angel”. She’s a woman who can sing, and sing well. Who gives a toss what she looks like? The fact is, she has been denied a singing career, despite her talents, because of the way she looks. As a society, we should be apologising to her for having judged her so harshly, and for continuing to judge her so harshly. Where will this end?
TweetBy doling out patronizing syrupy kindness to Doyle – without changing the way you deal with those society deemed unattractive which helps perpetuate the marginality to which these people are condemned – you get a warm fuzzy glow.
24 Comments to “Susan Boyle: An inspiration? Or just a chance for us to get a case of the warm-fuzzies?”
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In the scheme of things she really isn’t anything more than another (potential) internet meme: http://knowyourmeme.com/
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There is actually a difference between a viral video and a meme …
L
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You might wish to read the Wikipedia article on Internet memes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_meme
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This article has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page.
* It needs additional references or sources for verification. Tagged since September 2008.
* Its lead section requires expansion. Tagged since September 2008.
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meme
  /mim/
–noun
a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.
It’s a subtle difference, but yes, there’s a difference.
Despite that, it doesn’t dilute my argument. There is a real person behind that viral video, and a real culture surrounding who is “pretty enough” or “sexy enough” to become a star. I’m discussing the culture that has created this phenomenon, not the phenomenon itself.
L
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The world is surprised that this ugly woman can sing. Probably because, deep down, we all think ugly people are totally useless.
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And therein lies the issue …
L
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well said dermott. remind me to mention to my wife that she should find a beautiful person to marry and leave me. ugly people aren’t on the inside. some better looking people are.
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Unforunately tv, record and movie producers/companies don’t care how well you can sing, play an intrument or act, they only care if you are good looking because for them “beauty sells”.
I don’t agree with it but they are the ones that control that market so they make whatever decissions they want.
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Peterh,
Saying that ugly people aren’t ugly on the inside is as silly a generalisation as saying ugly people are useless.
I’m ugly, but my evilness goes to the core!
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Ugly people can be ugly on the inside. They can also be beautiful. They can also be great people. They can also be fantastic singers. What’s interesting is that beautiful people can be all those things too.
My point is that it shouldn’t matter what the outside looks like. But it does.
L
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biggest mistake i have ever seen was to turn away from a down and out guy, shopping in a local retailer, passing them to me. The guy who passed him over decided he had no money, purely by appearance. It was the best day of my life. $45,000 later, it was the biggest sale in retail in my life.
He had won at the casino, and decided to celebrate by buying his kids the computers that he felt they needed to get ahead in school… He had won over $100K.
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My ex-husband and I used to go looking around at houses and cars dressed in the daggiest clothes we owned. It was interesting to see the reactions we got
L
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I did that at David jones. and an old boss tried to buy a porsche in sydney dressed in jeans and a tshirt, with an amex card. was most amusing to see the look on the sales guy’s face after the card went straight through. though, by that time, his boss was dealing with the guy. what an idiot. what a waste of money and time on the sales guy’s part.
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sorry, i mean that he could have got the sale and the cash if he was a bit smarter.
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I don’t even see her as ugly. I really don’t. I can see that she doesn’t meet certain cultural norms, but I think I must see people differently somehow. I don’t see her as beautiful necessarily either. Just kind of as her. I can’t explain it.
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99, yeah, I agree. I’ve seen a lot of people who fit the “ugly” mould than Susan Boyle. The real point is that society has now equated (through Ms Boyle) “not beautiful” with “ugly”.
I doubt she looks in the mirror every morning (or at least, she did before all this nonsense), and think “man, I’m ugly”. Who knows what she thinks now … ?
L
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Hey, this kind of tickled me on the subject of “ugly people”, L! Your move, Ugly People. Your Move…
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Hmmm … A couple of idiots going on about how ugly people need to lose weight? Since when did ugly == fat? (Or fat == ugly for that matter?). I don’t think they had anything of value to add to the subject, honestly.
L
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I thought what was funny was that they were sending up the fact that they were not the best looking people themselves. I took it as a send up of those attitudes.
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Hmm … they weren’t the worst looking people on the planet, either, though. But I guess I can see where the humour lies. It’s unfortunate that humour so often lies in picking on socety’s outcasts.
L
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Yes, I would agree with that. I suppose I felt the message was that most of us don’t look like supermodels yet we have the expectation that others should, and we tend to blame other people if we don’t feel they measure up.
Like I’ve had very ‘average looking’ young men feel they have the right to call out a score on my looks between one and ten and give me a “5″ or laugh at me when I was clinically obese because I was eating a hotdog.
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Susan Boyle went berserk in London today, not a happy camper
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/showbuzz/index/0,26286,5055749-5010840,00.html
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@ valeri – hahaha thats hilarious..
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