Crying over Susan Boyle
Posted on | April 21, 2009 | 3 Comments
Susan Boyle is making people cry. Could it be her frumpiness combined with unexpected talent that gets people? Her bushy eyebrows, dry, frizzy, gray hair, white pumps and tan colored pantyhose are endearing. She’s tapping into the feeling of success against the odds-no matter what your age or what you look like, recognition can and does happen.
Imperfect and unashamed, she’s admirable. Her lack of attention to her appearance draws her to the audience even more. And the producers know this. Her image is manufactured sentiment, deliberately left “as is.”
Does knowing that sentiment is being provoked take away from people’s experience of crying or emoting? It’s more fun to think of Susan Boyle as pure Susan Boyle, with no interference by media handlers or stylists. Her image is used to evoke emotion, a contemporary ugly duckling story, tapping into tears and hope.
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3 Responses to “Crying over Susan Boyle”
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April 21st, 2009 @ 1:33 pm
My question is this: take away the fact that she’s unattractive and what do you have? An above-average singer getting her 15-minutes of fame. So what are you crying about? There are thousands of good singers belting away the tunes in bars all over the world. Most of them aren’t Beyoncé.
Is liking her only because she’s not attractive any better than liking someone because they ARE attractive? Isn’t that just as superficial?
And why should we expect someone who can sing to be good-looking? Most opera singers aren’t exactly stunners when you look at them close.
And Les Miserables? Come on. I’m supposed to cry over such lame American melodrama? This is a tune designed to jerk tears from the eyes of the simple-hearted. No sale.
This all makes for good television, but at the end of the day, Susan is being used by the Simon Cowell machine, and people are falling for it as usual. He’s laughing all the way to the bank, and she’s on her way back to singing in the shower.
April 21st, 2009 @ 1:40 pm
I do think that it is manufactured sentimentality that yields nothing constructive because we will continue to be an image obsessed culture. But I do foresee that this summer people will flock to salons carrying the excess eyebrows that had been plucked in the past months and request to have these brow hairs glued back on. This will be done as a sad attempt on their part to create an aura of intrigue. These Boyle wannabe’s will parade themselves on the streets with pride in their $150 unibrow hoping that others will look at them and hope that they too have something beautiful to offer. Sadly, they will having no talent to offer.
April 21st, 2009 @ 2:28 pm
I just paid $28 to have my eyebrows shaped. You can’t even say “plucked” at a salon or the plucker will politely guide you to the word “shaped.”
Queen of Unibrow is Frida. Period. The question is, will crazy thick eyebrows be more acceptable because of Susan Boyle?
Joe, I’m glad you’re not crying.