I found the link at Lisa’s, Books on the Brain, but it probably is familiar to some of you Idol watchers. I have to admit I was surprised, but it was at once heart-rendering to watch those people judging and laughing and annoying to see them change their minds. We shouldn’t have to prove ourselves constantly, should we? There should be more to worth than how we look because when there isn’t, our outsides become our prophecies.
The song is one of my favorites although I cannot listen to it now without tearing up because the lyrics sum up one of the more critical periods in my life more than I care to recall anymore.
Then listen to Bonnie Hunt’s commentary. Spot on.
anniegirl1138 
love this video. have to admit that i love the story of boyle. especially especially the look on the judges faces. yes. perhaps all that time that she could have spent self-obsessing over her looks she put into i dont know…developing a singing voice. that is the thing about succumbing to a lookist culture…we prioritize how we look over developing other skills.
There is more than looking acceptably pretty.
I was thinking the same thing the first time I saw the video. And like there are so many of us who want to look like Simon Cowell or his sidekicks? The Washington Post had a column this week by their fashion writer (who I really loathe) about how Susan Boyle needed a makeover as part of her “Cinderella Story.” I almost wish Boyle had not had her eyebrows tamed.
Striking a blow for all of us who feel enslaved by conventional standards but not plucking her eyebrows would have been great.
This hit a nerve with me as well. Susan Boyle is in her 40s. Everyone who gets older gets less “pretty” in the Bonnie Hunt use of the term. The pretty people are pretty shallow for equating talent with surface beauty, and pretty stupid if they think aging won’t happen to them.
What I hated was at the end when the judges were talking to her, Simon Cowell said he expected something extraordinary from her. He did not. He thought this was going to be another person wasting his time that he could rip into to feed his ego.
I know I got passed over a lot for promotions and stuff because I was fat. It’s like they thought my brain didn’t work because I was fat. It’s also been shown in studies that taller people get more promotions than short people. Our height is not something we can do anything about.
OK, I’m prejudiced based on appearance, too. I find that most very attractive people get by on their looks, and don’t have much substance to them. That’s my prejudice.
It is sad how quick we all are to judge. It will be curious to see the future of Susan Boyle. Will she wind up with a career as a singer? or a celebrity for wowing the world as the underdog, judged to fail because of how she looked?
I hope she isn’t treated as a curiosity and then tossed back.
Spot on indeed. I noted her observations when I saw the clip for myself. I agree, the “beautiful people” did seem stunned.
That is the way of the beautiful.
This is tough to admit but admit it I will: I watched the YouTube clip from the show twice and wept. Both times! Ms. Hunt’s commentary is naive. I believe there is a natural human proclivity to judge by appearances. It’s an ugly part of humanity but it exists.
what’s going to piss me off into the stratosphere is when the “handlers” start marketing Ms. Boyle. Waxing, poking, prodding, and all the “Ugly Duckling Makeover BS”. i just hope she gets to sing…
Hahaha heart-rendering! I haven’t heard that one in a while.