Guardian article by Tanya Gold : "It wasn't singer Susan Boyle who was ugly on Britain's Got Talent so much as our reaction to her"

Quote, "Simon Cowell, now buffed to the sheen of an ornamental pebble, asked this strange creature, this alien, how old she was. "I'm nearly 47," she said. Simon rolled his eyes until they threatened to roll out of his head, down the aisle and out into street. "But that's only one side of me," Susan added, and wiggled her hips. The camera cut to the other male judge, Piers Morgan, who winced. Didn't Susan know she was not supposed to be sexual? The audience's reaction was equally disgusting. They giggled with embarrassment, and when Susan said she wanted to be a professional singer, the camera spun to a young girl, who seemed to be at least half mascara."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...nt-susan-boyle

Thoroughly agree with this bit, even afterwards the Piers and Holden were nasty. There was no need to point out again what everyone thought beforehand.

"When Susan had finished singing, and Piers had finished gasping, he said this. It was a comment of incredible spite. "When you stood there with that cheeky grin and said, 'I want to be like Elaine Paige', everyone was laughing at you. No one is laughing now." And it was over to Amanda Holden, a woman most notable for playing a psychotic hairdresser in the Manchester hair-extensions saga Cutting It. "I am so thrilled," said Amanda, "because I know that everybody was against you." "Everybody was against you," she said, as if Susan might have been hanged for her presumption. Why? Can't "ugly" people dream, you flat-packed, hair-ironed, over-plucked monstrous fool?"

Indeed.

Just goes to show how shallow those judges and the audience are. I didn't prejudge Susan and I'm sure many other people didn't either.

I think Tania's right. The audience acted like a bunch of arrogant prats, and that lass who shook her head in determination whilst mouthing the word 'no', I'm wondering if she can sing herself? The absolute two facedness of the crowd when they heard her voice showed by their sudden 'acceptance' of her. They're a pack of idiots. That night just went to show that a LOT of people in society judge the looks, rather, than wait to see if they've got any talent. I'm so bloody glad that Susan made them look like a bunch of complete idiots that night - because she did.

I'll tell you something, everything that she's said in that article is so true. I can't fault anything she's said. She's spot on with everything.

I find the words that the blog journalist used to describe Susan far more offensive than the reactions of the audience, which might anyway have been edited. I don't think Piers and Amanda were intending to be patronising but were a little thoughtless in bringing up the initial thoughts and reactions of the audience. However, unlike Tanya who could write her piece at leisure and proof-read it and think about her words and their impact, they had to think of something to say within seconds of the song finishing. I believe they were trying to be nice, the same cannot be said of this lady.
At least Susan seemed very taken with the judges and with their comments, I am not sure what she will think about this article. In fact, I hope she doesn't read it. The judges have made no comment on her appearance or clothes, which she had carefully chosen to look her best. Anyway, how can Tanya call her ugly and the other things I don't even want to reproduce here. Susan is not the slightest bit unattractive.

Although I mostly enjoy BGT, but like other programmes like X Factor, I do struggle with the apparent acceptance and encouragement in acting like a pack of wolves and taking the pee out of people who obviously have some mental issues going on. Literally put on stage and on TV to be laughed at. Where else in society is it acceptable to ridicule those with special needs? Not saying Susan is in the same category, but she was laughed at and mocked for the way she looked.

I hope a lesson is learned by everyone involved.

Good point. The way people keep going on about the way they think she looks must hurt.

Yes, you only have to read some of the disgraceful ageist comments, for instance, on other threads to see what the Guardian writer means.

I was a little bit embarrassed by the hip wiggling thing, sort of had the same reaction as Whoopi Goldberg so I could understand the reactions of Simon and Piers. Not for the reason that the journalist says but because I knew she was probably very nervous and was trying to cover it by appearing confident. You see this all the time, people doing or saying embarrassing things and you feel for them - my husband is an expert in this. But it was momentary, for the rest of the pre-performance talk she was charming and articulate - and when she started singing was truly beautiful

It was cleverly edited, complete with crowd reaction shots, to set up the viewers into thinking she'd be awful. The "pathetic" back story of her being 47, single, living with her cats and never been kissed. Ant grinning into the camera and saying, "You didn't expect that, did you?"

I thought it was pretty compelling TV. Lowest common denominator TV, but compelling nonetheless. Kinda makes me wonder if Susan Boyle was in on it all along. She must know she's got a decent voice and that she's dowdy looking. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the producers told her to overdo the poor, luckless me routine to maximise the surprise factor once she started singing.

Or am I being too cynical?

The blog journalist might have done well to have left a single word out of her article, but all the rest of the stuff she said was completely right as far as I could see.

It's essential to be cynical where Simon Cowell is concerned.

I did happen to notice that she didn't seem very surprised by the whole of the crowd standing up. Any other person's eyes would have scanned right across the audience with surprise, but she merely only glimpsed at the crowd for a second. If this was me, I would have looked right the way from left to right when they started standing up. However, no-one's going to enter this show if they aren't convinced they've got talent. Even the rubbish ones are convinced. She might have decided to record herself and found out that her voice was fantastic.

She is spot on. Though unfortunately, we are all human and we are all guilty of being thoughtless and judging people from time to time. I just hope the audience have learnt a valuable lesson from this.

Maybe it is all edited. However, I think Susan knew she was good but not how she would do on a big stage. She did seem confident.
I don't think she looked dowdy but like she had gone to a lot of effort to look her best - I believe this was a dress she had bought for her nephew's wedding. A darker colour might have been better but the dress was fine.
I actually wonder if the judges aren't kept in the dark if someone is unexpectedly good so that their reactions are genuine. They aren't actors and maybe would not pull off the surprise without it looking false.
It has certainly caused a stir and this is partly due to editing - the music, the audience's before and after reactions and those of the judges. There is some editing - for example, did Simon really roll his eyes like that when she said she is 47 - he is normally nice to older auditionees and is 49 himself.

I would have left more out - the first two sentences out of the first paragraph including the analogy to a pig and the first of the second. And the sentence about Amanda, that was unnecessary, she was neutral throughout the introduction.

She's a bit harsh on that girl who screwed up her face. We don't even know if she even screwed her face up at her, we all know how these shows are edited and how the audience and judges' reactions are moved about and recycled.

I expect she can't see the audience very well from the stage. I think she said that.

Even if the audience reactions were edited there was at least one member of the audience who said "who's Elaine Page" in reaction to Susan declaring that she wanted to be like her.

Mary

The girl shown after the Elaine Page comment will almost certainly not have known who she is. A lot of the video is edited, the audience seemed fine just before she started, - they appeared to want her to do well but were afraid she might not, e.g. the girl in the white top just before she started singing.

The editing has made a magical story out of it and this is partly what has sold it to the world, along with her voice of course. They did the same for Paul Potts and he has earned 6 million pounds to date, is in New Zealand at the moment. Susan will probably also do very well, I think it is wonderful.

I think the author of this piece is being too harsh on the audience and the judges especially as her description of Susan is far, far worse than anything that happened to her during the audition. At least worse than what was shown, because I have read a post from someone who was there who said that Amanda was trying to get her to sing a Britney Spears song - what was that all about!

I agree with your cynicism! I think it's quite funny how some journalists are making this into a moral lesson when the whole thing was no doubt carefully planned by the producers to have maximum impact. We know the judges' reactions and those of the crowd are often spliced together out of sequence to make a better story. Also I'd be VERY surprised if Simon Cowell at least didn't know she had a voice. It's not as if they wouldn't have asked her to sing before stepping onstage. Possibly the other two judges were kept in the dark to get a more genuine reaction from them, though.

Spot on. (Although one of the judges is an actor by profession.)

No you're not being cynical - I believe you're right and it's pretty much what I posted in the Appreciation thread!

In a televised interview today, Susan was asked about those who bullied her in the past. She quickly responded with she didn't want to go there, it was history. Susan herself will be used and hardened to bullying and people's perception of her. If she can live with it and focus on moving forward, then I am sure we all can.

Susan has the world at her feet now and it is about her talent. I personally never judged her on her looks. I had a gut feeling we were going to get something outstanding. That is sincere, unlike SC's initial response. Susan has a magical smile which captures you immediately and that is enough to want to see what is coming next.

She actually wouldn't look that bad if she had longer hair, had her eyebrows done, wore a bit of makeup and nicer clothes.

And the blogger talks a lot of sense, but it's a bit rich of her to say Susan Boyle shouldn't be mocked when she herself says:


Two wrongs don't make a right.