A Most Extraordinary Shock

A woman named Susan Boyle sang "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables on Britain's version of "American Idol," a program called "Britain's Got Talent."

Toward the end of this video, after Susan stunned the audience with her performance, one of the show's panelists mumbles to one of his peers that what he had just witnessed was the "most extraordinary shock" of the show's history.

Why was he shocked? Because Susan stepped forward to sing dressed in an ordinary house dress, her hair arranged in a conventional style, her 47-year-old frame far from svelte. In short, a very conservatively dressed, average-looking, middle-aged woman.

Watch and you'll see, before Susan sings, the panel's leading judge rolls his eyes, expecting a flop. A disgusting display of prejudice, in the sense that the word prejudice comes to us. Susan Boyle, the no-frills singer, was pre-judged. She's going to fall on her face, the panel clearly assumed. The audience, in lock step, smirked and all but gagged when Susan announced that she hoped to be as successful as Elaine Paige someday.

During Susan's stunning performance, no one could argue with her talent. From what I could hear over the din of the screaming morons in the audience, she sings very well. Afterwards one judge, reeling from shock, called Boyle's performance, "the biggest surprise I have had in three years."

And as the audience heard the judges fall over themselves with praise, the auditorium of sheep could not contain their expressions of conversion.

Why was anyone surprised? Because Boyle was not decked out like a pre-teen prostitute? I'm afraid that their shock betrays the shameful shallowness of the public eye. What have we become that an average-looking woman shocks people with her voice? Have we become such slaves to appearance?

Susan's performance was outstanding. The audience's performance was appalling!

Labels: britain's got talent, prejudice, susan boyle