Yes, Susan Boyle can sing.

She really can. You can find rivers of pixels all over the internet talking about this as if it is is cosmic proof of… something. To listen to some of the commentators wax rhapsodic you would think aliens came down and solved our energy problems.

I am not impressed and this says something about me. Something good.

I am not impressed, or shocked, or surprised or stunned because I have never believed that ugly people were incapable of talent. When I see an ugly woman take the stage I am not at all assuming she cannot sing in much the same way I don’t assume a hot chick can. In short, I don’t confuse looks and talent, or looks and skill, or looks and personality.

I find that reality amusing because every time I post something to do with beauty I get comments and email from outraged fools who say essentially the same thing…

“I would rather be with an ‘ugly’ partner who had heart than some skinny botch who is hateful and shallow’”

To these commenter’s those really are the choices – the fundamentally reject beautiful women as evil, selfish harpies. I suppose the old hurts of getting asked last to the prom left a scar much deeper than they care to admit. They will accuse me (and others) of confusing looks and personality while their own prejudice and envy drips from their core.

When someone like Susan Boyle shows up then they look triumphantly around and declare that this proves something, provides some lesson we need. They do this because they simply cannot fathom that not everyone else is as confused about looks and personality as they are.

I am only moved to post this because my good friend over at MindTweaks posted about it… so I noticed it right away when she said this…

“I’ve seen people call her “ugly,” but she isn’t ugly….  Susan Boyle is what average often looks like when the bell curve isn’t skewed by an obsession with supermodels, plastic surgery and beauty magazines.” – TORI DEAUX

I like Tori, I do… she is a friend and a talented educator. I dislike disagreeing with her in one of the first posts after my election hiatus. I wouldn’t even link to the post so as not to look like I am picking a fight with her but I really need the traffic and I am hoping she will link back to me in an angry retort!

Besides, this isn’t really a direct conflict with Tori on this – we have discussed the topic often enough to know that neither of our views are as black and white as they look on the internet – but rather her comment reminded me of similar sentiments springing from far less well balanced authors and I would rather link to a friend than a flake when I can.

That “obsession” with beautiful people? It’s called sexual attraction and has been with us long, long before there was television, the internet or even writing. Long before the invention of the supermodel beautiful women have commanded our attention and interest. Centuries before Photoshop was even a concept wars were fought for them, men died and nations fates were changed right? Right. The modern media doesn’t create the idea of what is beautiful – it simply caters to it.

Susan Boyle is ugly. Whether or not she is “average” doesn’t really enter into it – because beauty is not something that has anything to do with the average. It never has been. Susan is well outside the standards that define beauty and have for almost all of human history.

• She is asymmetrical
• Her chest / waist / hip ratio is atrocious
• Her hair has all the hallmarks of ill health
• Ditto her skin, the texture is bad and the coloring is mottled
• Her movements betray the reality – that she is a very damaged person physically

In short, Susan is a living example of WHY most humans will find her unattractive – because she is a fairly unsuitable mate and an wholly bad idea for a breeding partner. For 99% of human existence she would have been a  millstone around the neck of her family and any potential husband. I am happy that we live in a time when folks like Susan can live long and well, when they have the opportunity to sing and make a living. I am thrilled that she is no longer at the mercy of a world that demands fitness to survive from those who live on it.

However let’s not pretend she is “average” or that the aversion to her is something without basis and wholly created by the media. Susan Boyle is a probably lovely person and she can sing, but she is ugly. She is not a shining symbol of anything, and she is no more a source of hope or enlightenment than anyone else would be who got on that stage and sang well.

There is no moral righteousness in being unattractive and borderline disabled. It doesn’t make here less of a human than the rest of us and it sure as hell doesn’t make her more.

Fortunately the final message of Tori’s post is one that (as is so often the case) gives my brain a happy little kick (or tweak) and reminds me that while I may differ with her on this topic she is a pretty smart lady.

“Because even though we’re not all shiny, packaged and perfect, even though we may be aware that in most respects, we’re quite average and ordinary…. we all have a quiet, brilliant gift within us.” – TORI DEAUX

Ok… I am not sure all of us do… because there is a lot of plain dumb, useless humanity out there… but many of us do and thats good enough for me