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Tuesday 2 June 2009

Susan Boyle a disgrace to the nation

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/susan-boyle/5423925/Susan-Boyle-Her-sadness---and-our-shame.html

Oh dear. I feel I am about to be castigated for being uncompassionate again, but I fear I must comment on Susan Boyle's antics.

She epitomises everything that is wrong about this country.

A loser, a sore loser, deluded, self-pitying and ungrateful. (Second prize and a recording contract was not good enough for her, it seems.)

There is a perfectly good reason why ugly people get sidelined even if they have talent: because there are already plenty of attractive people with talent who make the most of themselves.

So she had "learning difficulties" - whatever that means these days.

Being a sore loser cannot be wholly attributed to this.

The Guardian is now suggesting that BGT organisers are to blame for not protecting her more. What? From being a sore loser and going public about it?

She was a Roman Catholic too and it would appear that her religion did not help her much.

I wonder if she would have behaved differently if she had been a Muslim.

10 comments:

subrosa said...

You're not uncompassionate you're a fine example of the uncaring society we now live in.

The woman came on the show on Saturday to show the likes of you that she was a fighter and she won that battle.

I doubt if she ever considered the amount of pressure that would be placed upon her and she had little help initially.

You say she's ugly - I think not. Ugly is in the eyes of the bitter and twisted. Every person has their attributes and of course you will have more than most.

Not one of your better posts I admit, in fact possibly your worst. Shame because I usually enjoy reading your writings.

Claire Khaw said...

Susan Boyle's problem was that she wanted EVERYTHING. She had a nervous breakdown because she got second prize.

If you want to be a fighter, you have to be prepared to lose, and lose graciously.

Not throw all your toys out of your pram because you didn't get first prize.

Actually, I don't think I am uncaring at all. I care enough to ask, at the risk of seeming uncompassionate - the greatest thoughtcrime of all! - if this sort of rubbish behaviour is a sign of a deeper national malaise.

Jeff Marshall said...

I thought she had some sort of nervous breakdown, the strain being altogether too much for her.

That is what having learning difficulties means - though it used to be called having a mental handicap or being educationally sub-normal.

Self control would not be her strongest characteristic under pressure.

I doubt if her religion has anything to do with it.

Claire Khaw said...

Perhaps I am being a little harsh but it seemed to me that she took on prima donna characteristics and the attention just went to her head.

I think even a child should know how important it is to be magnanimous in victory and gracious in defeat.

She also should have known and should have been warned that the demographics of the BGT viewers meant they would choose Diversity over her.

More teenagers watching BGT on Saturdays than single women like her.

Was she not told of this? Did she have no friend or family by her side?

Did BGT not suggest she have a close friend or family to stay with her for the duration of the competition?

If so, how remiss of BGT.

subrosa said...

Ok, I withdraw saying you're uncompassionate, possibly I was rather unkind.

Firstly may I say she didn't have a nervous breakdown. If you know anything about mental health, someone who has serious mental health issues is quite unable to stand on a platform and sing a few weeks after having just over a week's treatment.

The woman only wants to sing. Her biggest experience of that is being ridiculed by Barrymore some years ago and she managed that fine.

When we get older coping with stress can be less easy and she was overstressed with all the attention, even though she admitted she enjoyed it initially.

Actually I thought she was gracious towards the winners. I didn't think, when I was watching the programme, that she threw any tantrum.

She has lived her life in a small town surrounded by family and friends and with the company of her mother.

I listened to the Greek dad on radio a few days later and he confessed the pressure was enormous and he'd now taken a few days off work. His son hadn't gone to school as yet either because they were both entirely exhausted by the experience even though they enjoyed it. He said Susan was her usual self and joined in the fun, although she left the party earlier than most because she was tired.

So let's not knock a middle-aged woman who has a talent superior to many. I could say if it had been a middle-aged man perhaps men would have thought differently and said he was just overcome by all the attention couldn't i? But I won't :)

DDIM 'n HOFFI said...

It's a cruel business. I agree with what you say about this scummy nation we have nurtured. If there is any common ground between who I am and who you seem to be, it's agreeing about the disgusting state of affairs we have in this nation. But this woman is not the full shilling, and that show is not for the faint hearted...teens can be brutally critical, they are judged and measured like never before and they expect the same standards from everyone else.
At the end of the day though, I am sure there are Muslim families with people who suffer from what she has. So I guess there must be something metered into Sharia law somewhere about compassion.

Claire Khaw said...

Subrosa,

I would be the first to admit that Susan Boyle certainly has talent, only a little surprised that she did not have enough knowledge of the world to know that ugly but talented people will get sidelined by beautiful and talented people.

Surely she must have inwardly known this to be the cause of her obscurity until BGT pointed its spotlight at her?

Or that she would have friends and family who would point this out to her?

To her credit, she was gracious to the winners, but she should have known that the demographics of the show's audience would make her an unattractive prospect, ie there are more teenagers watching than there are spinsters staying in on a Saturday night.

The point was that she did have a temper tantrum that came to the notice of the show's organisers, when even a child - however learning-challenged - should have known that first prize on sports day is never in the bag, even if it thinks it is the fastest runner in the whole school.

I am frankly tired of all the excuses trotted out to excuse bad behaviour.

Susan Boyle should really have apologised for her tantrum, if she were being properly advised, but I see that she has not.

If she were being sensible, she would have asked someone to be with her throughout the competition for the sake of her mental health, as I would do in a similar situation.

She worked for a charity which suggests that a lot of people who know her would have time on her hands.

She could have asked, or they could have offered, or it could have been suggested to her by the BGT organisers.

It was all very badly done, and yet again shows up the British people for being mostly fools and knaves, even the commentators after her tantrum.

It is that aspect of it that I find so depressing and demoralising.

Claire Khaw said...

McKenzie,

I would be the first to admit that that Islam is no protection against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, if you ignore its advice or are ignorant of its warnings.

Susan Boyle was supposed to be a devout Catholic, and I would have thought that this devotion would have somehow protected her from the desire to throw a wobbly when she only got second prize.

Lifting her skirt and grinding her hips at Simon Cowell suggest that she might not have been that good a Catholic girl. She also swore, it was reported, which is a sign of modern and CHAVvy indiscipline.

I am just old enough to have been taught sportsmanship, which is to be magnanimous in victory and gracious in defeat, however much one seethes with the unfairness of it all, however undeserving we think the winner is.

This Susan Boyle did at least pay lip service to, but could not keep it up when she was backstage.

I am really more concerned about how this incident makes British people feel about themselves than about displaying the proper degree of compassion towards Susan Boyle.

Her tantrum, and the reaction to it, has yet again made me feel ashamed to be British.

Perhaps other people don't think much about how this looks to other nations, races and cultures observing the British, but it is really in this context that we should think about how this looks to others, who would extrapolate from this incident that the British are just a bunch of sore self-pitying losers.

You may be aware that I am not indigenous and have family abroad. If you could listen in to my phone conversations with my mother, you would realise that blaming me for British foreign policy and mocking me for the stupidity, laziness and uselessness of the British and their government is her favourite sport.

Anonymous said...

So, how much are you paid as a political commentator? Are you published anywhere?

Have you submitted a picture of yourself on this site? It takes guts to submit your visage for criticism. Any retard can be anonymous.

Claire Khaw said...

I am generally considered quite attractive by members of both sexes, Anonymous of 17 June 2009 21:36:00 BST.

What is the relevance of this comment?

Even if I were as ugly as sin I would be entitled to criticise Susan Boyle, I would have thought.

And don't you think there is a certain irony in your criticising me for not putting up my photo when you won't even give me your pseudonym?

It is the coal calling the kettle black, methinks.

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