Dahlia Lithwick on the XX-Factor points out that, even though Susan Boyle has established herself as a legitimate talent, people still patronize her:
"Maggie Rodriguez’s patronizing 'you look lovely, Susan' starts the interview—the way you might talk to a small child in clown shoes."
I think Susan Boyle presents a fantastic opportunity for our culture to be honest with itself about how heavily prejudices about appearance affect expecatations, and how incorrect those expecatations can be.
However, it seems whenever someone wants to discuss this moment in time, they just keep repeating "wow, we didn't think you could do ANYTHING, because you're NOT PRETTY, but we where wrong! Isn't that great! You can do amazing things! Even though you're still NOT PRETTY!" I'm excited for Susan Boyle, I'm so happy that she's earned this well-deserved success. I also really hope Susan Boyle the PERSON isn't degraded into a "Teachable Moment" for the rest of us.
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Thank you for pointing this out. While I'm sure Susan Boyle--the person--is happy about the attention her beautiful voice is recieving, I do wonder how she feels about all the "teaching moment" type stuff out there that hold up her appearance as an example--even if it's to say that looks don't matter.
They don't mention it over at xx, but I suspect people are patronising her because she is a person with learning difficulties rather than because she once had bushy eyebrows.
Either way, not cool.