Gianni Truvianni

We can argue till the end of eternity what beautiful is or is not; always reaching the same conclusion that it is all in the eye of he or she who does the beholding yet in my opinion and I would venture to wager that I am not the only one to say that Scottish singer Susan Boyle is what in common terms can be referred to as “ugly”. This being the conclusion I reached after seeing her face which is miles from what I or most people, though I dare say not all would consider to be attractive.

This I say not to pass on insult to this lady from the highlands but to present a point, and that being that when a person is for the most part considered ugly or in kinder words unsightly, many will start to consider if they perhaps have not been compensated by other attributes. These perhaps taking the shape of a pleasant personality or perhaps intelligence or ability of some kind or another. In the case of Susan Boyle, it clearly being her voice which has earned her some fame along with praise specially after her appearance on the television program “Britain’s Got Talent”. It being on this program where she performed what could be hailed as a note perfect rendition of the song “I Dreamed A Dream” from the Broadway musical “Les Misérables”.

I in all honesty must admit her rendition was not bad, as she did hit the notes but I also as a fan of the opera who though extremely limited in his singing talent is able to recognize a great voice and it is there where I must say hers is not one by any stretch of the imagination. Granted she does sing the notes and has a voice that is not weak by any means but this is hardly enough to make her a great singer any more then the ability to hit a ball over the net and hard is enough to make any one a great tennis player. I can even add to this that if we were to visit any of the hundreds of music schools or professional choruses through out the world we would find literally thousands of singers whose voices could at least match hers if not surpass hers by a good if not a large margin. This being the case since Susan Boyle does lack some of the polish and technique along with even the passion which can be found in great singers such as Kiri Te Kanawa or Angela Georgiu or even a none opera singer like Sarah Brightman.

All of which bringing me to my point that it is not Boyle’s voice alone that is earning her this praise which I would not go as far as to say is unmerited but in large part due to what I feel is sympathy on the part of many for her apparent lack any female beauty or even personality. This the case as she for the most part or at least on TV comes across as the mousy middle aged woman from a small town. Of course with regards to personality this I can only speak of based on what I saw on the fragment of a CNN report; where I not only found out who she was but actually heard her sing and speak. She in all truth of being unbiased seems like a nice enough person; in her unassuming ways yet it is my feelings that tell me that a lot of her fame stems not from her being an overly talented singer but the sort of person whom the middle and lower classes for the most part tend to rout for. My opinion being based not only on her lack good looks but being a person of modest means who hails from a small town, where one would imagine opportunities be not rampant specially in hard economic times as the present has chosen to bestow upon us.

One could even come to the conclusion that there is more of an advantage for her being as unattractive as she is, then if she were a beauty with the looks that for the most part are accepted as such. This the case since many might turn to say that with her voice, it is her looks that are leading the judges to vote for her; making it that even if her voice were a truly great one, several cynics would always refer to her looks as being what aided her. It might seem strange to some that in this day and age with plastic surgery being so readily available to all someone would say there is an advantage in not being what is for the most part considered beautiful yet if one thinks the matter over with cold logic there is.

For are there not a group of people who obtain feelings of compassion for certain limitations they may have to the point where some even look for other virtues in them which they might even tend to exaggerate in their attempts of being kind in place of being overly sincere. An example of this being how a person who has been deprived of his or her sight might be perceived of as wiser then average, even if nothing could be further from the truth. This in fact even being the reason why Gorbachov never removed the birth mark on his head, as he was worried many would see such a move as being overly vain for a politician; to attempt to make himself more attractive and as such was seen as being more down to earth by the average Soviet citizen at the time.

In conclusion I would like to claim that it is all these factors that have lead me to the believe that sometimes, being ugly or shall we say having the looks that are generally perceived of as such can be an advantage even over being attractive. For is it not the case that when a beautiful woman moves ahead in an office, many will declare her success to be aided by her looks even if nothing could have been more distant from reality since perhaps her ability in fact was the only factor? This being in contrast to those who are generally perceived of as unattractive, given that very few would accuse them of having made it on their looks but quit the contrary would be held in higher esteem for having done so in spite of lacking them. This perhaps in the case of those women who are unattractive being far from the truth, given that sometimes in a world where many are fearful of sexual harassment law suits it might have been precisely this ugliness which was the cause of their success over women of perhaps not only more beauty but even skill.