Reply #118: I think you've just made the point, though, that we do expect [View All]

appearance to indicate the quality of work, even though it may in reality have nothing to do with it.

As for the quality of Susan Boyle's character, at least some of that was reported in the article: that she remained at home to care for her mother, and for whatever reasons never had a "life" of her own.

And I'm not chewin' you out, tc, not at all. I live with a guy who is all about "appearance." He routinely judges people by how they dress, how they comb their hair, what kind of car they drive, all that superficial shit that means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things - but it MATTERS enormously to him. Overweight people are merely lacking in discipline, in his opinion. Gamblers and drunks and other addicts simply don't exert enough control over their actions. HIS addictions on the other hand, are NOT the result of lack of discipline.

But we do live in a visual culture, far more than ever before. Between photographs and videos, movies and TV, the whole thing, it's all about image -- and image is assumed to mean more than, well, image.

So we see the frumpy middle-aged woman on the tv and we immediately judge her to be a joke. And we see the pretty blonde beauty queen, poised and polished and groomed and the very picture /sic/ of self-assurance -- and we're astonished that she stumbles over her maps soliloquy.


And then there was the woman who testified before congress, in her too large, garish plaid suit, her over-sized glasses sliding down her nose, unglamorous but sincere, explaining that 9/11 could have been prevented. There was nothing striking about her except her competence. She was no millionaire Sherrin Watkins in her elegant scarf and smooth coiffure. Even on the Person of the Year cover of Time, Colleen Rowley looked drab. And who knows? Maybe if she'd been as glamorous LOOKING as Sibel Edmonds, people would have listened to her. And who knows what different world we might have today.

If any of you saw me on the street, you'd probably not give me a second look. Here on DU, on SMW, we are known by our words, not our hair styles, our orthodontics, our nips and tucks and frostings and nails.

A few weeks ago, on one of those idle rambles through the intertubes, I stumbled upon a pdf of Baum's Ozma of Oz. Billina is the real heroine of the story, but you'd never guess it by her appearance, which is how she saved the royal family of Ev and all her companions.

As I tell the BF every so often, to his face and oftener behind his back, don't underestimate people based on their appearance. Especially that little short fat chick. . . .





Tansy Gold