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    The Susan Boyle Experience

    Posted Wednesday, April 22, 2009 2:28 PM | By Willa Paskin
    Meghan, your analysis of the Susan Boyle phenomenon was very astute, but I think it misses something important about why Boyle went viral. Yes, we identify with the judges and the audience—the haters who get to feel proud and magnanimous when we stop hating—but we also empathize with Susan Boyle, the underdog who knows, even though no one else does, that she's something special.

    Susan Boyle isn't just, as you say, the "scapegoat of early village traditions whom we punish with exile (or sneering), but whom we welcome back into the fold, surprising ourselves with our capacious hearts." And that's because she's also Rocky (or a Bad News Bear or Karate Kid—Who wants to bet that the Susan Boyle Story gets optioned by next week?), the underdog facing doubters. Who can't empathize with that? So when Boyle sings, we're both the judges and the judged. And that means, yes, we got a hit off of her performance as said judges, enjoying the "crude catharsis," psyched to "learn" we're not as shallow and cynical as we thought. But we also got a hit off her performance as fellow underdogs, psyched to see Boyle, an extension of ourselves, triumph over the cynical haters trying to keep all of us down. Boyle plays to our ego on two levels then—by letting us imagine we're more generous and open minded about appearance and age than we thought, while also suggesting that, hey!, we just might rule at the next American Idol tryouts. I'm not sure which is worse.


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