DISABILITIES : MUSIC: SINGERS AND SINGING : MEDIA: Re: Susan Boyle: Disability and "New Media"
David P. Dillard
This post is a response to a request for sources on the
Disability-Research discussion group and I believe it may be of interest
to some of the readers of this discussion group.
The original request may be viewed at this URL:
<https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=
ind0912&L=DISABILITY-RESEARCH&T=0&F=&S=&P=42130>
A shorter URL for the above link:
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:10:33 -0500 (EST)
From: David P. Dillard <jw...@temple.edu>
Cc: The Disability-Research Discussion List <DISABILIT...@jiscmail.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Susan Boyle: Disability and "New Media"
First I do want to comment that when I first saw her initial performance on You
Tube with Simon Cowell and the two other judges ready to pounce on her for what
was anticipated would be her ridiculous audition and then the not so gradual
change of look on his and the other judge's faces as they realized that what
they expected was not what was happening, this proved to be one of my favorite
developments of content I have seen from the media. To see Simon Cowell so
amazed was beyond belief as was and is her singing. This is the very first I
have heard that she has a disability, but this is apparently correct and here
are some sources regarding this matter.
From Times Online December 21, 2009
New Zealand television presenter apologises for Susan Boyle 'retard' remarks
<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6963732.ece>
An outspoken New Zealand television presenter has been forced to apologise for
describing Susan Boyle as "retarded" during his morning show.
In November Paul Henry, a breakfast show host on Television New Zealand, had
laughed as he read a magazine article which mentioned that the Scottish singing
star was starved of oxygen at birth and suffered a mild intellectual
disability.
"Here's the really interesting revelation she is in fact retarded," he said.
"And if you look at her carefully, you can make it out."
After his employer upheld complaints about his comments, Mr Henry said today:
"It upsets me greatly that anyone would imagine I had intended to cause offence
or hurt over this or any issue.
"I am sorry that some people have taken what I said in a way that I never
intended," he added in a statement.
His tasteless comments about Ms Boyle, whose debut album I Dreamed a Dream went
straight to No 1 last month, provoked a flood of complaints to New Zealand's
Human Rights Commission.
<snip>
Susan Boyle: I was bullied and beaten
Britain's Got Talent star Susan Boyle has revealed how she was bullied at
school and beaten by teachers who did not understand learning difficulties.
By Harriet Alexander
Published: 10:04AM GMT 17 Nov 2009
Telegraph
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/susan-boyle/
6588152/Susan-Boyle-I-was-bullied-and-beaten.html>
A shorter URL for the above link:
Susan Boyle, the Scottish church worker who rose to fame on Britain's Got
Talent, has spoken about being beaten by teachers and taunted for her learning
difficulties.
She said: "You're looking at someone who would get the belt every day. 'Will
you shut up, Susan!' whack!'
''I was often left behind at school because of one thing or another. I was a
slow learner.
''I'm just I'm a wee bit slower at picking things up than other people. So you
get left behind in a system that just wants to rush on, you know? That was what
I felt was happening to me.
''There was discipline for the sake of discipline back then. But it's all very
different now. I think teachers are taught to understand children with learning
disabilities a lot better.''
Susan Boyle reveals she was bullied and beaten with a belt everyday as a child
BY Jim Farber
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, November 17th 2009, 10:59 AM
<http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/11/17/2009-11-17_susan_boyle_
reveals_she_was_bullied_and_beaten_with_a_belt_everyday_as_a_child.html>
A shorter URL for the above link:
Adding another layer to her triumph-over-adversity story, Susan Boyle has
revealed that, as a child, she was repeatedly beaten and bullied.
"You're looking at someone who would get the belt everyday," the 48-year-old
star told Britain's Daily Mirror.
The reason? Learning disabilities - ones pronounced enough to earn her not only
beatings from teachers but also cruel taunts from classmates.
<snip>
Boyle also has a long religious background, having served for years as a church
worker in her small town of Blackburn, West Lothian. That obscure upbringing
made her worldwide breakthrough on the show "Britain's God Talent" even more
astonishing.
No one was more surprised about her success than she.
"I went to L.A. and there were crowds waiting for us at the airport," Boyle
recalled. "It was quite something. Nothing a woman like me was used to. The
hotel I was staying in, apparently Frank Sinatra used to take his women back
there! And I dipped my toes in the same pool Grace Kelly has been in. This is a
world I had never seen before and never dreamt that I would get to see."
But the culture shock took its toll and, after being beaten out in the final
round of the reality talent show by dance troupe Diversity, Boyle was taken to
the Priory Clinic in central London suffering from exhaustion.
-------------------------------------
I hope these three links will be a good starting point for you in regard to
Susan Boyle's disabilities. It appears that this is a developing story so much
will be written about this as time passes, I suspect, as this certainly adds
tremendously to the importance of the success she has earned as it is not now
just a rising from rags to riches kind of story in this light, but now is a
story of overcoming huge obstacles.
The complete articles may be read at the URLs provided for each.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKhIkeTkm8s&feature=player_embedded>
Everyone have a wonderful holiday season.
Previous Net-Gold postings about Susan Boyle.
<http://www.google.com/search?q=%22susan+boyle%22+and+
%22net-gold%22+and+%22temple.edu%22&hl=en&safe=off&num=30&filter=0>
A shorter URL for the above link:
Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jw...@temple.edu
<http://daviddillard.businesscard2.com>
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