Why Do I Know Who This Woman Is?

So...why DO I know who this woman is? Why is this woman's name--Susan Boyle, for those of you lucky people who've been living under a rock--easily recognizable to me, or to anyone else? No, I don't read US Weekly, or any such gossip rag; I don't watch shows like "Access Hollywood" or "Extra," with the exception of whatever jaw-droppingly awkward clips get shown on E!'s "The Soup"; I haven't seen the YouTube clip, only the five-second snippet was tagged to the credits of whatever entertainment gossip show that comes on before NBC's "Chuck." So why do I know who Susan Boyle is and why should I care?

That's the real question. With everything going on this world (serious and otherwise), I honestly don't know why anyone in the mainstream American media thinks this is a story. The point of the Susan Boyle thing is this: people have talent! People who aren't younger than 30 have talent! People who aren't attractive and are older than 30 have talent! I mean, is that even possible? We are living in the world of Logan's Run, right? Oh...wait, this is the real world? Where people of any stripes have talent? Well, holy fucking shit, you just blew my mind.

This is the thought process the media is having. Journalists for the AP and regular entertainment sources (some of whom may just have peaked 30 years old a long time ago) think it's a big deal that a superficially unattractive woman from the United Kingdom can sing well. And why is that? Because people have forgotten what the point of a show like, in this case, "Britain's Got Talent" is supposed to be. The same goes for "America's Got Talent" and "American Idol." The point of these shows is to find people (sometimes of a certain age range, sometimes not) who can do something well. And that's all it is. Now, they've become something completely different; "American Idol" is far guiltier of screwing up here. The point is to find talented people or, at the very least, talented voices.

All of this is meant to say: Susan Boyle is a person. People have skills, unique to themselves. Susan Boyle's unique skill, or one of them, is her voice. Media: Get over it. Please.