Spektaklet Susan Boyle på YouTube

Normer och värderingar av kvinnokroppen – Kuolema- ja sururituaalien virtualisaatio internetissä

Författare

• Annika Kumlin

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30666/elore.78956

Abstract

In her article, Annika Kumlin analyzes a YouTube video clip introducing Susan Boyle, the middle aged woman who took Britain by a storm in the Britain’s Got Talent reality show in 2009. The focal point in the article is the judges’ and audience’s surprised, even appalled reaction to her, as she appears on the stage for the very first time at the show. The video clip is only one minute and 17 seconds in lenght, but very rich in meaning, when it comes to the presentation and normative evaluation of a middle aged female body in a tv show. Based on her analysis of the clip, and taking the position of an participating observer, Kumlin seeks to understand the quality and amount of attention Susan Boyle’s appearance received at the time. Kumlin uses critical discourse analysis in combining physicality, gender, and age into a discursive construction about femininity and the grotesque.