My school friend whose father repeatedly abused her is still self harming over forty years later.
And he got away with it unpunished because nobody,not even her own mother,would believe her.

See,that’s exactly my point.Women are judged on their appearance so much more than men are,and once you’re past a certain age,well,you might as well be invisible.
would old shape make the same remark about a man ? I don’t think so.

Constant derogatory remarks about her appearance would be bad enough for any woman to put up with,but there’s the added complication that Susan Boyle already has a fragile emotional state at the best of times.
The sad fact today is that we live in a society obsessed with having the right image,and this is particularly true for women.
How many women of my advanced years do you see on TV,apart from Ann Robinson ? The fact is that once females are over a certain age they’re virtually invisible in entertainment,unless they devote every waking minute to trying to make themselves look young again.
Susan Boyle is unusual in that she’s a middle-aged woman who actually looks it for once.
Good luck to her and I hope she doesn’t get too stressed to enjoy spending the money she’s made.

Thank you young sir.
Here’s some Motown from my faraway youth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wYoLQc-x5g&feature=related

Yes,I know it’s out of focus,but look,you can see its little tongue !

Love this – Drop the pilot by Joan Armatrading.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOnGZkztcis&feature=related

Further by Longview was the soundtrack to my daughter’s life in the years when she was self-harming.I couldn’t stand it at the time,but I love it now and it’s one of the things that make me who I am today.i never get tired of hearing it.
The other track that has great meaning for me is Don Henley’s The boys of summer,a brilliant song that always seems to pop up somehow at significant times.

That cat is gorgeous Anna.

Another one of me ‘oliday snaps,from part of the South Island known as Fjordland.