The other side of The X-Factor

This might be a post, that, like the one about Elizabethtown, had more of a point when it was in my head that when it made it to the computer. Anyway...

I watched The X-Factor last night. It was round two, I believe, known as "Boot Camp" and people were getting thrown out quite regularly until each group was down to the final eight acts. This purging of contestants made me think a bit more about those who didn't make it to the next round. Unlike most of the contestants on "Maria", the people who enter The X-Factor competition aren't middle class graduates. A lot of the contestants, particularly those in the 25 (years old) and over category seemed to be people who had already had a hard time in life and wanted to win The X-Factor to make a better lives for themselves and their families.

One contestant particularly stood out for me. She wasn't the best singer, but it was what she said rather than how she sang that really made me think. She said that if she didn't get through [to the next round] she would become "just another statistic". She was in the competition with the aim of providing a better life for her children. She talked about the house they always looked at and dreamt about buying one day. Unfortunately, she didn't get through. It made me sad to think that she only saw herself as a statistic, and didn't seem to recognise her worth as a person, and an intelligent and articulate person at that. I hope that she can find some other way out of her situation, and that she will one day have a better life for herself and her children.

Other people in the 25 and over category included a Scottish lady who saw The X-Factor as her last chance to get out of the factory job she has been working in for about 20 years. She was quite emotional because she said that she didn't feel that she deserved to have got so far thought the competition. Happily, she got through to the final eight, and her reaction was great! I hope she has the confidence in herself to perform well enough to go on through the next rounds.

I do realise that the footage is edited, and that the producers can make people appear any way they want them to, if they want to draw people into watching the show. Even so, it made me think a bit more deeply than I expected to, which can only be a good thing, in my opinion (even if on 'paper' my thoughts haven't come out quite as clearly as I would have liked).