Before yesterday, if I had wanted to spark a discussion on discrimination I would have brought up one of three topics: race, religion or gender. In each of these conversations, I would have tried to maintain a non-racist, non-sexist and religious non-bigoted position. Indeed, in these issues – perhaps because they are so relevant in our pluralistic society – I have worked very hard to have an open mind. But in focusing on them, I fear that I have forgotten about the other ways that we are prone to judge one another.

Susan Boyle helped me remember.

For anyone who has been online in the past week, Ms. Boyle is the latest YouTube sensation. A 47-year-old single, unemployed British woman from a “collection of villages” where she lives with her mother, she is one of many contestants on the show Britain’s Got Talent. In a vibrato-filled performance of Les Miserables’ “I Dreamed a Dream” in the contest’s first round, this never-been-married, never-been-kissed middle ager managed to wow my ears and open my eyes to prejudices I didn’t know I suffered from: Ageism. Weightism. Appearance-based discrimination.

And by the reaction of the crowd, I knew I wasn’t alone.

When Ms. Boyle took her place upon the stage in front of her fellow Brits, I couldn’t help but cringe for her. Donned in a dress fit for a 60-year-old woman on Easter morning with white pumps to match, her rotund figure screamed everything but belonging in the fast-paced glittering world of popular entertainment. Members of the audience sarcastically whistled at her, clapping and laughing unabashedly while Simon Cowell asked her about herself.

Responding nervously but smiling, she plowed on, despite the eye-rolls of several onlookers.

Once the song began, however, her rich tones quieted the laughter and turned it into heart-felt applause. Suddenly, instead of skeptically doubting the nerve of this caterpillar-eyebrowed woman without a chin, everyone was enthusiastically cheering her on. In a matter of seconds, it seemed, the audience was eager to cover its tracks, ready to forget the mere moments before in which it had ridiculed her.

Indeed, with the “cheeky grin”- as Simon says – that she puts on before she unleashes her talent, Ms. Boyle seems to know that we think she’s about as far from the pop culture train as the sun is from the earth.

She proves she shines just as brightly.

The sad part is, of course, that her light wasn’t noticed before she began to sing; we all chose to keep our eyes in the dark, hidden behind ageist and weightist walls. Before knowing anything about her, we decided that she wasn’t worth our time, thinking, “What is a woman who looks like her doing on stage?”

Well, I’ve watched the video five times now, and the words to her song seem to explain.

“I dreamed that love would never die,” she belts, her smile radiating.

I know exactly what she was doing on stage.

She was singing.