I'm the Alishtopia Idol

I was thinking as I watched American Idol tonight, that if I ever did a show like that (which I won't. Period.) I'd do songs that were only sung by males, simply because then I could put my own spin on them. I'd love to get up an sing a Barry White tune with a girl's voice. I can see some girls pulling that off, and I'd love to see it. I've heard some pretty unsexy songs sexified by some women, (Tori's cover of Sweet Home Alabama and Ani's cover of When You Were Mine) and I'd love to see some ballsy gal get up there and sing a male sex song. If a song is gender neutral than any one can do it. Hell, half the songs I sang at Fringe, I sang as a lesbian or modified the lyrics.

Warning: Rant of an Idealist. I keep getting the "Alysia, you should try out for Canadian Idol!" No, I won't do that to myself. Do people not understand that I had to do a lot of fighting to get to a place where I am comfortable in my skin? I see the way they treat women on those shows: like meat. The number of times I've heard "You need to shed a couple pounds" is higher than I can count. It's about image and I don't fit what they want, which is fine with me. I like what I see in the mirror 90% of the time. I might even call myself pretty if you catch me on the right day, but I wouldn't dare jeopardize my years of work for something like that. There is no price on my self-esteem, no record contract big enough. Hear that: I like how I look. I see girls who don't like themselves, hell, I live with a girl who hates, yes, hates her body. It's like those extreme makeover shows. I said to my sister that I didn't agree with those shows. We should be telling people that what they are is beautiful (and they are) not that they need to cut themselves up. (I can't fuckin' stand that ugly people website. That is such shit.) My sister retaliatied with "well, some of those people have been ridiculed and beat up because of the way they look." I just shook my head, while my sister's eyes bulged out of her head. For a moment, while she said that sentence, she forgot that she'd seen the bruises and the red eyes first hand. She forgot that "those people" were sitting across from her. I guess surgery is part of their struggle for self-acceptance and I shouldn't cheapen it because it involves silicon or a vacuum. Maybe I'm young so I don't understand, but is it worth it? Not for me, just as a shot at being the Canadian Idol isn't worth it. (But imagine their Canadian Idol wearing a "This is what a Feminist looks" like shirt. Oooo, they'd be shittin' it.) Good luck to those braver than me, willing to put it all on the line for a dream. May the comments fall on deaf ears.