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Here’s What Sinead O’Connor Will Always Mean to Me…
Sinead O’Connor was a truly beautiful woman, both inwardly and outwardly. I remember when she first became famous, my now ex-husband who is a visual artist saying, “Not just anyone can pull off that kind of look” (meaning bald head) because according to him, “It’s the combination of the shape of her head and her features that together, create her overall beauty.” And I believe he was right. To be a woman, without hair — through choice — felt in and of itself, a very radical thing to do.
Most people know — women and their hair, right? It’s SO much a part of “how” we define ourselves, throughout our lives — changing hair colors and hairstyles, sometimes after much thought, other times on just a whim.
I also remember thinking at the time too: “I wouldn’t be brave enough to do what she did and to look the way she did” — take away my hair? No, please.
There have been so many wonderful tributes to this tremendous woman and it is so very heartening to read them. Many of them mention her tearing up a picture of the Pope on SNL and wow, that was also equally if not more so radical and dare I say, THE most punk thing that I have ever seen a woman do. It was awesome. It was shocking. It was REAL.
Through the years, Sinead documented and shared her struggles with mental illness. That too, was…
