This article was originally published On August 1, 2023 by Mad in America.
Comment from Mad in Canada:
Karin Jervert, Arts Editor with Mad in America, nailed it with this post!
Karin’s piece reads as a call to action …. from the many angry women who have been oppressed and silenced by the dominant narrative in psychiatry and mental health care – a narrative that blames and shames those women who dare to express the thoughts and feelings they have in response to the traumas and adversities that have brutalized them …. too often these are thoughts and feelings that are judged to be socially unacceptable. Thank you, Karin!
There is one thing about having been a “delinquent” teen, or a “freak” as we called ourselves, in the chaos of the early 90s that really makes it seem like we were part of something special—a kind of revolution. At the very least, this time was a powerful shift in youth culture. The most amazing part of that time for me was being accompanied through my tumultuous youth by some powerful, strange, and beautiful musicians. For that I always felt very lucky. I know each era has its musical heroes, but something was really special about ’90s music, I think. And as I’ve written about before, music has been an immensely important part of my life and my healing.
The ‘90s were chock-full of brave women artists especially. But, Sinéad O’Connor, or Shuhada’ Sadaqat (the name she adopted after converting to Islam in 2018), may have been the most bold, the most unique of all the musicians of that time. She was a woman from Dublin who took on the Pope on night time television, for goodness’ sake.