Elizabeth Taylor

I've never been one to publicly mourn the passing of a celebrity. That said, Elizabeth Taylor died yesterday and attention must be paid.

I can't say that I held her in much regard as an actress. She was all right, but no Davis or Hepburn, or even Monroe. With the exception of Virginia Woolf I always found her performances a little too self aware. My favorite performance is as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Without a doubt a flawed performance, but still strong and she more than holds her own with Newman and Ives.

Her beauty is remarkable, but there have been others and will be more. Noting a woman because of her looks is demeaning. Elizabeth Taylor was so much more.

Elizabeth Taylor embodies power and strength. The Elizabeth Taylor story is one of incredible success. A product of the Hollywood studio system, she managed to bridge the gap from glamorous indentured servant to media tycoon. In a way that Marilyn Monroe never did, Elizabeth Taylor harnessed the energy of the public's desire for her and turned it into immeasurable power. She did it at a time that was less permissive in general and downright oppressive for women. Several times during her life she tried to sublimate her power in favor of conforming to societal norms for women, and always with disastrous results. But in her fifties she embraced, harnessed, and used her power, first by exploding her corporate presence and then directing her energies into philanthropy. And she did it as a lady. Without her there could be no Madonna or Hillary Rodham Clinton. Or Sarah Palin.

Elizabeth Taylor's strength is best told in the story of AIDS. In the 1980's, when no one -- no one -- was addressing the issue, Elizabeth Taylor stood up and dared to speak its name. She went before Congress and demanded funds for research, and when she found the official world response lacking she forged ahead and raised the funds for research herself. Long before there were red ribbons and walkathons and bikeathons, there was Elizabeth Taylor.

But on an even subtler level Elizabeth Taylor blazed the way for the general public to accepting the LGBT community. When Rock Hudson announced that he had AIDS, the real shock to American culture wasn't that he was sick and dying. It was that he was gay. Elizabeth Taylor didn't publicly embrace her friend in a demonstration of acceptance of his sexuality. By embracing her friend in response to his ailment, she helped the world set aside its petty labelizing and showed the world what was truly important. Love.

Elizabeth Taylor led by example in so many, many ways. We didn't just lose a celebrity, or an icon. We lost a great American.