The Loneliness of Sinéad O’Connor

In the features, reviews, and interviews that responded to O’Connor’s 2021 memoir, a larger revisionist history was underway. In the wake of #MeToo, a sort of reclamation is going on variously for women of the ’90s and early 2000s (Britney Spears, Pamela Anderson, Monica Lewinsky, Anita Hill, Nicole Brown Simpson, Whitney Houston, and more). In movies, TV shows, and podcasts, there’s a drive to reclaim these women from the criticism and mockery they faced, to counter the forces that have shamed and underestimated and hated them.