amanda palmer is good enough

With her recent release of “Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under”, Amanda Fucking Palmer admits to loving our country (just like Oprah Winfrey).

Originally beginning her music fame with the Dresden Dolls and now a solo artist in her own right, I’ve always seen Amanda as a strong woman who has an open philosophy to life, music and being honest with fans.

Poetic, yet often confronting lyrics and a blog that tells everything to those who want to listen, Amanda says she is “trying to express my truth, my place in the world, my belief.”

She has admitted to having an abortion when she was 17 and being date raped at 20, and is also openly bisexual.

“I’m bisexual, but it’s not the sort of thing I spent a lot of time thinking about”, Palmer says. “I’ve slept with girls; I’ve slept with guys, so I guess that’s what they call it!”

If only the whole world was that open to homosexuality. I think this honesty is what I respect the most about Amanda, and how she is willing to be vulnerable.

Being a self-admitted nerd at high school, she was never invited to parties and instead spent her time cutting things out of magazines and making scrapbooks in her bedroom. And now she is one of the coolest female icons of our generation.

With a uniquely harsh voice, unshaved armpits, a plethora of artistically naked photographs on her website and her antics on stage: she isn’t trying to be the thinnest, prettiest girl on stage. And yet, she is beautifully unique.

I watched a DVD of hers a few years ago and I still remember my wonder at her ability to be so unsure of herself, yet so confident at the same time.

I was 19 at the time and was trying so hard to be one of those girls. I wanted to be looked at by guys, as most girls do, but the DVD really changed my perspective on self image.

There was something about her that really stood out, and I still remember her waking up, looking in the mirror, sighing at the image of herself, and despondently saying, “Good enough.”

Good enough.

To me, she was one of the most beautiful women of our generation and I knew that most of my guy friends agreed. And she was doubting herself?

Those two words have stuck with me for all these years. It made me sad to think that I, Amanda and probably every woman out there thought that they were merely ‘good enough’.

But now, it seems much more acceptable and even though I mostly still think that way about myself, it’s okay. There’s prettier girls out there but they don’t have the same family and friends as I do.

Perfect looks are overrated.

I’m happy with who I am – with my big feet, dodgy hair and even with my over-sized hips. And that really is good enough.

(Image credit: Joshi Radin.)