She wasn’t simply an actress, nor was she just a sex symbol. She wasn’t only some friend of Michael Jackson who had been married a ton of times. And she wasn’t only the namesake of Charlotte York’s dog on “Sex and the City.”

Elizabeth Taylor was an icon, and not many would contest that. Not only was she an onscreen sensation since the age of 12, when she landed a role in “National Velvet,” but she probably got a lot more attention for her off-screen life. In fact, I feel guilty even writing this because I have only seen a few of her movies yet I know all about her love affair with Richard Burton which would make even the most cynical, unromantic person feel simultaneously touched and heartbroken. He wrote to her in a letter:

“I find it very difficult to allow my whole life to rest on the existence of another creature. I find it equally difficult, because of my innate arrogance, to believe in the idea of love. There is no such thing, I say to myself. There is lust, of course, and usage, and jealousy, and desire and spent powers, but no such thing as the idiocy of love. Who invented that concept? I have wracked my shabby brains and can find no answer.”

She was an alcoholic and she was married eight times. She and Burton were condemned by the Vatican for  “erotic vagrancy.” It sounds like it was all very glamorous debauchery, but of course, it was at the time probably just as outrageous and unbecoming as Britney Spears’ and Lindsay Lohan’s breakdowns.

She not only married but she divorced seven times (third husband Mike Todd died in a plane crash), yet she held her head high and kept looking for the love she deserved. Camille Paglia called her a “pre-feminist” in a Salon interview based on her embracing of the sexual command over her male counterparts. I don’t exactly agree with that reasoning, but I do believe that Elizabeth Taylor felt herself every bit as equal to those male counterparts and she did what she wanted regardless of the conventions of her gender at the time. She wasn’t trying to be a spokesperson for feminism, yet by doing so, she was.

In any case, Mother Courage, as she called herself, recovered from addictions and tumultuous marriages and relationships. Being a woman who had been ignoring society’s head shaking for most of her life, she turned her efforts to raising awareness and funds for AIDS, a cause that was controversial at the time. Obviously Taylor didn’t do it for her own reputation or for herself. She didn’t do what was popular, she did what she felt was right at the time.

Taylor founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research, or AmFAR, the first national organization for AIDS research. She used her influence with the ‘A-list’ of Hollywood and she helped to transform AIDS from the shameful perception it faced in society. She advocated for safe sex and taking personal responsibility in prevention of the disease. The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, which she established in 1991, states in its mission statement that it has raised funds for HIV/AIDS service organizations throughout the world, providing critically needed support services and prevention education.

She stood by her friend Michael Jackson when he was faced charges of child molestation. She didn’t shy away from their close friendship to save face.

She did some terrible things – cheating on her husbands with men who were married themselves, for example. Eddie Fisher was married to her friend Debbie Reynolds when the two began their romance. She was an extravagant spender and embraced materialism. But obviously she wasn’t striving to be perfect and the disregard she had for being so was exactly what made her the humanitarian she was. Carrie Fisher, the daughter of Fisher and Reynolds, said that if her father had to divorce her mother, she was glad it was for Elizabeth Taylor, and she and Reynolds were friends again at the time of her death.

She was hated and she was loved and it didn’t matter to her either way. In this she was inspiring, and therefore she was mostly loved. If there is one thing that the loss of Elizabeth Taylor can teach us is to throw off the concern for how society thinks of us, which is sometimes the best thing we can do for society. The world is a darker place without the woman she was. That girl had life in her, all right.

Lauren Vincent is a Collegian columnist. She can be reached at [email protected].