Barbra Streisand Is an Icon Because She Dared To Be Iconic

What makes Barbra Streisand an icon? You could credit it to her talent, of course. (That voice!) Or even the multiple awards she's won over the years. (Because she's won everything under the sun.) Maybe even her work in classic films like Funny Girl, The Way We Were, or Yentl. But that doesn't fully answer the question for me because she feels so much bigger than any of those things. This is something I've been thinking a lot about as Streisand promotes her highly anticipated memoir, My Name Is Barbra (Viking).

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I first learned about Barbra Streisand when I was a kid in the '90s. She was already considered an icon then, so I've only ever known her to be this powerhouse talent. But despite my ongoing condition of homosexuality, my entry into the world of Streisand wasn't through her music or Funny Girl or her style like it is for so many people (and fellow homosexuals). Rather it was through her film The Mirror Has Two Faces.

You see, I was and am a huge film buff. As a kid, I religiously read Entertainment Weekly and the late Premiere magazine to stay abreast of all the movie news I could get. And over the course of 1995, every movie magazine had an ongoing feature about the drama surrounding the production of Streisand's The Mirror Has Two Faces. It was over-budget, there were casting issues, Streisand was being "difficult" as the star, director and producer—she was too much of a perfectionist. For so much of 1995 and 1996, as other little kids in my class watched Home Improvement or played sports, my year was fully devoted to Barbra Streisand and the train wreck The Mirror Has Two Faces was bound to be.

Fast forward to the film's release in 1996. Naturally, I saw it opening day. Guess what? I loved it. It was perfect. A delightful and quirky romantic comedy about an ugly duckling who glams up and takes control of her life. Streisand was perfect; she had great chemistry with Jeff Bridges, and Lauren Bacall was robbed of an Oscar for her performance. (I said what I said.) So, what was all the drama about? Well, this is where I started to learn what makes Streisand an icon.

You see, I realized that the only reason why people thought there was drama during the production of The Mirror Has Two Faces was because Streisand dared to do what she wanted. She dared to take control of her work. She dared to not settle for just being the star, she wanted to be the creator. And her daring to do these things went against the expected standards set for women in Hollywood.

As I realized this, I learned Streisand had been doing this exact thing throughout her career. She did what she wanted and often put everything on the line to create what she wanted to create. From the beginning in the 1960s, as Beatlemania took over the country, Streisand dared to explode on the scene singing slow ballads and songs from the 1930s like "Happy Days Are Here Again." She never hid her Jewishness. In fact, she made it part of her brand. She refused to change her appearance, particularly her nose, because she knew the things that made her different were actually what was going to make her stand out. After insane commercial success in film and music, she decided to direct Yentl, a film about a Jewish woman wanting to study Torah. (Not exactly your typical blockbuster.) Almost everything from Streisand's career is an example of what not to do in order to become or stay famous, yet she did it and just became more famous.

As Streisand promotes the memoir, she's talked about the pushback she's gotten over the years from the things she wanted to do creatively, especially the criticism of being a perfectionist. CBS reported that she writes in the memoir, "A man is forceful—a woman is pushy. ... He shows leadership—she's controlling. .... If he acts, produces, and directs, he's called a multitalented hyphenate. She's called vain and egotistical."

Part of the reason why Streisand wanted to write this memoir in the first place is because she wanted to set the record straight.

"I want them to know the truth. I love truth. One of the reasons I wrote the book is to talk about the myths about me," Streisand told CBS's Gayle King.

So, to answer my original question, what makes Barbra Streisand an icon? Well, the answer is clear. She's an icon because she dared to be iconic.

And yes, just like I went to see The Mirror Has Two Faces on opening day, you better believe I will start reading My Name Is Barbra the minute it drops to my Kindle. (Don't worry. I also ordered the hard copy and the audiobook, thank you very much.)