Religious broadcaster Tammy Faye Bakker’s public persona was brash and over-the-top and she played it beautifully (“I shop therefore I am”). Of her trademark fake eyelashes, one wag said it looked as though giant spiders had died on her eyes. She became a successful TV personality in her own right, as well as an author, actor, entrepreneur and keynote speaker - at a time when women held no such roles in Conservative Christianity. She was dismissed as a religious crank when, in fact, she stepped out of that role with gusto - but how she did so was brilliant.
© 2024 John Oliver
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