Ms Dayglo writes...Last year I wrote an angry defence in response to what I described as “the demonisation of Nancy Spungen”, the “quaintly medieval” misogyny that cast her as deserving her violent death.

Was Sid a boy scout/pillar of the community, with a brilliant future ahead, before he met Nancy? Did she force him to take drugs?

And of course, who ended up stabbed to death? We don't know what happened there; but I do know that Sid was out on the pull a short time afterwards. Lads, eh.

I particularly like the account that says she died because she "failed to dress the wound properly". Well, it's clearly her fault then! Because any decent woman knows how to dress a wound!

It's a tough one, because by all accounts, she was difficult, and damaged.  People whose opinions I respect, who knew her better than I, don't have a good word to say about her.    And yet, and yet ... I met her briefly, and she was sweet to me, and I liked her. She seemed solicitous and tender towards Sid.  Surely everyone deserves a flower on their grave?

Her mother’s book tells the story that Nancy was a twisted, damaged personality from Day One, a difficult baby, an aggressive toddler.  Do we believe that people are like this, that we are born with good or evil personalities and predispositions, and our environment or parenting have little effect?  

I wonder about her mother’s story.  The book focuses on major incidents, but what was happening in between?  Did she really seek help, but could not get it from anyone? Of course it was a different time, when so many disorders went undiagnosed, but how interesting it would be to hear Nancy's side of things. It is hard to believe that she turned out damaged all by herself, and I wonder if her mother is trying to rationalize assuage her own guilt, or grief even. 

Some of the most callous dismissals are from nice people, or those with no reason to lie.   Marco Pirroni says “the question isn’t “why did he kill her”, it’s “why didn’t he kill her sooner?” ”  Joe Corre (Vivienne Westwood’s son) says that Nancy stuck her stiletto in his head when he was nine, while he remembers Sid buying him sweets.  Is this true?  Is his memory tainted by the myth? 

Another story about her giving blowjobs for heroin while Sid looks on – isn’t this a story that reflects on all three participants, rather than just on her?  It’s quite a common dominant-male fantasy, although not as readily boasted about as others, to have your girlfriend being “used” by a man.  I’m not saying that Nancy was pushed into it, just that it was hardly the act of gross betrayal that is implied.

What did people hate so about Nancy?  Was it that she led Sid astray?  Is it the “Yoko” syndrome?  The whore/Madonna standard seems nowhere more applied than to the traditional rock’n’roll consort: anonymous groupie or uncomplaining, supportive wife. Or is she hated for being weak and damaged?

People talk about her "whining and clinging" with such disgust, as those these were the worst crimes you could commit.  It’s behaviour that make you “low-status”, behaviour that men despise most in women, and that makes me wonder if there isn't a bit of projection going on there - we hate people because they show us our own weaknesses. 

I am uneasy about the mob mentality that makes Nancy our victim, I am unhappy because I liked her and to crow over her death demeans us all. She was a human being that was capable of giving and receiving love as well as pain.  What a fucked-up life, and what a sad, lonely death.