Why Women Desire Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie is Harper Bazaar's cover model for July. Instead of typically providing an interview with the 34-year old actress, the magazine hires feminist author Naomi Wolf to examine the appeal of the sexiest A-list celebrity in Hollywood today.


Naomi Wolf explains that Angelina Jolie's appeal has "women both identify with her and desire her." This, the feminist believes, is "more than simply a physical response."

For the first time in modern culture, Angelina Jolie "brings together almost every aspect of female empowerment and liberation. The feminist concludes that above all, Angelina Jolie has proved that women can be viewed as a symbol of goodness, and also be seen as sexual.

The feminist sees Angelina Jolie's transformation from a wild child to a woman.

The early career of Angelina Jolie in the industry presented her as an eccentric, goth, and attention-seeking starter. But after her first adoption with son Maddox in 2002 and later becoming a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Refugee Agency, the actress "seemed more mature, more beautiful, and more serious," says Wolf. It was during that time that "Jolie revealed a new, and fairly radical, vision of single motherhood..."

In 2005, Angelina Jolie was involved in a scandal when Brad Pitt chose to make a new life with her and broke his marriage with Jennifer Aniston. But with little Maddox in her custody, Angelina "has managed the almost unheard-of task of turning the home-wrecker label into a wholesome, family-friendly triumph," says Wolf. "There was little Maddox, who was growing up and clearly enjoying tossing footballs with his mother's new boyfriend. Jolie had managed to head off the scarlet letter by giving a boy an ideal masculine counterpoint."

Even Angelina Jolie's acquired skill of flying a plane was seen as metaphorical by the feminist. "Flying a private plane is the classic metaphor for choosing your own direction; usually, that is a guy thing to do, yet there was Jolie, with her aviator glasses on, taking flying lessons so she could blow the mind of her four-year-old son."

And while some people make jokes about Angelina Jolie's "rainbow family," this is commendable for the feminist. Naomi Wolf sees it as "a delicious in-your-face countermove against conventions about who we are to one another and what 'family' is expected to look like. She seems, without breaking stride, to care for half a football team of children while the rest of us tread water with our own biological offspring."

These feminist interpretations answer why women desire Angelina Jolie - she is ethereal, a standard of beauty that women (and not only men) admire and wanted to emulate.

But with Angelina Jolie's divinity comes her unpredictable nature. Ask what could be life in the future for this world's most beautiful woman, Naomi Wolf says "No way to tell. But I am certain, given the knack she has shown for tapping into this female collective unconscious, that we will watch with more than ordinary interest."


Want to know more about Angelina Jolie? Read it here:
"Angelina Jolie, The Woman Behind the Myth"