Subscribe to The Spectator

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Latest issue

Buy the current issue

Jobs at Telegraph

Angelina Jolie is the World's Best Woman, Right?

Tuesday, 9th June 2009


Angelina Jolie attends Belstaff's 'The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button' Premiere & After Party on December 8, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Alexandra Wyman/Getty Images for Belstaff.

Some of you will doubtless have your own sordid little reasons for thinking, yes she is. Here's the good news: Naomi Wolf agrees with you! Ms Wolf has written what may be the most amusing piece I've read all year. The Lovely Angelina, you see, "has it all". The whole thing is priceless but, as Double X's Willa Paskin explains, this may be the most deliciously off-the-wall part of the whole extravagant mess:

Then there is the plane. Women are so used to being dependent on others (certainly on men) for where they go, metaphorically, and how they get there. 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. That is the ultimate in single-mom chic: Even before she had reconstructed a nuclear (or postnuclear) family with a dad at the head of it, she was reframing single motherhood from a state of lack or insufficiency to a glamorous, unfettered lifestyle choice. Paradoxically, having done so, she makes the choice of a man to help her raise her kids seem like one option among many for a self-directed woman rather than either a completion of a woman or a capitulation.

See, ladies, it ain't so very hard after all. You too can be Just Like Angelina!


Filed under: Angelina Jolie (1 more articles) , Celebrity (54 more articles) , Lunacy (138 more articles)

Blogs: Martin Bright | Susan Hill | Melanie Phillips | Coffee House | Faith Based

Actions: Print this article  |  Email to a friend  |  Permalink   |   Comments (11)

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Comments Post comment

Alf Tupper C.R.O.F.

June 9th, 2009 9:47pm Report this comment

Personally, I can't see what Brad Pitt sees in her.

Perhaps she's double-jointed?

Tina

June 9th, 2009 11:19pm Report this comment

I have no interest in collecting children, turning them over to nannies to raise and trotting them out when I need an image boost. I have no interest in children at all. So I guess that means I'm jealous. Oh well, I'm sure I'll get over it.

Lee Jakeman

June 10th, 2009 10:07am Report this comment

The Lovely Angelina, you see, "has it all". Except the ability to give of herself, which is the only thing that counts.

Nicholas

June 10th, 2009 1:32pm Report this comment

Pity she has a tattoo. I have never understood that affectation being desired by so many women, to permanently mark a body which is unique with a piece of meaningless grey-blue clip art that so many others have too.

Melinda

June 10th, 2009 2:21pm Report this comment

Never heard of this Ms. Wolf lady before, but after reading what she wrote I'm convinced that she is out of touch with reality and probably shouldn't be publishing her thoughts to the rest of the world. I don't agree with a single thing she said. And she claimed that "all" women love Angelina for one reason or another. WRONG, Ms. Wolf!

andy c

June 10th, 2009 4:41pm Report this comment

I used to like her - then saw her in a variety of super violent garbage, films that should have never been allowed out, never mind rated 18.

Now I just think she's garbage too.

kennedy Chicago

June 10th, 2009 9:05pm Report this comment

It baffles me when Angelina Jolie gets positive remarks, considering she’s a woman sleeping with Brad Pitt while he was still married to Jenifer. She is just a B**ch. She cannot be a positive e role model to any woman. Let us set the media hype aside and look at the real Angelina Jolie.

Jeremy

June 10th, 2009 10:13pm Report this comment

"...yet there was Jolie, with her aviator glasses on, taking flying lessons so she could blow the mind of her four-year-old son."

She wants her son to regard her in a heroic light - so she puts on a pair of aviator sunglasses and takes flying lessons. I find that both meaningless and manipulative in equal measure. I mean, if she joined the armed forces and went to serve on the ground, in the heat and dust of Helmand Province, then perhaps her attempts to be seen as a hero, by her son, would have more substance to them. But as things stand, he'll probably just grow out of the illusion. Let's hope so, anyway.

Pam

June 12th, 2009 6:13am Report this comment

Frankly, I wouldn't want to live Angelina'a lifestyle or any other celebrities. I am happy with my simple life, my freedom to do what I want. I have enjoyed the same life experiences as her, or more. Mostly, I don't need other people's attention, approval, or recognition. So there, no one person is anymore special than another.

The Bellman

June 12th, 2009 12:15pm Report this comment

Can't abide her as a rule, but my opinion of her improved when I read that she had refused to be bullied by her Hollywood liberal peers and the US media into 'endorsing' Obama. There might have been various motives for her equivocation, but at least she didn't take the easy path so well-trodden by narcissistic poseurs like George Clooney.

Brandon Mattson

June 16th, 2010 6:42pm Report this comment

I must say that I have never understood why almost every man on the earth says that Angelina Jolie is the most sexy, pretty, handsome woman in the world. Of course, everybody can have their own opinion about everything. However the majority of man say that Angelina is the best from the best. I personally don't see what special she has. She is a star, she is super slim and that's all. Oh she is taking kids from Africa and grows them up. That's everything about Angelina. Moreover those kids are like fashion lately (remember Madonna). For example I love natural, real women. Those slim and burned ladies are not so pretty for me. My ideal is a known porn star called Devon Lee. She is not so slim as Angelina Jolie is, but she has everything that real woman must have. Angelina would be only in fifth hundred if I would rank the most pretty woman for me. Moreover how many pretty woman are living all around the world not being famous... We could only imagine.

Post comment

Back to top

Cartoons

Tag Cloud

Search this blog

Alex Massie's blog archive

sponsored links

Spectator recommends

Spectator classifieds

THE PRESENT FINDER

1,700 Unusual Christmas Presents Request Catalogue 01935 815 195 Quote SPEC10 for 10% discount www.presentfinder.co.uk

OLIVE BRANCH FLORISTS

Pimilco based Florist with online ordering Web: www.olivebranch.net Tel: 020 7630 1868 Fax: 020 7233 8844

RUFFS Bespoke Signet rings

62 Shore Road, Warsash, Southampton, SO31 9FT Telephone: 01489 578867 Web site: www.ruffs.co.uk