Vanity Fair's Women on Women

Introduction
By Radhika Jones

Vanity Fair profiles set themselves apart through the bracing, unflinching nature of the writer s gaze. This is especially powerful and poignant when the gaze is female. Who could prepare for the scene in Maureen Orth s 1993 portrait of Tina Turner when Turner pulls the hem of her dress from her legs all the way up to her shoulders no bra and turns to show off her curves in profile. A showstopper, you d think but Orth doesn t stop there. Instead, she looks past the silhouette to note that the thing she can t see is just as important, if not more. What s really remarkable about Tina Turner s face, she writes, is how few scars it bears from the years of beatings she took. A difficult, at times contentious discussion of brutal domestic violence ensues. This is no glossed over celebrity profile; this is a deep, dark dive. (See page 224.)


But since this is also the resilient Tina Turner, she comes up singing. And at one point, Turner circles back to an almost confrontational question that Orth posed during their sessions together: Have you ever stood up for anything? Turner, with strength and vulnerability on display, revisits the ques tion and responds, I am happy that I m not like anybody else. Because I really do believe that if I was different I might not be where I am today. You asked me if I ever stood up for anything. Yeah, I stood up for my life.

This book is full of women who are not like anybody else women who, in their singular ways, stood up for their lives, as they envisioned them, and in so doing, shaped the lives of multitudes. Vanity Fair s Women on Women is a collection of classic profiles and essays about women by women. All these pieces appeared in the modern incarnation of the magazine, during the past thirty six years, though some travel further back, into the lives of icons such as Frida Kahlo and Grace Kelly, whose work and legacy endure.


Since its inception during the Jazz Age, more than

Radhika Jones is the editor in chief of Vanity Fair. She has served as editorial director of the books department at The New York Times, deputy managing editor of Time, and managing editor at The Paris Review. She holds a PhD in English and comparative literature from Columbia University.

David Friend, a writer, editor, curator, and formerly Life magazine s director of photography, is Vanity Fair s editor of creative development. He is the author of The Naughty Nineties and Watching the World Change, and an Emmy-winning documentary producer.

A veritable candy box of glamour and personality, [Vanity Fair s Women on Women] is a celebration of women s voices. Vogue

A dazzling collection. NBC News
 
Amazing. Women.com

Vanity Fair magazine s latest essay collection, Women on Women, takes readers through the decades of history. While it certainly contains modern marvels like Tina Fey, Lena Waithe, and Nicole Kidman, equally appealing are essays on bygone legends including Emily Post and Frida Kahlo, written entirely by women. If, like many, your education was lacking in profound female figures, this tome will begin to fill in those gaps. BUST

Don t miss this deep and dishy collection. BookPage

An eminently enjoyable collection. . . . There are plenty of I didn t know that moments. Library Journal, starred review

This dazzling collection features 28 profiles of famous women, including politicians, artists, musicians, and actresses, from the last 36 years of Vanity Fair. The profiles, each of which was written by a woman, offer snapshots of their subjects at key points in time, often with remarkable prescience. . . . This is an ideal collection for those who enjoy celebrity profiles with a bit more substance. Publishers Weekly

A vigorous selection of essays spanning the magazine's modern era that underscore the combative resilience of notable accomplished women who never gave in to what was expected of them poignant tales of how one rises and falls and then rises again Besides making for absorbing reading, these essays pack a feminist wallop. Kirkus