Naomi Wolf

Naomi Wolf (born November 12, 1962, San Francisco, California, U.S.) is a celebrated feminist writer whose groundbreaking work in the 1990s, including The Beauty Myth, gained her popular acclaim and occasional critical scrutiny. In 2019 serious questions about her scholarship led to the cancellation of the publication of one of her books. She has since become known for spreading disinformation about COVID-19 vaccinations and the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Early life and education

Naomi Rebekah Wolf was the younger of two children born to Leonard L. Wolf and Deborah Goleman Wolf. Her father was a professor of English literature at San Francisco State College (later renamed San Francisco State University), and her mother was an anthropologist and feminist author.

Growing up in a neighborhood that was adjacent to the famed Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco in the 1960s and 1970s, Naomi Wolf had a front row seat for the sexual revolution, the rise of 1960s counterculture, the second wave of feminist activism, and other major movements for social, political, and cultural change.

In 1980 Wolf began her undergraduate studies at Yale University, where she majored in English literature. During her senior year, Wolf enrolled in an independent study with Harold Bloom, noted literary critic and celebrated professor. In a 2004 New York Magazine article, Wolf accused Bloom of having sexually harassed her when she was his student and accused Yale of creating and maintaining an atmosphere in which women are discouraged from publicizing such experiences. (Bloom denied her allegation.) Following her graduation from Yale, Wolf attended New College, Oxford University, on a Rhodes scholarship.

The Beauty Myth

Wolf’s first book, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women, was published in 1990 in the United Kingdom and appeared the following year in the United States. The book argues that feminist activism since the 1970s had produced real and significant gains for women in general, but those gains were mitigated by the increasing pressure placed on women to conform to a narrow and all-but-unattainable definition of beauty.

As part of her discussion of the effects of this pressure, Wolf writes in detail about her own experience with anorexia nervosa as an adolescent. In interviews, Wolf has said that the book’s central argument was strongly informed by her time at New College, that the sexism in the 19th-century English novels she was studying and in the environment in which she was conducting her research effectively radicalized her, enabling her to see contemporary media of the 1980s with fresh eyes.

The Beauty Myth was a cultural phenomenon, becoming an international bestseller. Reviews were mixed, with some calling Wolf’s argument “persuasive” and others, including The New York Times, excoriating her for questionable statistics and dated sources. Regardless of the divide, Wolf had clearly tapped into a popular feminist theme.

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Fire with Fire and other feminist writing

In 1993 Random House published Wolf’s second book, Fire with Fire: The New Female Power and How It Will Change the 21st Century. In it, she argues that the contemporary feminist movement had failed to appeal to the vast majority of women because it casts women as victims, rather than inviting women to recognize and deploy their power.

Although the book, like its predecessor, was greeted with mixed reviews—with The New York Times again finding Wolf’s claims to be hyperbolic and her citations messy—its publication cemented Wolf’s status as a leading figure of a new generation of feminists, what is commonly referred to as the “third wave.” A New York Magazine profile in 1993 referred to her as the “prophet of power feminism” and asked, “Is Naomi Wolf the Gloria Steinem of her Generation?” That same year Wolf appeared on the cover of Ms. magazine alongside bell hooks, Steinem, and LGBTQ activist Urvashi Vaid.

Over the next 20 years, Wolf published six more books, including three that aimed to bring feminist ideas to a popular audience: Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood (1997); Misconceptions: Truth, Lies and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood (2001); and Vagina: A New Biography (2012).

Outrages and subsequent controversy

In 2019 Wolf’s book, Outrages: Sex, Censorship, and the Criminalization of Love, was published in the U.K. The book is based on research that Wolf conducted at New College, Oxford, where she reenrolled and completed a thesis, receiving a doctorate in 2015. Aimed at both a popular and an academic audience, the book argues that the repressive sexual culture associated with 19th-century Great Britain was not initiated with the Labouchere amendment of 1885, which instituted a widespread ban on homosexuality, but rather was established decades earlier via legislation including the Obscene Publications Act of 1857, which allowed for search and seizure of publications deemed obscene.

Although the book was initially lauded for its “intelligence and flair,” questions about scholarly rigor that had dogged her earlier work again surfaced. Matthew Sweet, a journalist and historian, pointed out to Wolf during a live BBC radio interview that she had inaccurately interpreted some of the 19th-century sources used to justify her claims about the period. The interview went viral and was followed by a firestorm that included the most-scathing review to date of Wolf’s work in The New York Times, which noted her “distinguished career of playing loose with facts and the historical record.” In the wake of the controversy, Wolf’s American publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, cancelled the book’s U.S. publication.

Conservative media celebrity

Since the Outrages controversy, Wolf has become regular contributor and guest on conservative media outlets including Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show and Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast. In such venues, as well as on social media, she has promoted myths about COVID-19 vaccines, misinformation and disinformation about the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and other conspiracy theories.

In 2023 Wolf’s persona was explored in the book Doppelganger by Naomi Klein, who—as the result of being another feminist author roughly the same age as Wolf and sharing the same first name—found herself often mistaken for her.

Personal life

In 1993 Wolf married David Shipley, a journalist who at one point served as the opinion page editor of The New York Times. They had two children. Their marriage ended in divorce in 2005. In 2018 she married Brian William O’Shea, a private investigator.