TONGUE IN CHIC

In Search of Today’s Real-Life Wonder Woman

Ahead of the release of the new film adaptation of Wonder Woman, Marisa Marchetto went out in search of its real-life counterpart and found everyone from Sandra Bernhard to Gloria Steinem.

by Marisa Acocella

May 5, 2017

GIF by Biel Parklee.

Next month, a new film adaptation of Wonder Woman will hit theaters everywhere, with the great Gal Gadot strapping on the tiara and the Lasso of Truth. In an interview in W‘s May issue, its director Patty Jenkins, one of the few women who’ve been entrusted with a major comic book blockbuster adaptation, said this of the character’s enduring appeal: “Trump or no Trump, Wonder Woman stands for beauty, truth, love, and goodness. She understands that finding the truth is complicated, but she will always be kind. There’s something very reassuring about that, especially now.” It made us wonder, who are the real Wonder Women out there? Marisa Marchetto set out to find them. From the halls of Tina Brown‘s Women in the World conference, where Hillary Clinton addressed a room full of powerful ladies, to Tracy Anderson‘s workout studio and the streets of Park Avenue, she found real-life incarnations of Wonder Woman everywhere, and they taught her a lesson in style and inner strength.

Illustration by Marisa Marchetto. GIF by Biel Parklee.

Marisa Acocella Marchetto is an illustrator and cartoonist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, among other publications, and the author of the New York Times bestselling graphic novels Ann Tenna (Knopf), Cancer Vixen (Knopf), and Just Who the Hell Is She Anyway? (Crown). She lives in New York City and you can find her on Instagram.