Helen Gurley Brown

Helen Gurley Brown 

  Helen Gurley Brown was born February 18, 1922, she died August 13, 2012. (Fox, 2012) Helen was an american author, publisher, and business women. She also was the editor and chief for Cosmopolitan magazine for 32 years.  ("Helen Gurley Brown" 2017) When she wrote the book "Sex and the Single Girl", about a single girl who thoroughly enjoyed sex, she shocked the world. Although Helen said things that was questioning to most she was an independent powerful woman in the publishing world. (Weigel, 2016) w\Warrior women come in all shapes sizes and what they do, i see Helen as a warrior women, because she wasn't afraid to ever speak her mind. she didn't care about what the readers thought she wrote about what she wanted to write about. She took a lot of crap from people about what she stood for. Even with that she never backed down. 

Helen published her book in 1962 and sold millions of copies because the topic was so shocking.  Her co-workers grumbled about the message in her book but it did not take long for her message to become main stream. "There is a catch to achieving single bliss" Brown stated to her 'Single Girl readers', "you have to work like a son of a bitch". (Weigel, 2016) Her message was clear to all women, you have to work hard to get anything you want done. Brown was a big fan of the statement "Do what you love, Love what you do." Any girl can exercise, flirt, shop, groom and sleep her way into having it all. Another phrase that Brown liked to say, was "work it" work to be sexy and work at being sexy, a saying both shocking and unexpected to many.  (Weigel, 2016) In a nut shell her book taught women how to look their best, have delicious affairs and ultimently bag men for all keeps.

Helen Brown without a doubt refers to herself as a feminist. Yet, it was debated until her death, whether or not her feminism helped or hindered the cause of women liberation. What is clear, is that she was a groundbreaking figure in women's history. There was a debate wether or not she was a feminist or not, some say she was a devout feminist and other say she was just spreading the wrong message to girls about their bodies. Although i don't agree with some of the things Mrs. Brown said such as " If your not a sex object, your in trouble."  (Fox, 2012) That is one thing that she said that i don't agree with. The reason for that is that i don't agree that women have to just have sex to have it. if women aren't comfortable having sex they shouldn't be lead to believe that they are in trouble if they don't wanna make their body a sex object.
Helen Brown did not marry until she was 37 years old, but by that time she had already made it up the ladder in her career, becoming a  secretary. She made it in the creative aspects of the world as the "highest paid female in the west coast". (Fox, 2012)
Although people blame her for the message she was spreading she was always faithful to her husband through out their whole marriage. Helen was 90 years old when she passed away. Just because she passed away doesn't mean everything about her died, everyone still talked about her and everything she stood for.

Works cited:

Fox, Margaltit. “Helen Gurley Brown, Cosmopolitan Editor, Dies at 90.” The New York Times, The       New York Times, 13 Aug. 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/business/media/helen-gurley-brown-who-gave-cosmopolitan-its-purr-is-dead-at-90.html

 Accessed 27 Sept. 2017

“Helen Gurley Brown” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 28 April 2017, https://www.biography.com/people/helen-gurley-brown-20929503

Accessed 27 Sept.  2017

Weigel, Moira. “Was She a Feminist? The Complicated Legacy of Helen Gurley Brown.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 July 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/books/review/helen-gurley-brown-biographies-enter-helen-and-not-pretty-enough.html

Accessed 27 Sept. 2017