
Helen Gurley Brown Only Wants to Help (1970) - got-any-grapes
https://classic.esquire.com/article/1970/2/1/helen-gurley-brown-only-wants-to-help
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DoreenMichele
I have no idea why this made the front page of HN. Happy to see a piece here
about such an amazing lady, but I have mixed feelings about the framing of
much of the article. I'm trying to make my peace with it because this was
written in 1970.

She was editor-in-chief of _Cosmopolitan_ for 32 years and published multiple
books in an era where being a successful woman with a serious career was
really challenging.

Her husband David Brown is a name few people seem to readily recognize. He co-
produced the movie _Jaws_ , which was groundbreaking in 1975.

She's really a fascinating lady and I wish this article gave a more respectful
treatment of her significant accomplishments.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Gurley_Brown](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Gurley_Brown)

~~~
jacobush
I upvoted it because I found the article very interesting, and as you said,
very "1970", and I hoped someone would say something pertinent here. Thanks.
:)

~~~
DoreenMichele
She was a very daring lady who advocated for women actually enjoying sex
themselves. She always did enjoy sex herself, and I believe that's in part
because she paid her own damn bills, never mind that women generally made less
than men and this meant she had to actively be frugal.

These are some of the principles I've tried to follow post divorce: that my
agency matters more than my nominal income level and relationships with men
need to be based on liking them, not on them paying my damn bills.

I was a homemaker for about two decades. I don't regret that at all, but I'm
absolutely not willing to be treated like some man can just "buy" me because
men my age (give or take a few years) typically have a lot more money than I
have.

My agency is something I value far more than money. I'm not willing to give it
up for a nominally cushier life.*

(Insert joke about someone wishing to live in a mansion and - poof! - they are
now a live-in maid.)

Back then, a woman expecting to enjoy sex was a radical just begging to be
branded with a Scarlet Letter. This is likely why this article talks about
everyone focusing on her statements about affairs with married men: The real
issue was "That hussy thinks women should actually have orgasms and, worse,
personal agency."

I basically stopped reading Cosmo after she stepped down as editor. It just
wasn't the same without her.

People who think she was just going the "sex sells" route really don't
understand her life's work at all.

She was a quiet radical who helped foment a bloodless revolution in this
country. The world would be a better place with more people like her.

* (For those who don't recognize me, I was homeless for years while people refused to take me seriously as someone who needed an earned income. Meanwhile, men were offering me money or places to live in exchange for sex.)

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B1FF_PSUVM
I've also found it interesting, in a "sign of the times" way. Alas, my poor
past submission did not make it:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/realestate/the-cosmo-
girls...](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/realestate/the-cosmo-girls-lair-
for-19-4-million.html)

 _" Helen Gurley Brown’s turreted quadruplex atop the exclusive Beresford co-
op at 211 Central Park West, where she lived for four decades until her death
in 2012 and which was bedecked in midcentury glamour, has finally sold. At
$19,380,000, it was the second most expensive transaction of the week,
according to city records."_

All in the past now, as in the "famous ceramist" Gore Vidal remark.

~~~
neonate
> as in the "famous ceramist" Gore Vidal remark

What was that one? Googling just brings me back here.

~~~
B1FF_PSUVM
Something along the lines of "soon speaking of a famous writer will be like
speaking of a famous ceramist" (i.e. absurd).

I think it was in one of the essays or interviews, but my memory may have
mangled something. I could not find it online either, so it does not exist ...

