Helen Gurley's literary and publishing activity takes place during the second half of the 20th century in the United States, a context in which there are many women who write about women's rights and freedoms, develop literary activity and take control of the business and publishing worlds. Among them, the following ones stand out:
- Margaret Mead: American anthropologist who published a study, Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935), which questioned the sexist and biological vision prevailing in social sciences in the USA. According to that vision, the sexual division of work in modern family was due to an inherent difference, which make men have an instrumental role (public and productive), and women, an expressive role. According to Margaret Mead, since human species is highly malleable, roles and sexual behaviour vary depending on social and cultural contexts. She was forerunner in using the concept "gender", widely used in subsequent feminist studies.
- Gloria Steinem, journalist and feminist activist, spokesperson of the feminist movement in 1960s and 1970s. Steinem worked as columnist of the New York magazine, and co-founded Ms. magazine.
- Dorothy Schiff, businesswoman, owner, and publisher of New York Post for forty years.
- Coretta Scott King, singer, writer, activist, and leader of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s in the United States after the death of her husband, Martin Luther King. Afterwards, she joined in the struggle for LGTBI rights and took a stance against apartheid.
Helen Mary Gurley Brown
Arkansas 18-02-1922 ‖ New York 13-08-2012
Period of activity: From 1962 until 2012
Geographical classification: America > United States
Socio-cultural movements
Late modern period / Contemporary period > Feminism
Groups by dedication
Popularisers / Cultural promoters > Publishers
Writers > Story writers
Writers > Journalists / Chroniclers > Columnists
Writers > in > English
Activists > Feminists (activists)
Context of feminine creation
Review
Helen Gurley Brown was a writer and editor whose publications about the role of women in mid-20th century society encouraged sexual and professional independence of many young female readers. She wrote several novels and was editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, to which she gave a much newer daring and innovative format to overcome its severe drop, and becoming it the most sold magazine compared with other competing magazines during the years she was its editor in chief.
Justifications
Biography
Helen Marie Gurley Brown was born in Arkansas in 1922. She studied in the Texas State College for Women (currently, Texas Woman's University) and at Woodbury University. She began working in record companies and talent agencies, before taking the step to advertising for Foote, Cone & Belding agency. There she stood out for her excellent copywriting and within a few years she was considered one of the best copywriters in the country and won several copywriting awards. In 1958, she was an executive copywriter for Kenyon & Eckhardt. One year later, she married film producer David Brown. In 1962, she took the plunge to novel writing. She published her first book, Sex and the Single Girl, which became an immediate best seller. Later on, it was adapted to cinema with the same title, and starring Natalie Wood and Tony Curtis. In her books, Helen Brown gave advice to young single women about professional, fashion, love, and entertainment topics. She outlined the advantages of being single and acknowledged sex as an important element of life. That provoked criticism of some sectors of society. In 1964, she published Sex and the Office, which was about the same topics, and for a time, she directed a column of a newspapers chain, entitled Woman Alone.
In 1965, she was appointed editor in chief of the venerable magazine Cosmopolitan, that was going to the wall at that time. Gathering ideas that she and her husband had developed for a magazine project they never carried out, she revived it as an ostentatious and attractive magazine for single or married young women that had formed around her book Sex and the Single Girl. From then on, Cosmopolitan was much more daring graphically (even a fold-out page with naked men was published in 1975) and a referent for youth fashion. Cosmopolitan's new format became hugely popular and managed to boost profits again. There were articles about women's sexual liberation, their capacity to choose, about strong women who achieved their own fates. It was the most sold magazine before other competitors for the period in which Helen Gurley Brown was its editor in chief, until 1997, when she stepped down from her post to became editor in chief of international editions of Cosmopolitan.
The writer also created the Helen Gurley Brown Foundation, in the Faculty of Journalism in Northwestern University, and she was included in the editor's Hall of Fame in New York in 1988.
Helen Gurley Brown died in New York at the age of 90.
Information taken from
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Helen Gurley Brown". Encyclopedia Britannica, 18/10/2021<https://www.britannica.com/biography/Helen-Gurley-Brown >(21/12/2022) <https://www.cosmopolitantv.es/actualidad/mujeres-que-nos-inspiran/helen-gurley-brown-la-chica-cosmo-original> (Spanish) (13/02/2022)
Works
- Sex and the Single Girl (1962)
- Lessons in Love: How To Love a Girl & How To Love a Man (1963) Vinyl record, Crescendo Records.
- Sex and the Office (1965)
- Outrageous Opinions of Helen Gurley Brown (1967)
- Helen Gurley Brown's Single Girl's Cookbook (1969)
- Sex and the New Single Girl (1970)
- Having It All (1982)
- The Late Show: A Semi Wild but Practical Guide for Women Over 50 (1993)
- The Writer's Rules: The Power of Positive Prose—How to Create It and Get It Published (1998)
- I'm Wild Again: Snippets from My Life and a Few Brazen Thoughts (2000)
Bibliography
- Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Helen Gurley Brown". Encyclopedia Britannica (18/10/2021) <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Helen-Gurley-Brown> (21/12/2021)
Didactic approach
- English: texts of the author (articles from Cosmopolitan magazine, excerpts from her novel) can be used for working reading comprehension or for introducing grammatical and vocabulary aspects. Debates on the opinion of Helen Gurley Brown about the role and the attitudes of women in society can be also carried out. Helen Gurley Brown's quotes can be used to comment them and work on speaking, or using articles about the author as a text model for a writing activity, for working journalistic genres.
- Spanish: language and literature: texts written by the author (articles from Cosmopolitan magazine, excerpts from her novel) can be used for working reading comprehension or to introduce grammatical aspects. Debates on the opinion of Helen Gurley Brown about the role and the attitudes of women in society can be also carried out.
Articles about Helen Gurley Brown can be also used for working journalistic genres, by analysing their structure and their parts, or for using them as a model for a writing activity.
- Ethical values: excerpts from her novels can be used for thinking about the role of women in society, nowadays and throughout history.