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Monday, August 13, 2012

Salute Helen Gurley Brown!

The feminist icon Helen Gurley Brown died at the age of ninety. Ms Gurley Brown found fame with her 1962 book "Sex and the Single Girl". The book was a landmark in feminist literature giving the advise that women could have a career as well as having sex before marriage. She encouraged women to become financially independent. She also advised that women didn't have to marry if they chose not to. The book became a bestseller with endorsements from both Joan Crawford and Gypsy Rose Lee on its jacket.
Ms Gurley Brown then went on to become the Editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine. Where she reigned until her ouster in 1997. During her tenure at Cosmopolitan the concept of "Cosmo Girls" took hold. These were glamorous sophisticated and successful women who controlled their own lives. Helen Gurley Brown was a major figure in the sexual revolution as well as in the women's right movement of the 1960's and 1970's.
The irony of her coming to fame as a supporter and profiler of single women was Helen Gurley Brown was married for over 50 years to her husband David Brown one of America's most successful film producers.

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