In Jennifer Scanlon’s new book entitled, “Bad Girls Go Everywhere,” a biography about Helen Gurley Brown, former editor of Cosmopolitan magazine and author of “Sex and the Single Girl,” (1962) we see a woman who came from the mountains and became the premiere single girl in the City. A woman with sass, brains, and the wit to admit that sex can be a “powerful weapon” for single women.
Originally from a small town in the Ozark mountains in 1922, she briefly moved to Los Angeles with her family and Scanlon says” She eventually came to realize that success and power produced their own beauty.”
Brown’s working-class woman viewpoint attributed to her success as a writer and magazine editor as she was able to relate to her readers. She frankly wrote about sex, work, and said things like, ““You can’t sleep your way to the top or even to the middle, and there is no such thing as a free lunch. You have to do it yourself, so you might as well get started.”
She was also not afraid to touch on taboo topics such as contraception and abortion, nor was she ashamed of her singleness and told her readers the same thing. If anything, she championed female independence and a certain je ne sais quoi, about the status quo of getting married and have 2.5 children.
If you’re one of those gals who frets about being single in the city or in your small town, why not take these words of advice from Ms. Brown.
“If you have some daily anguish from some cause that’s not really your fault — a rotten family, bad health, nowhere looks, serious money problems, nobody to help you, minority background rejoice! These things are your fuel!”
