Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown [Hardcover]

Jennifer Scanlon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2009

When reviewing the great figures of feminism, few would call to mind the creator of the Cosmo Girl, but as Jennifer Scanlon argues in her fascinating biography Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown, the longtime editor of Cosmopolitan and diva of the New York magazine world powerfully changed the way modern culture views the single woman.
From Brown's first book, Sex and the Single Girl, a bold precursor to today's unapologetic Sex in the City, to her editing of the most widely read women's magazine in the world, Brown defied traditional mores to proclaim the unmarried woman's right to happiness. The first woman to publicly say there was another role available in the conservative context of the 1960s, Brown offered American women a revelation that resulted in a revolution. Scanlon tracks the trajectory of Brown's career as a frank, fearless champion for women, from her support for abortion rights to her demands that freedom of choice for women include everything from fashion to politics, showing how Brown has advocated for women while achieving great commercial success.
The first to focus on Helen Gurley Brown, Scanlon's intriguing biography accords Brown a place among the early leaders of the second wave of the feminist movement. In Bad Girls Go Everywhere, Scanlon's impressively researched portrait shows us that Helen Gurley Brown is a woman of fascinating contradictions, carving out her own unique philosophy of pragmatic feminism, a philosophy that defines the lives of millions of women today. Scanlon's perceptive account of this shrewd public figure tracks the collision between sexual politics and commerce, providing new insight into the social forces that shape modern life. To read it is to better understand how feminism operates in our day-to-day lives.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Helen Gurley Brown, best known for her 32 years as editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, gets the full feminist icon treatment in this lively, engaging biography from gender studies professor Scanlon (Inarticulate Longings: The Ladies' Home Journal, Gender, and the Promises of Consumer Culture). Brown invented the term "mouseburger" to describe herself-a "young woman of average looks, with some intelligence, more likely working in a job than pursuing a career"-but grew into a New York media diva after finding her niche penning women's articles and, later, best-selling books like Sex and the Single Girl. Combing girlish banter with a frank, no-nonsense attitude toward sex, Gurley's trademark voice gained her popularity and, eventually, the editorial gig at Cosmopolitan. There, she resuscitated the flailing publication with a sexy, transformative makeover. While contemporary 1960s society considered Brown the antithesis of feminist stars like Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan, Brown's push for freedom in the office and the bedroom presaged feminism's approaching third wave. Scanlon skillfully avoids caricature, depicting instead an intelligent and complex woman who, for all her talk of wild sex and steamy affairs, remained happily (and monogamously) married, lived as frugally as possible, encouraged women's independence, and frequently educated readers on vital issues like contraception, queer culture, abortion and rape.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. In the early second-wave feminism of the 1960s, Helen Gurley Brown made it her mission to argue that "good" girls were independent, hard-working, successful, and perfectly happy not being wives or mothers, instead enjoying casual sex, wearing make-up and high heels, and receiving expensive gifts from their lovers, some of whom may be married to others. Scanlon (gender & women's studies, Bowdoin Coll.), a feminist scholar, has written the first biography of the famous Cosmopolitan editor, whose views were certainly considered unconventional by both general society and the emerging women's liberation movement. As Scanlon's timely book shows, we're likely to be familiar with Brown and her famed "Cosmo girl" through their latter-day embodiment in characters in Mad Men and Sex and the City. Brown's life is a particularly rich, interesting subject, and Scanlon does a good job of recounting her transformation from ambitious working girl to influential promoter of the power of the feminine and, in Scanlon's view, feminist consciousness. Highly recommended.—Theresa Kintz, Wilkes Univ., Wilkes-Barre, PA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; First Edition edition (April 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195342054
• ISBN-13: 978-0195342055
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #322,602 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jennifer Scanlon is Professor and Director of Gender and Women's Studies at Bowdoin College in Maine. She has written widely on gender and consumer culture, including women's magazines, film, popular fiction, and feminism. Her most recent book, Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown, has garnered national and international attention and accolades.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Fabulous Feminist, April 13, 2009

By 

Hawley Roddick "Author and memoir co-author" (San Juan Islands, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown (Hardcover)

Helen Gurley Brown is a "bad girl" in the very best sense. She built her spectacular career on challenging the status quo, especially for women who had jobs outside the home and were expected to respect the limits of the glass ceiling pressing down on their heads.

Jennifer Scanlon's revealing biography portrays Helen as a pioneer feminist who not only encouraged young women to enjoy themselves in and out of bed but also supported safe and legal abortion, equal pay, and successful careers based on solid achievements.

At the same time, Helen could be controversial. For instance, she was not opposed to single women having affairs with married men who could help their careers. And she had a bit of a fetish about staying ultra-thin. (I know this well because I wrote "The Dieter's Notebook" column for Cosmo for several years.)

Yet because Helen kept her fingers on the pulse of a much larger group of women than did high-profile feminist leaders with less room for men in their lives, she expanded feminism. She was the one helping women to move forward while still enjoying their lovers and husbands as well as their own good looks and their rewarding careers.

Carrie Bradshaw and her friends are at least as much the daughters of Helen Gurley Brown as of Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem. Dare I suggest that so, in important ways, is the chic, lively, accomplished Michele Obama? Read the book and decide for yourself.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good writing about a fairly awful subject., April 13, 2009

By 

Jill Meyer (United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown (Hardcover)

If I could, I'd give the writing of this book the five stars I did, but give the subject of the book, Helen Gurley Brown, two stars for her very existence. The author wrote an almost scholarly bio of Brown and her very heavy influence on society from the publication of her first book, Sex and the Single Girl in 1962 to her three decade-long editorialship (and redefining of) the magazine Cosmopolitan.

Brown DID have a great influence on post-war American women, "okaying" their position in the workplace, and telling them that it was "okay" to stay single and - gasp - enjoy an active love life. Even with - gasp - married men. The women Brown was writing for were not the ones later aimed at by feminists. These women were the secretaries and other white-collar workers, who maybe didn't attend college and were not aiming for "careers", but rather to get along in life. Betty Friedan - contrasted with Brown - was writing for the college-educated lawyer and doctors-to-be.

Brown's "girls" were urged to take advantage of men, in ways both financial and personal. In many sneaky and underhanded ways, Brown, tells her "girls" to score both money and other material objects from men. And that's what I always felt was dishonest about Helen Gurley Brown. She condoned "girls" sleeping with married men (while pointing out the obvious disadvantages) but I wonder how SHE would have felt had David Brown had affairs?

I can recommend the book for the writing as well as the analysis. I still didn't like Helen Gurley Brown, but I feel I understand her better.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ahead of her time., June 6, 2010

By 

S. Rogers (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown (Hardcover)

Before Mary Richards and Ann Marie (of That Girl fame), before Gloria Steinem and Candace Bushnell, there was a different sort of champion for the single girl: Helen Gurley Brown.

You may know her as the long-time editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, but as Jennifer Scanlon recounts in her very entertaining biography of HGB, Bad Girls Go Everywhere, she's also a prolific writer, media maven, and feminist (of sorts) that was way ahead of her time.

I picked up Scanlon's book after reading about it in my college alumni newsletter (Scanlon is Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at Bowdoin College), thinking it would be a fun, "Summer" read. What surprised me was that it was much more academic in nature - providing fascinating insights into both gender roles, the media landscape, and pop culture in the 1960s - but still eminently readable, like one of Carrie Bradshaw's columns.

What I found so interesting:

The paperback wasn't introduced until 1939. Before that, few people owned books, as hard covers were too expensive. The paperback democratized reading in America! I'm now interested to read another book Scanlon cites in her notes, Two Bit Culture: the Paperbacking of America.

Helen Gurley came from humble beginnings in Arkansas, which taught her to live frugally and use her - ahem - feminine wiles to get what she wanted in life. She was (and is) a huge advocate for working, independent women.

She spent years as a secretary (one of the few professional roles available to women in the 1950s) before her employer at ad shop Foote Cone Belding noticed her writing skills an made her an advertising copywriter.

She played the field for years, celebrating her singledom and advocating for other women to follow suit. It was not until she was 38 (a dinosaur back in the 60s!) that she decided to find a husband...and she did so, in a very matter-of-fact way, by meeting and marrying successful film producer (and twice-divorced) David Brown.

David is another fascinating character - he is the producer behind such hit films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, M.A.S.H., Jaws, Cocoon, A Few Good Men, and Driving Miss Daisy. The idea for Jaws actually came to him via HGB - a Cosmo reader submitted the story idea to her, she passed it on the David, he read Peter Benchley's book and then secured the movie rights.

David encouraged HGB's writing, and made all the right introductions for her in Hollywood. In 1962 she published the wildly successful (and controversial) Sex and the Single Girl, the precursor to our modern day Sex and the City. In fact, she wrote a monthly column called Step into my Parlor just as Candace Bushnell would years later.

Besides numerous books, HGB also penned several reality TV show ideas that were eerily similar to current-day programming. In one, celebrity chefs face off with a list of ingredients to see who can prepare the best meals; in another, celebrities weigh in on everyday-peoples' marital problems. Sound familiar?? While these sorts of shows are a dime a dozen today, they were considered uncomfortable material for television viewers in the 1960s. Basically, if a show didn't depict a Happy-Days-like nuclear family, it didn't air. There was even some controversy when real-life loves Lucy & Desi Arnaz filed for divorce and would no longer work together on the I Love Lucy show: rather than portray Lucy as a divorcee in later episodes (socially unacceptable!) they chose to make her a widow.

Although HGB no longer mans the helm at Cosmo, she was named the 13th most powerful American over the age of 80 by Slate magazine. Her beloved David died earlier this year at age 93, but Helen is still going strong at 88.