‘Cosmo’ Editor-In-Chief, Feminist, Philanthropist, Icon Helen Gurley Brown, Dead At 90

Helen Gurley Brown, the iconic editor-in-chief of “Cosmopolitan” magazine, aka, “Cosmo,” a stalwart feminist who helped women in the ’60’s become women of the ’60’s, and a philanthropist, is dead at the age of 90. Brown, who never became irrelevant, is credited for creating “Cosmo Girls,” and helping engender the sexual revolution. She was a long-time author, publisher, and businesswoman, and even at the age of 90 still had the media writing about her and her creation, Cosmo.

Helen Gurley Brown, who authored seven books in total, ran Cosmo from 1965 — three years after the publication of her first book, Sex and The Single Girl — until 1997, when she became international editor at Heart for all Cosmo editions.

Four years ago, Brown was named the 13th most powerful woman over 80 by Slate Magazine.

“Gurley Brown will be remembered among the most influential editors of all time,” MediaBistro’s Chris O’Shea noted, adding:

“It would be hard to overstate the importance to Hearst of her success with Cosmopolitan, or the value of the friendship many of us enjoyed with her,” commented Frank Bannack, CEO of Hearst, in an announcement to colleagues. “Helen was one of the world’s most recognized magazine editors and book authors, and a true pioneer for women in journalism — and beyond.”

“Helen was an inspiration, a true success story. Her energy, enthusiasm and true passion for women’s issues unleashed a platform for women worldwide,” said David Carey, president of Hearst Magazines, in a statement. “She brought the subject that every woman wanted to know about but nobody talked about, to life, literally, in Cosmo’s pages.”

Wikipedia also notes:

Together with her husband David, Helen Gurley established the David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation. This institution will be housed at both the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Stanford’s Engineering School. Their $30 million donation to the two schools will be used to develop journalism in the context of new technologies.

Of Cosmo, Buzzfeed’s Anna North just last week wrote:

Cosmo, as both a magazine and a worldwide brand, is full of contradictions. Most basically, it’s a publication that became what it was thanks to Helen Gurley Brown, a powerful and sometimes revolutionary woman — and at the same time, its content can look neither empowering nor revolutionary. In the New York Times magazine this weekend, Edith Zimmerman highlighted these contradictions. She cites headlines like “Eeek! You’ll Die When You Read What These ‘Normal’ Guys Wanted Once Their Pants Hit the Floor” (from American Cosmo) and “Oops! My V Zone Is Strange!” (from the South Korean version, which underscore the mag’s reputation as, in one of her friends’ words, “trash.” But then she quotes the editor of Cosmo Kazakhstan’s message to her readers: “You are strong, you can control your life, you can earn as much as men do and you can have sex before marriage and not be condemned by society.” It’s messages like this that makeCosmo tough to dismiss.

That’s what Gail Dines would like readers to do, though. In a Guardian response to Zimmerman’s piece, Dines (who also wrote a polemic against pornography) argues that Cosmo is materialistic and obsessively focused on pleasing men, and that instead, women deserve “a bestselling magazine that devoted itself to giving women great orgasms on our own terms.”

Just ten days ago, in “99 Ways to Be Naughty in Kazakhstan – How Cosmo Conquered the World,”  Edith Zimmerman at The New York Times wrote:

Helen Gurley Brown, or H.G.B. as she’s known in the Cosmo universe, is the patron saint of Cosmopolitan’s sex-centric brand of female empowerment. The author of the then-scandalous self-help book “Sex and the Single Girl” — which advised women on how to better enjoy their jobs, relationships and bodies — Brown re-branded the magazine with her frank, sexy tone in 1965, when most women’s magazines were focused on family and home economics. She remained editor until 1997 and is still listed as editor in chief for Cosmopolitan International on all mastheads.

At 90, Brown maintains a delightfully incongruous pink corner office in the gleaming Hearst Tower on 57th Street in Manhattan. And although somewhat retired, she remains something of a spiritual godmother for the dozens of international editors trying to implement her ideas in their own countries. “ ‘Sex and the Single Girl’ is still the G.P.S. to being W.O.W. — a well-turned-out woman!” explained the editor of Cosmo South Africa, Sbu Mpungose. As has been the case with other newer Cosmos, the first issue of Cosmo Azerbaijan, in 2011, included a feature on Brown: “It was absolutely necessary for girls in our country to know who she is,” the magazine’s editor, Leyla Orujova, explained.

Akisheva, the editor in Kazakhstan, told me that until recently, she received a handwritten note from Brown after the publication of each issue. “Our readers might not be very familiar with Helen Gurley Brown’s books and biography,” she said, “but they surely are influenced by her original ideas. Because this is what Cosmo keeps telling them: You are strong, you can control your life, you can earn as much as men do and you can have sex before marriage and not be condemned by society.”

A few quotes from “HGB,” compiled by The Huffington Post earlier this year — a testament to her eternal relevance:

‘My success was not based so much on any great intelligence but on great common sense.’

‘Never fail to know that if you are doing all the talking, you are boring somebody.’

‘The message was: So you’re single. You can still have sex. You can have a great life. And if you marry, don’t just sponge off a man or be the gold-medal-winning mother. Don’t use men to get what you want in life — get it for yourself.’

‘Nearly every glamorous, wealthy, successful career woman you might envy now started out as some kind of schlepp.’

‘Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.’

Image: Helen Gurley Brown, 1964