When Helen Gurley Brown write the bookSex and the Single Girlin 1962 , it was still uncommon to see matrimonial brace on televisionsharing a bottom , and the birth control lozenge had just hit the market . She was , in scant , atotal malicious gossip . She translate the trope of undivided women from chaste spinsters into sovereign , ambitious — in the office and the bedroom — gentlewoman . For 32 age , she assist asCosmopolitanmagazine ’s editor program - in - gaffer , transforming it from a bland general interest mag into a sex - cocksure bible for the forward-looking woman . She give-up the ghost in 2012 . In honor of what would have been her 94th natal day on February 18 , here are nine invaluable quotes from the feminist pioneer ’s interviews and books .
1. ON MARRIAGE
" I guess marriage is policy for theworstyears of your life . During your best year you do n’t demand a hubby . You do need a man of course every step of the way , and they are often chinchy emotionally and a batch more playfulness by the dozen . "
— FromSex and the Single Girl
2. ON HAVING ROOMMATES
“ roomy are for sorority girl . You need to have an apartment alone even if it ’s over a service department . ”
3. ON WRITING A GOOD LETTER
“ I do n’t believe in kvetch too much in written material … better to be wild on the telephone set or in person than to have people funk and hate you when they open an envelope . ”
4. ON FASHION
" If you ’re not have fun with clothes , I think you ’re missing something . "
— From a 1996 consultation withThe Washington Post
5. ON BEING INDEPENDENT
“ The felicity one wants never seems to be through the people closest to us , it must somehow be through ourselves … and this is true of people with the dreamiest , lovingest married man … can they ever really do it for you ? ”
6. ON HAVING A CAREER
“ A job gives a individual cleaning woman something tobe . ”
7. ON SEXUAL OBJECTIFICATION
" I feel being a sex object is so elysian and so wonderful that there is nothing well ; that you could be a sex object and you could also be the chair of General Motors … I think Man are sex physical object . And it certainly does n’t slow you down — that women hope you sexually . "
— From a 1974 audience with60 minute of arc
8. ON FEMINISM AND THECOSMOGIRL
“ The girl I ’m editing for wants to be known for herself . If that ’s not a feminist message , I do n’t know what is . ”
— From aninterviewon her 20th anniversary asCosmopolitan ’s editor
9. ON SUCCESS
“ I think the only way you could become an tremendous winner is by not doing anythingfalseto your character reference , anything that does n’t ‘ feel right . ’ ”
— FromI’m Wild Again : Snippets from My Life and a Few Brazen view
