Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Alas for those who met her

Helen Gurley Brown is dead. I don't follow the pagan Greek custom of speaking only good of the deceased so this post may bother some people. Please skip it now if that is the case.

The woman was quite frankly, a procuress. She didn't stalk the school yard luring your girls into her brothel but she cleverly used her writing talent to seduce, to ensnare, to glamour in the orginal 18th century sense of the word.  Her claim to wealth and fame was that she convinced two or three generations of teenagers and young women that adultery was okay, that not only was fornication okay but that you were missing out and were a hopeless loser if you weren't doing it, and that sleeping with your boss was okay if it helped your career.

This foul creature is responsible through her books and magazine for the ruin of many a poor girl. Some of us who read her books in high school got off relatively unscathed. God only knows how many weren't.