Helen Gurley Brown Among feminists, Brown's role has been highly contested as empowering women to be unashamed of their sexual urges and as creating a magazine that may live on as a sexist magazine with a body image problem. However, some feminists feel that the sexism in our world cannot be blamed all on "Cosmopolitan" and Brown, with other magazines circulating that objectify women's bodies. These other people look at Brown's work as both "progressive and retrogressive" when it comes to the feminist movement. Helen Gurley Brown Helen Gurley Brown (February 18, 1922 – August 13, 2012; born Helen Marie Gurley) was an
Helen Gurley Brown and Jaffe talent agencies, Gurley worked for Foote, Cone & Belding advertising agency as a secretary. Her employer recognized her writing skills and moved her to the copywriting department, where she advanced rapidly to become one of the nation's highest-paid ad copywriters in the early 1960s. In 1959, she married David Brown, who would go on to become a noted film producer. In 1962, Brown's book "Sex and the Single Girl" was published in 28 countries, and stayed on the bestseller lists for over a year. In 1964 the book inspired the film of the same name starring Natalie Wood.