Helen Gurley Brown: the Global Legacy Of ‘Cosmo’

There’s a well-known story about Helen Gurley Brown, the founding editor of Cosmopolitan magazine who died Monday at the age of 90.

She kept a pillow in her office that said, “Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere.”

You could also say that about the magazine she made into an international brand.

Cosmopolitan now has 64 editions around the world.

Journalist Edith Zimmerman recently wrote a feature in The New York Times Magazine called: “99 Ways To Be Naughty in Kazakhstan: How Cosmo Conquered the World.”

She tells anchor Marco Werman the foreign editions of Cosmo she has read are remarkably true to the original.

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Marco Werman: Hi, Marco Werman, this is The World. There’s a well known story about Helen Gurley Brown, the long-time editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, who died yesterday at the age of 90. She kept a pillow in her office that said “Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere.” You could also say that about the magazine she made into an international brand. Cosmopolitan now has 64 editions around the world. Edith Zimmerman is editor of the website The Hairpin. She recently wrote a feature in the New York Times Magazine, “99 Ways to be Naughty in Kazakhstan: How Cosmo Conquered the World.” Zimmerman says the foreign editions of Cosmo she’s read are remarkably true to the original.

Edith Zimmerman: It’s the same Cosmo brand. They make a big effort to, you know, keep it on brand everywhere. But certain things you just can’t do elsewhere. Like, in Azerbaijan, there’s no sex before marriage, that’s not discussed. So instead of, let’s say, in the US, you’ve got, you know, “When your dude is doing this”, or “When your man is doing that.”, et cetera.

Werman: Not your husband, your dude or your man.

Zimmerman: Right. It could be, you know…

Werman: Implying no marriage.

Zimmerman: Right, or implying whatever it is.

Werman: Right.

Zimmerman: But in Azerbaijan, it has to be your husband. When they’re talking about sex they can’t be as explicit about having sex, as… You know, if you’re not married you can’t talk about it, so they address it with peripheral stories, like, “What your sex dreams mean”

Werman: Ultimately it sounds like it could be an educational device for a lot of women around the globe.

Zimmerman: Yeah.

Werman: And you wrote that an editor at Cosmo India told you that when they started the magazine there in ’96, there was this flood of letters from girls who wanted to know, “Can you really get pregnant from a kiss?”

Zimmerman: Yeah.

Werman: That was in ’96, so apparently some things have changed because of Cosmo.

Zimmerman: Yeah, there’s a lot of places where there just aren’t as many platforms to discuss sex, and female health, and gynecological issues. You know, here, there’s sex ed, and there’s TV, and friends, and older sisters, and older whomevers, but in other places that information is taboo, it’s not made available. In some of these countries, Cosmo has been the only resource for a lot of people. You know, they pick it up, the pass it around, and it provides a much more valuable… I mean, it’s valuable here too, if, you know, women don’t know these things, but, it’s an easily overlooked aspect of the magazine that is really… I mean, yes on one hand, you’re being pushed into the arms of this shampoo company that you probably don’t need, but on the opposite side of that page, if it’s something about your body that you otherwise wouldn’t learn for, like, 10 years or something, you know, it just seems, it’s such a worthy tradeoff, I think.

Werman: In countries like Indonesia, that has a large Muslim population, has that presented any particular challenges for Cosmopolitan?

Zimmerman: It pushes the envelope in every country that its in, but each editor has to know just how far the envelope can be pushed. And in Indonesia, it’s the only magazine that has sex in the headlines, and that’s pretty scandalous, but they still do it.

Werman: You mean the word sex in the headlines?

Zimmerman: The word sex, yeah. And that’s bold. But, you know, it still exists and it’s, you know, moving forward. So that’s just, kind of how, like, each edition is push further and further what’s OK and what’s acceptable to talk about.

Werman: And the edition of Cosmo in Singapore has a warning on its cover. What does it say?

Zimmerman: Oh yeah. It says, “Not Suitable for the Young.” You know, it’s this gorgeous, sexy cover, and then this hideous, little rectangle in bright yellow, that says, “Not Suitable for the Young.” Which is obviously more tantalizing than anything else that it could possibly say. And then the sexiest content, which is, you know, very explicit, just as it is here, or in the UK, or in Australia, it was sealed in a little thing that you had to run your finger through, and on the outside it says “Phenomenal pleasure waiting for you inside.” Which, I mean, if it were just a regular Cosmo, I wouldn’t care, but that was like, “Oh my god! Gotta get this open.” It’s sort of like a backfire, if that’s the rule, where they have to, “Oh, no no no, you have to keep your sexiest content under wraps.”

Werman: Now, the Middle East version of Cosmo is in English, it’s not in Arabic, but apparently they’ve got a lot of different challenges as well that they have to address.

Zimmerman: Yeah, they have to tiptoe particularly lightly there. Because, dating and premarital sex are, in many countries in the middle east, punishable by law. But they find really creative ways, and…

Werman: Like what?

Zimmerman: Uh, they found ways to feature topless men. And it wasn’t super tricky, you know, it was, “Here’s some guys.” They would also have events for women, because they couldn’t say, “Here’s where to go meet men.” But they would have meetups, sort of, or, “Here’s where people can come out as a Cosmo get together.” I think they got into some hot water with an article that suggested that a particular venue was a good place to meet single men, because that would imply that they wanted to date.

Werman: Did Helen Gurley Brown keep close tabs on the non-US Cosmopolitan editions? And are these international editions going to fare well without her?

Zimmerman: I think they will. This torch that she lit, everyone’s just carrying it forward, marching around the world with it. There was this really neat story that the editor from the Kazakhstan edition told me, that up until a couple years ago, Helen had sent her a typewritten note critiquing the magazine. And even though she couldn’t read Russian, it was just, you know, “This story was laid out this way, this story was laid out this way. Here’s what you do better. This is gorgeous.” You know. And it was really cool to just imagine going through and thinking, like, “OK, I can sense what’s going on here. This seems good, this seems off.” It just was really… And to care so much for so many decades, is just like really infectious, and neat.

Werman: How do most of the editorial and publishing staff of Cosmo around the world regard Helen Gurley Brown?

Zimmerman: Reverence.

Werman: Really?

Zimmerman: Yeah, delighted reverence.

Werman: And is that because she essentially put them in this position that, you know, they’re running a magazine? Or because of what she represents, and what she has provided women?

Zimmerman: I think she created this thing that really speaks to a lot of women. Which is, honest and candid discussions of sex and relationships with humor and realism that worked well. And then, so, you know becomes popular in America, then it begins to spread around the world. And when it touches other countries and international editors are chosen, I think they just sense that, they just get ignited by it. And it’s fun and it’s cool, and it’s exciting. And it was really neat to bring up, like, “Oh do you know, so, you still, did you read Sex and the Single Girl? Yes!” And, I think.

Werman: Sex and the Single Girl, Helen Gurley Brown’s famous book from the sixties.

Zimmerman: Yeah, her first book, which you know, it’s old, but it’s funny still. Parts of it haven’t aged tremendously well, but.. Yeah, international editors just immediately… The voice that she created was special and speaks to a lot of people, and it’s the thing that’s made it as big as it is, which is why there’s been so few significant tweaks over the decades, I think.

Werman: Edith Zimmerman, editor of the website The Hairpin. She also wrote the article in the New York Times magazine last week, “99 Ways to be Naughty in Kazakhstan: How Cosmo Conquered the World.” Edith, thanks for coming in.

Zimmerman: Oh, my pleasure.

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