Cosmo Girl

As everyone knows, and all obituaries have pointed out, Brown helped changed women’s perceptions about sexuality. During her younger days –and I think it is still very much so in this generation – women felt ashamed to talk about sex. Then, her version of Cosmopolitan came along, which reacted to the social mores of the day with the message that girls can talk about sex too.  

Make no mistake, the Cosmopolitan that Brown took over in 1965 was not only about sex. But it tried to feature all aspects of women’s interests or anxieties such as their careers, looks, relationships and, of course, sexuality. The other women’s magazines touched upon all the other elements but conspicuously left out sexuality.

I met this remarkable lady when she was here in Bangkok to launch the Thai version of Cosmopolitan 16 years ago. My interview with her took place in her suite in a five-star hotel. I got only half an hour to talk to her before she went off to another business meeting.

I am not a Cosmopolitan fan, even though I do share the anxieties of working women living in a modern society. I’m not a fan of women’s self-help magazines. And I personally prefer some things to be private. I can’t really say that Brown was one of my icons. But I was quite keen to meet the editor of one of the world’s most most influential women’s magazines.

The encounter was interesting indeed. Here was the lady who believed in the look as much as the intelligent side of a woman. When I first entered her room, Brown was in the middle of her grooming routine before her next appointment. She wore a colourful dress. But her hair was wrapped in a towel to hide her hair rollers. My appearance would have made “Cosmo girls” shake their heads in disapproval: makeup-free face, boyish shirt and denim jeans. But I believe that we both shared the same values of all independent woman. I remember her telling me that women should work to be financially independent. She said her message was that Cosmopolitan was for fun and fearless women. This Cosmo lady was less about advocating sexuality but more about women taking control of their lives, regardless of language or background.

Her strong message was different from what Thai society was trying to tell Thai women. For instance, some commentators still held strong to the notion that victims of sexual harassment were to be blamed for wearing sexy clothing. Rabiabrat Pongpanich, a former senator who was described as a “women’s rights activist”, once said the value of a woman should be measured by her virginity. This was part of her campaign to prevent women having sex before marriage. Girls who slept around were bad, end of story.

Brown did not judge women by their sex lives but their ability to rise against the odds. Coming from a poor family in Arkansas, Brown used her independent spirit and intellect to make it to the top. Some of her approaches might have been debatable, though. According to an article in The New Yorker by Judith Thurman, Brown was said to have stolen money from her former boss, whom she apparently slept with, to buy a New Yorker subscription for her sister who was living in poverty in Arkansas. 

The subject of sexuality in Brown’s writing was designed to emphasise a woman’s freedom to express herself. Women can choose to be either “promiscuous” or a “prude”, or whatever they want, in order to feel comfortable with themselves.

Unfortunately the published interview and the photograph of her disappeared from my personal collection of clippings many years ago. But I do have a vivid memory of that photograph we took that day. When I asked her how she wanted to appear in the photo, she refused to unwrap the towel. Instead she tugged the towel to adjust it, put on some lipstick and showed the first Thai version of Cosmopolitan by holding it up to the side of her face. I can’t imagine anyone else who could have struck such a pose with a towel wrapped around her head and still looked so hot.