On Wednesday I started reading Sex and the Single Girl. It is a dating guide written in 1962 by Helen Gurley Brown, the founder of Cosmo. It is also one of the most insane and amusing things ever written. When I started reading it I thought the antiquated advice would make me angry, but it's just so over the top ridiculous it's hard to get worked up about it. Also, HGB is HILARIOUS. Sometimes intentionally so. A few choice gems (trust me, there will be more to come. I'm not even half way through):
On where to meet men:
Work - The quality of the men you meet at work is usually pretty satisfactory. At least they are not chaps who go to movies all day in hopes of sitting next to a nine-year-old girl.
Alcoholics Anonymous - I don't know her personally but a friend tells me a friend of hers plucked herself a steady beau and subsequent husband from A.A. If you are going to try this approach to men, I suggest a wealthy chapter of A.A. Might as well start with a solvent problem child, like say someone with liquid assets.
Active Sports - Never mind you were voted the kid most likely to drown when all the kids on your block took off for the old swimming hole. Men like sports, can you afford not to?
On homosexuals:
How do you tell when a man isn't a man? Suppose he's over thirty and lives with another man. The situation bears watching. If he has a male roommate and he's over forty, there's very little doubt about his sex. He's a girl.
On being sexy:
Your figure can't harbor an ounce of baby fat. It never looked good on anyone, but babies.
Being able to sit very still is sexy.
Not sexy: flesh not secured firmly to the bone.
Not sexy: flesh not secured firmly to the bone.
Clean hair is sexy. Lots of hair is sexy too.
Talking all the time about anything is unsexy. Sphinxes and Mona Lisas knew what they were doing!
Another way to be "genuinely" sexy, though not recommended, is to be an actress.
The Rules has NOTHING on this.
2 comments:
i've wanted to read this book. HGB is an amazing character. she's larger than life in her craftiness.
she's amazing. the more i read it the more i genuinely like her. her advice is obviously insane, but she's also like, have lots of sex! make lots of money! have a great career! you don't ever have to get married! it's hard not to admire that.
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