Original 'Cosmo' girl Brown touts the beauty of sex

Original 'Cosmo' girl Brown touts the beauty of sex

By Dini S. Djalal

JAKARTA (JP): Fun, fearless, female is the catchphrase for
Kosmopolitan, the new magazine in town.

Sounds familiar? It should, because Kosmopolitan, launched on
Friday, is Indonesia's own Cosmopolitan, the groundbreaking U.S.-
publication now published in 32 countries. Around the world, its
barely-clad cover girls and articles on sex never fail to raise
chaste eyebrows -- no proselytizing gospel for modesty or
chastity.

Yet Cosmopolitan is, at least in intent, proudly feminist,
just like its founder, publisher and editor Helen Gurley Brown,
author of the best-seller Sex and the Single Girl. This avowal is
often refuted by other feminists, who claim the Amazonian models
and romance-oriented articles in Cosmopolitan pressure women to
strive for a beauty and relationship ideal which oppresses rather
than liberates. Yet mainstream feminists allow that magazines
like Cosmopolitan are the most effective means of popularizing
feminist ideas, reaching the poor and affluent alike.

Now Cosmopolitan has arrived in Indonesia, taking over Higina
magazine managed by PT Higina Alhadin. Will the religious circle
in Indonesia accept the magazine's liberal tenets?

Gurley Brown, ever the proponent of her own principles of
determination and hard work, says it will. And having launched
Cosmopolitan around the world while still selling 3 million
copies of the U.S. edition, it may be hard to prove her wrong.

The following are excerpts from an interview during her visit
here:

Question: Why are you publishing in Indonesia?

Answer: The magazine I started is a very transportable format.
It works all over the world. If we can be in Taiwan, Japan,
Korea, we can be in Indonesia. It's a new world to conquer.

Q: But Kosmopolitan is the first foreign publication to be able
to publish here? How come?

A: I'm not totally familiar with the specifics, but Higina was
already an established magazine. And Cosmopolitan is a magazine
that hopes the best for women. We don't come in and impose our
ideas, but the magazine is for women who love men, who care for
parents and probably want children and marriage, but don't want
to depend entirely on men. Marriages don't last in my country,
but women are giving, loving people who also want to achieve
something. But if you don't want a career, that's okay too.

Q: Yet Indonesia is almost 90 percent Moslem. Do you think it's
ready for Cosmo's provocative covers and equally provocative
articles on sex?

A: I could be more familiar with Moslem tenets, but Cosmo never
made an issue of religion. It's a personal matter -- we don't
want to influence your mind about religion. As for sex, it's an
important part of Cosmo but not the most important. Sex is a
wonderful happening, a delicious feeling. If you want to abstain
from sex, if you're not comfortable with it, that's okay.

We're not a go-go-go, sex-sex-sex magazine. But if you're over
20 years old, sex is probably a part of your life. In the U.S.,
we have two major sex articles a month. We're also known as an
alluring magazine because our cover girls are so gorgeous, but
now many magazines are like us.

Q: I've read that you're involved in the editorial decisions of
the foreign publications. Will you be as involved here?

A: When a new edition of Cosmo begins, I usually go there and
explain that the magazine helps women develop their potential.
But in every country, an editor chooses a content that's right
for the constituency. I go through each edition every month and
give a critique, but I don't speak the languages. So I can't
really read the articles, I just look at the pictures.

Q: Will some articles from the U.S. version be translated into
Indonesian?

A: Some, but we don't push. Some of the U.S. articles, however,
like the health articles, are so sound and well-researched that I
hope they will be published here. I think health is very
important -- I got off the plane and exercised for an hour! Also,
our U.S. articles on self-esteem are very good, and some young
women are born without self-esteem.

You know, we're not a news magazine. We're a magazine about
relationships, whether with your boyfriend or husband or mother
or father, and relationships have to do with how you feel about
yourself.

Q: You wrote about having it all. Can Indonesian women have it
all?

A: There are those who think many women can't have it all. But
having it all holds a different meaning to different people. To
me, it means having a man to love, and work to love, because
loving your work is as important as any other love. I chose not
to have children, but for most women, it also means having
children.

I believe women just don't try for more. I'm always pushing
them to want more and to get it themselves, to not rely on men.
You can't just marry a rich man, there are not enough to go
around.

Q: So you are not advocating the concept of a superwoman?

A: I don't even know what a superwoman is. It's probably someone
who takes care of the kids, takes care of her husband, takes care
of herself and her job. In those cases, to be a superwoman is
probably just to exist.

Q: You call yourself a feminist. How did you become one?

A: Well you know I didn't start Cosmo until I was 43 (she is now
75). I started work at 18 because I couldn't afford to go to
college. I had no talent, I didn't think I had a high IQ. I had
17 secretarial jobs from when I was 18 up to my mid-30s. I'm
nobody very special, but yet I did the best I could.

My point is that there's something any woman can do in terms
of achievement, whether it's being an air hostess, or taking care
of a nursery. I was so unspecial, I had wall-to-wall acne, I
wasn't particularly bright, but I did the best I could, and
that's my message.

Q: Did you ever partake in any bra-burning?

A: Of course not. Feminism has many definitions. For me, to be a
feminist means to not be discriminated because of your sex. It's
called choice, you must be able to be what you want to be. But it
means you also can't say to a man, be a man, go out and kill
tigers. Feminism means equality. My husband is a feminist.

Q: What do you think of others in the women's movement?

A: In the beginning, so-called feminists were man-hating. But my
brand of feminism says that men are the only other sex we have,
so they're necessary for having babies, a sex life, somebody to
love. We shouldn't be against all men, just men that give you a
bad time. You can be a feminist and also love men. You can be a
feminist and love your body, lipstick, makeup, looking gorgeous
and beautiful clothes.

Those ideas are not inimical to each other. So I am a devout
feminist and also love men... I also think there are some women
that are pretty awful. Although we couldn't be where we are now
if it weren't for the early feminists (i.e. Gloria Steinem, Betty
Friedan) because they boycotted companies. They said we won't buy
your products unless you let women have opportunities to achieve.

For example, Time magazine only had women secretaries; a woman
could not be a reporter with her name on the page. So the women
in the company went on strike. They did that because women
leaders helped them how to conduct the strike... It's a terrible
waste for a country to say to a woman stay home and not use all
that brain power she has.

Q: Let me refer to Naomi Wolf's book The Beauty Myth. She says
that women's magazines like Cosmo contradict themselves because
they try to sell feminism while also pressuring women to achieve
this oppressive beauty ideal. What's your comment?

A: To look as good as you can, that's been around since cavemen
and Cleopatra. Beauty is a wonderful thing to have and to be, but
you can also use your brain. Naomi Wolf, she's smart and she does
good writing, but I think she's off the wall (laughs). It's
wonderful to look as nice as you can, to smell pretty, wash your
hair, scrub your skin, not for him, but because that's what you
want to do.

In my country there are not enough men for the number of women
available, so the nicer you look, the higher your chances with a
man. But that doesn't mean you're doing it just for him, that
you're some kind of doormat. You're doing it because standards of
beauty are something you want to live up to the best we can. It's
an honorable pursuit.

Q: Has the AIDS crisis altered your views on female sexual
liberation?

A: If a woman is careful and doesn't have anal sex or use
needles, she won't get AIDS. Cosmo was never big on
scare-them-to-death, sex-is-gonna-kill nonsense because it's not
true. We did heavily researched, important articles on AIDS and
told the truth. We fought too hard for sexual equality to scare
the daylights out of women, to say don't have sex, you'll die.
It's ridiculous.