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This week we say goodbye to our co-host, Kelsey Bolar. Before she goes, Kelsey joins us for one last episode to discuss our favorite topics: feminism and conservatism. We go back in time to break down a 1994 PBS interview with former Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown. In the interview Gurley Brown gives a rare inside look on how a once great movement was overtaken by the sexual revolution and modern leftism.Also, we discuss Ivanka Trump’s Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative and the great work the Trump administration is doing to empower women across the globe. We also discuss the disturbing TikTok video a young girl posted right before getting an abortion.Subverted by Sue Ellen Browder: https://www.amazon.com/Subverted-Helped-Sexual-Revolution-Movement/dp/1621643212/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Renee Rosen's latest book has been described as “Mad Men meets The Devil Wears Prada,” and explores Helen Gurley Brown's first brazen year as Cosmo editor. And while the most scandalous woman in 1960s New York dares to talk to women about all things off-limits, her young PA Alice is pushing boundaries of her own. Hi there, I'm your host Jenny Wheeler and Renee Rosen talks about what Gurley Brown would have made of Me Too, the legendary brothers who created the Chicago Sound, and the thing she loves most about writing. Six things you'll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode: The "bottom drawer' novels that will never be seenWhy re-writing is Renee's favorite thingWhat she learned from the Blues Helen Gurley Brown and Me Too?The literary fiction she most admiresRenee's latest project Where to find Renee Rosen: Website: http://reneerosen.com/ Facebook: @reneerosenauthor Twitter: @ReneeRosen1 Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/412370.Renee_Rosen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reneelrosen/ What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions. Jenny: But now, here's Renee. . Hello there Renee and welcome to the show, it's great to have you with us. Renee: Thanks, Jenny, it's good to be here. Writing 'a life-long dream' Jenny: Renee, was there a Once Upon A Time moment when you decided you wanted to write fiction, as distinct from any other writing you might have been doing? And if so, what was the catalyst for it? Renee Rosen - always wanted to be a writer. Renee: You know, it's weird. I've known that I've wanted to be a writer ever since I was a little girl. I'm not even sure exactly where this came from, because I wanted to be a writer before I was a reader, which is so backwards. I was writing ad copy for a long time, but I was always working on a novel. And I would get up at 4:00 in the morning to write. And I was always late for work because I would get carried away with whatever book I was working on. And lot of 'bottom drawer' novels, lots of books that didn't go anywhere. But it's just something I've always known since I was a little girl. It's weird. I have no idea where it came from. Park Avenue Summer Jenny: It is unusual that you think about writing almost before you could read, but I'm not surprised because your books read as if you are someone who has had a professional career as a writer. That's for sure. Renee: Thank you. Jenny: So the latest one. Park Avenue Summer has been described as Mad Men meets The Devil Wears Prada. And it focuses on Helen Gurley Brown, Cosmopolitan's first editor. And it brings the New York of the 1960s very much alive. I mean, to someone who actually is old enough, I hate to admit, to have read Sex and the Single Girl first time round, even in New Zealand, it had an impact. What drew you to Helen and Cosmo as a story? Renee: Well, it's interesting. I'd been binge watching the TV show Mad Men and I really just fell in love with New York during that time period. I knew I wanted to set a book in New York. I thought, well, I'll do it during the 60s. Helen Gurley Brown 'obvious' I was searching for another glamorous type of industry - not advertising - to use as a backdrop. And initially I had started working on a fictional magazine with all fictional characters. And then I was talking to my editor about the book, and it was like a blinding glimpse of the obvious. We were like, oh, my God, Helen Gurley Brown and Cosmo. And so that's where that came from. And then we were off and running. Jenny: That's great, because you have made it to your thing really to have a combination of true life, factual people and fiction, haven't you? Renee: Yes. I'm backing away from that in the book that I'm working on now. We can talk about that later maybe. But yes, other than really one book,
Everyone knows the name Helen Gurley Brown, Cosmopolitan’s famous Editor-in-Chief and the inspiration for fictional NYC women like Carrie Bradshaw, Peggy Olson, and Hannah Horvath. A new novel set in 1960s New York sheds light on the surprisingly tumultuous beginning of Gurley Brown’s 32-year reign at Cosmo, including how she kept the lights on at the magazine even as she was railroaded by Hearst executives.Renee Rosen is the bestselling author of historical fiction. Her novels include Windy City Blues, White Collar Girl, What the Lady Wants and Dollface as well as the young adult novel, Every Crooked Pot. http://reneerosen.com
Everyone knows the name Helen Gurley Brown, Cosmopolitan’s famous Editor-in-Chief and the inspiration for fictional NYC women like Carrie Bradshaw, Peggy Olson, and Hannah Horvath. A new novel set in 1960s New York sheds light on the surprisingly tumultuous beginning of Gurley Brown’s 32-year reign at Cosmo, including how she kept the lights on at the magazine even as she was railroaded by Hearst executives. When Gurley Brown took the reins in 1965, she was best known as the author of the controversial Sex and the Single Girl, and was viewed as an unbecoming choice to lead a magazine with a rich literary history. But the changes she brought—from sexy covers featuring young women to grabby headlines that were the precursor to clickbait—turned Como’s fortunes around and revolutionized women’s magazines. The story of those early months is told through the eyes of Gurley Brown’s fictional assistant, in Renee Rosen’s historical novel PARK AVENUE SUMMER (April 30, 2019). Informed by Rosen’s extensive research—including interviews with Lois Cahall, who considered Helen her second mother—the novel contains irresistible details only those closest to Helen would know. ABOUT Mad Men meets The Devil Wears Prada as Renée Rosen draws readers into the glamour of 1965 New York City and Cosmopolitan Magazine, where a brazen new Editor-in-Chief--Helen Gurley Brown--shocks America by daring to talk to women about all things off limits... New York City is filled with opportunities for single girls like Alice Weiss who leaves her small Midwestern town to chase her big city dreams and unexpectedly lands the job of a lifetime working for Helen Gurley Brown, the first female Editor-in-Chief of a then failing Cosmopolitan Magazine. Nothing could have prepared Alice for the world she enters as editors and writers resign on the spot, refusing to work for the woman who wrote the scandalous bestseller, Sex and the Single Girl. While confidential memos, article ideas, and cover designs keep finding their way into the wrong hands, someone tries to pull Alice into this scheme to sabotage her boss. But Alice remains loyal and becomes all the more determined to help Helen succeed. As pressure mounts at the magazine and Alice struggles to make her way in New York, she quickly learns that in Helen Gurley Brown's world, a woman can demand to have it all.
“Women's history, if they had any, consisted in their being beautiful enough to become events in male lives,” the feminist academic Carolyn R. Heilbrun noted in a series of 1997 lectures, suggesting the need for new narratives and new ways of writing women's lives. Brooke Hauser‘s Enter Helen: The Invention of Helen Gurley Brown and the Rise of the Modern Single Woman is an exciting new entry into group of books that have emerged in the last few years to offer provocative and innovative biographical readings of women's lives (Kate Bolick's Spinster, for example). In Enter Helen, Hauser contextualizes Helen Gurley Brown's experience, demonstrating how the times in which she lived affected her and she, in turn, affected them. In many ways a misfit, Gurley Brown's approach made many in the women's movement uneasy. Rather than arguing for the overthrow of the patriarchy, she advocated that women use everything at their disposal to make it in a man's world. Advice that might ring a little retro, it was nonetheless well intentioned. And, in a long career devoted to the advancement of women, Gurley Brown worked tirelessly to make visible narratives that might otherwise have remained unavailable to her readers. She did not think she was beautiful and her life was far more than an event in the life of a man. It was the main event, and it's a life whose impact continues to be felt to this day- particularly in the magazine and advertising industries but also in the lives of single women discovering and re-discovering her classic book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Women’s history, if they had any, consisted in their being beautiful enough to become events in male lives,” the feminist academic Carolyn R. Heilbrun noted in a series of 1997 lectures, suggesting the need for new narratives and new ways of writing women’s lives. Brooke Hauser‘s Enter Helen: The Invention of Helen Gurley Brown and the Rise of the Modern Single Woman is an exciting new entry into group of books that have emerged in the last few years to offer provocative and innovative biographical readings of women’s lives (Kate Bolick’s Spinster, for example). In Enter Helen, Hauser contextualizes Helen Gurley Brown’s experience, demonstrating how the times in which she lived affected her and she, in turn, affected them. In many ways a misfit, Gurley Brown’s approach made many in the women’s movement uneasy. Rather than arguing for the overthrow of the patriarchy, she advocated that women use everything at their disposal to make it in a man’s world. Advice that might ring a little retro, it was nonetheless well intentioned. And, in a long career devoted to the advancement of women, Gurley Brown worked tirelessly to make visible narratives that might otherwise have remained unavailable to her readers. She did not think she was beautiful and her life was far more than an event in the life of a man. It was the main event, and it’s a life whose impact continues to be felt to this day- particularly in the magazine and advertising industries but also in the lives of single women discovering and re-discovering her classic book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Women’s history, if they had any, consisted in their being beautiful enough to become events in male lives,” the feminist academic Carolyn R. Heilbrun noted in a series of 1997 lectures, suggesting the need for new narratives and new ways of writing women’s lives. Brooke Hauser‘s Enter Helen: The Invention of Helen Gurley Brown and the Rise of the Modern Single Woman is an exciting new entry into group of books that have emerged in the last few years to offer provocative and innovative biographical readings of women’s lives (Kate Bolick’s Spinster, for example). In Enter Helen, Hauser contextualizes Helen Gurley Brown’s experience, demonstrating how the times in which she lived affected her and she, in turn, affected them. In many ways a misfit, Gurley Brown’s approach made many in the women’s movement uneasy. Rather than arguing for the overthrow of the patriarchy, she advocated that women use everything at their disposal to make it in a man’s world. Advice that might ring a little retro, it was nonetheless well intentioned. And, in a long career devoted to the advancement of women, Gurley Brown worked tirelessly to make visible narratives that might otherwise have remained unavailable to her readers. She did not think she was beautiful and her life was far more than an event in the life of a man. It was the main event, and it’s a life whose impact continues to be felt to this day- particularly in the magazine and advertising industries but also in the lives of single women discovering and re-discovering her classic book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Women’s history, if they had any, consisted in their being beautiful enough to become events in male lives,” the feminist academic Carolyn R. Heilbrun noted in a series of 1997 lectures, suggesting the need for new narratives and new ways of writing women’s lives. Brooke Hauser‘s Enter Helen: The Invention of Helen Gurley Brown and the Rise of the Modern Single Woman is an exciting new entry into group of books that have emerged in the last few years to offer provocative and innovative biographical readings of women’s lives (Kate Bolick’s Spinster, for example). In Enter Helen, Hauser contextualizes Helen Gurley Brown’s experience, demonstrating how the times in which she lived affected her and she, in turn, affected them. In many ways a misfit, Gurley Brown’s approach made many in the women’s movement uneasy. Rather than arguing for the overthrow of the patriarchy, she advocated that women use everything at their disposal to make it in a man’s world. Advice that might ring a little retro, it was nonetheless well intentioned. And, in a long career devoted to the advancement of women, Gurley Brown worked tirelessly to make visible narratives that might otherwise have remained unavailable to her readers. She did not think she was beautiful and her life was far more than an event in the life of a man. It was the main event, and it’s a life whose impact continues to be felt to this day- particularly in the magazine and advertising industries but also in the lives of single women discovering and re-discovering her classic book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Women’s history, if they had any, consisted in their being beautiful enough to become events in male lives,” the feminist academic Carolyn R. Heilbrun noted in a series of 1997 lectures, suggesting the need for new narratives and new ways of writing women’s lives. Brooke Hauser‘s Enter Helen: The Invention of Helen Gurley Brown and the Rise of the Modern Single Woman is an exciting new entry into group of books that have emerged in the last few years to offer provocative and innovative biographical readings of women’s lives (Kate Bolick’s Spinster, for example). In Enter Helen, Hauser contextualizes Helen Gurley Brown’s experience, demonstrating how the times in which she lived affected her and she, in turn, affected them. In many ways a misfit, Gurley Brown’s approach made many in the women’s movement uneasy. Rather than arguing for the overthrow of the patriarchy, she advocated that women use everything at their disposal to make it in a man’s world. Advice that might ring a little retro, it was nonetheless well intentioned. And, in a long career devoted to the advancement of women, Gurley Brown worked tirelessly to make visible narratives that might otherwise have remained unavailable to her readers. She did not think she was beautiful and her life was far more than an event in the life of a man. It was the main event, and it’s a life whose impact continues to be felt to this day- particularly in the magazine and advertising industries but also in the lives of single women discovering and re-discovering her classic book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Women’s history, if they had any, consisted in their being beautiful enough to become events in male lives,” the feminist academic Carolyn R. Heilbrun noted in a series of 1997 lectures, suggesting the need for new narratives and new ways of writing women’s lives. Brooke Hauser‘s Enter Helen: The Invention of Helen Gurley Brown and the Rise of the Modern Single Woman is an exciting new entry into group of books that have emerged in the last few years to offer provocative and innovative biographical readings of women’s lives (Kate Bolick’s Spinster, for example). In Enter Helen, Hauser contextualizes Helen Gurley Brown’s experience, demonstrating how the times in which she lived affected her and she, in turn, affected them. In many ways a misfit, Gurley Brown’s approach made many in the women’s movement uneasy. Rather than arguing for the overthrow of the patriarchy, she advocated that women use everything at their disposal to make it in a man’s world. Advice that might ring a little retro, it was nonetheless well intentioned. And, in a long career devoted to the advancement of women, Gurley Brown worked tirelessly to make visible narratives that might otherwise have remained unavailable to her readers. She did not think she was beautiful and her life was far more than an event in the life of a man. It was the main event, and it’s a life whose impact continues to be felt to this day- particularly in the magazine and advertising industries but also in the lives of single women discovering and re-discovering her classic book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Women’s history, if they had any, consisted in their being beautiful enough to become events in male lives,” the feminist academic Carolyn R. Heilbrun noted in a series of 1997 lectures, suggesting the need for new narratives and new ways of writing women’s lives. Brooke Hauser‘s Enter Helen: The Invention of Helen Gurley Brown and the Rise of the Modern Single Woman is an exciting new entry into group of books that have emerged in the last few years to offer provocative and innovative biographical readings of women’s lives (Kate Bolick’s Spinster, for example). In Enter Helen, Hauser contextualizes Helen Gurley Brown’s experience, demonstrating how the times in which she lived affected her and she, in turn, affected them. In many ways a misfit, Gurley Brown’s approach made many in the women’s movement uneasy. Rather than arguing for the overthrow of the patriarchy, she advocated that women use everything at their disposal to make it in a man’s world. Advice that might ring a little retro, it was nonetheless well intentioned. And, in a long career devoted to the advancement of women, Gurley Brown worked tirelessly to make visible narratives that might otherwise have remained unavailable to her readers. She did not think she was beautiful and her life was far more than an event in the life of a man. It was the main event, and it’s a life whose impact continues to be felt to this day- particularly in the magazine and advertising industries but also in the lives of single women discovering and re-discovering her classic book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices