We lost two influential women of the media industry: Anna Piaggi and Helen Gurley Brown. By challenging societal norms, these women gave others the courage to make a statement.
When I think of HGB, I remember hushed-debates amongst the intellectuals of our town about the appropriateness of Cosmo for young ladies. I remember the magazine being defended on the grounds that Cosmo was one tool in the sex-education tool-box. This was pre-condoms-the-schools-debate. (Only amongst our community, the term prophylactics was preferred in mixed company.)
We were cosmopolitan, citizens of the world living in Appalachia, a world that was quite small and isolated from the realities of urban-living. Cosmo was but one entree into one world; a fantasy world for girls who would be women. We soon-to-be women, and our boys-to-men compatriots had the option of taking sex-education class in our public high school, in our small, isolated state in America where it was understood that no one was actually having sex, and that everyone was either abstaining - or married. End-of-story.
But in this world, there was a third way to worldliness, at lest for me. Magazines. Yes, by being a good reader, smart + astute, I learned all about the real world (without actually experiencing it).
But there were good reasons to keep my affinity for Cosmo on the down-low. If sex sells, then early Cosmo may have taken many liberties. Critics, as noted in the link to the New Yorker article (included above), have stated that Cosmo's stance on safe-sex was problematic in the beginning. As a young reader, I am sure these nuances were lost on me. However, it cannot be overstated the extent to which publications like Cosmo have provided a way for girls to talk about sex with a trusted adult.
Have you been a Cosmo reader? Do you have comments to share on this topic?
Next:
From Helen Gurley Brown to the late Anna Piaggi.
New York Times street-style photographer Bill Cunningham gave a touching tribute to Anna Piaggi. I first saw this video posted on the blog of fashion and design influencer Rose Apodaca. Her blog is called La Vie en Rose.
Anna Piaggi's public-life began way before before the Internet made news instantaneous and easily accessible. I understood she was an editor. I saw photos of her going to, or coming from a show, but I responded to her as one would respond to an artist. She was like the Andy Warhol of fashion, to me.
Piaggi did fashion. Fashion did not do her.
With the rise of the Internet, she became more of a celebrity. I remember back in the day when a girl could spend, maybe, an hour a week at the bookstore checking out all kinds of new-wave looks in the magazines, and the most cosmopolitan of newspapers and journals. Those were the days when journals, newspapers, and magazines mattered. They educated and entertained us with glossy photos, and compelling words and photography.
And who is this lady with red, squiggly lips and pimped-out head-gear? That's Piaggi - an Italian lady, wow!
What a young-American can learn from reading magazines. I learned about the word, a particular kind of world. And I wanted to be in magazines, too. Anna Piaggi democratized fashion through her bricolage-style of dress. As a journalist, she brought us a slice of the world not easily accessible to those of us who lived disconnected from from great urban-metropolitan centers like Milan, Paris, New York, Toronto and Montreal.
Piaggi and Gurley Brown are gone. Their respective styles were different, but their respective mark on the world is huge.
Whereas Piaggi's style signaled a polite blow to parochialism, Brown's shouted "Fire!"
Ladies, rest in peace. You will be missed.
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