As HRC accepts nomination, what would HGB think?

Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected tonight to accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, breaking a huge political glass ceiling for women as the first-ever female nominee of a major political party.

We wondered what another important pioneer, from a previous era, would have thought of tonight’s development. So USA TODAY’s Greg Toppo spoke with Brooke Hauser, author of the new biography Enter Helen: The Invention of Helen Gurley Brown and the Rise of the Modern Single Woman. Here’s their conversation:

Q: We’re about to watch an historic moment for women. What would Helen Gurley Brown think of this?

A: Helen, who died in 2012 at age 90, would have been ecstatic to see Hillary Rodham Clinton’s nomination. She is remembered for encouraging millions of women to embrace and enjoy their sexual freedom — but she also encouraged women to get ahead in their careers. Possibly the only thing Helen loved more than a powerful man was a powerful woman, and she would have appreciated the idea of Bill Clinton being Hillary’s “First Man.” Beyond the sexual politics, Helen would have championed the real issues that Hillary stands for — equal pay and equal rights for women, paid family leave, affordable childcare, and reproductive freedom. As for Hillary’s unpopularity with some millennial feminists who find her to be privileged and inauthentic, I think Helen would have sympathized: In her own way, she didn’t always get the “youth vote,” either.

Q: Forty years ago, Helen was at the head of the effort to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Beyond that, what were her politics?

A: It’s a fascinating but little-known piece of history that, in 1976, more than 30 mainstream women’s magazines joined forces to get the word out about the ERA. And yes, Helen and Cosmopolitan magazine helped lead the charge. People like to ask if Helen was a feminist. It’s a bit of a tricky question because, in a sense, she existed before modern feminism did — she came up in a “man’s world,” before the Women’s Liberation Movement caught fire. Still, she was an early crusader for women’s rights, and starting in the mid-’60s, she filtered down her political views to her Cosmo Girls, many of them small-town secretaries and various Gal Fridays who might not have gotten the memo otherwise.

Q: Cosmo covers often focused on sex, but the magazine could be political, right?

A: Helen believed passionately in a woman’s right to choose, and whispery as she was in person, she got out the bullhorn to amplify her pro-choice message, running features like “Abortion: Your Right Under Attack.” Over the years, she actually published quite a few politically charged articles in Cosmo, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it from cover lines like “How Sexually Generous Should a Girl Be” and “Belly-dance your way to a sexy new figure.”

Q: Helen actually knew and admired the Clintons. What’s the connection?

A: Helen was born in Green Forest, Ark., and grew up in Little Rock, so she shared an Arkansas connection with the Clintons. When Bill Clinton was still governor, she took a special interest in his presidential campaign. Once he landed in the White House, Helen occasionally had his ear on political issues, such as the importance of legalizing mifepristone, also known as the “abortion pill.” But as I see it, Helen’s personal allegiance was to Hillary, and they kept in touch over the years, exchanging friendly notes, compliments, and birthday wishes.

Q: What did Hillary think of her?

A: When Hearst asked Helen to step down as editor-in-chief in 1996, Hillary wrote to her in solidarity, saying that Arkansas folks have to stick together. And in 1998, when news broke of Bill’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, Helen suggested that Hillary’s decision to “stand by her man” came from a place of strength, not weakness, as many feminists presumed. Helen admired Hillary greatly, and I am willing to bet that, if she were alive today, she would have found a way to rebrand Clinton as That Cosmopolitan Girl — even though HRC strikes me as being much more of a Ms. woman.

Q: Helen actually had an interesting connection to Donald Trump too — tell me about that.

A:  Well, Helen loved men and money, so it’s not surprising that she had a thing for Donald Trump in the ‘80s. In 1989, she actually asked Trump to pose nude for Cosmo, just like Burt Reynolds famously did in the ‘70s — stretched out and smirking on that bearskin rug. Donald declined. Apparently, Helen’s assurance that Cosmo would cover him up with a stack of books or a flower pot wasn’t quite assuring enough.

But in many ways, a younger Trump embodied her idea of That Cosmopolitan Man. After spending a weekend with Donald and his then-wife Ivana at their lavish Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., Helen wrote about the visit in her editor’s letter: “Donald is charming, handsome ... and so successful at forty-one ... some (jealous) people are waiting (and waiting and WAITING) for a serious flaw to emerge. It just isn’t emerging.”

Q: What would she make of him now?

A: I have to wonder what Helen would make of Trump in 2016, when he is the orange-faced embodiment of anger, calling women “fat pigs” and “disgusting animals.” Trump’s careless statement that women who seek abortions should get “some form of punishment” would have horrified Helen Gurley Brown. If she were here today, I believe she would have declared “I’m With Her” for that reason alone.

Follow Greg Toppo on Twitter: @gtoppo