American Notes Social Issues

What's a girl to do when she encounters sexual harassment in the office? If she's a Cosmo girl, she apparently should think twice before becoming offended. Helen Gurley Brown, the longtime editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine and tireless doyenne of social advice, believes there's still a place for "sexual chemistry" in the workplace.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal last week, Brown fondly recalled working at a Los Angeles radio station during the late 1940s and early '50s. Her male co-workers, wrote Brown, played a "dandy game called 'Scuttle' . . . ((they)) would select a secretary, chase her down the halls . . . catch her and take her panties off. Nothing wicked ever happened."

According to the author, everyone enjoyed the pursuit and "no scuttler was ever reported to the front office. Au contraire, the girls wore their prettiest panties to work . . . Alas, I was never scuttled." Brown professed shock that modern girls would disagree with her notions of what constitutes a playful professional pastime.