The first biography of Helen Gurley Brown, who was Cosmopolitan‘s editor-in-chief for three decades, hits stores today, and we’ll be snapping up a copy after work. Written by Jennifer Scanlon, a professor of gender and women’s studies at Bowdoin College, Bad Girls Go Everywhere looks at Helen’s life from her start in an Arkansas town in the Ozarks to her rise from secretary to advertising copywriter to editor-in-chief. Scanlon compares Brown to feminist figures like Betty Friedan. Brown believed sex was a “powerful weapon” for single women and changed the Cosmo format so it addressed real women’s lives—sex and all. (However, she omitted certain realities from the magazine, including children and AIDS.) While Brown cared about looking put-together and slept with her bosses, she didn’t let those things replace any of her substance. To her, hard work was always the most important thing in getting what you wanted—making the most of your features and getting your dream job.

The Guerrilla Girls, a group of anonymous activists whose mission is to fight discrimination against female and minority artists in the art world, have sold a bunch of documents, letters, and artwork to the Getty Research Institute for an undisclosed sum. This is kind of ironic because the Guerrilla Girls have protested against the art establishment (which includes the Getty family) since 1985.

The Guerrilla Girls started protesting the lack of women in museums and cultural institutions, covering New York with posters saying things like, “Does a woman have to get naked to get into the Met?” To get noticed, the women began wearing gorilla masks, and their posters became collectors’ items over time, with people spending money to purchase them (which then allowed the Guerrilla Girls to buy ad space on billboards to promote their causes even more).

The Guardian has a really long feature on whether it’s okay for feminists to like Sex and the City. If you skip to the last paragraph, you’ll discover that smart women everywhere can enjoy the show and upcoming movie as long as they realize SATC is not a guide to life (duh). “It does make for quite uncomfortable viewing,” said Professor Imelda Whelehan of De Montfort University author of The Feminist Bestseller: From Sex and the Single Girl to Sex and the City. “How do we respect [Carrie]? And Mr. Big is such an interesting element. Even his name is masculine. He is like this phallus at the center of it all.” So true, Imelda. Yet, even though the show depicts Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha, and Miranda obsessing over what men think a little too much, the show still treats women as important, and we are, so that’s nice. [The Guardian, U.K.]