Sex and the Single Girl: The Unmarried Woman's Guide to Men by Helen Gurley Brown Page B

urge to pile into bed with her. The sight of this little waif, hair streaming out across the pillow, asleep in one of his beds was enough to convince him they’d better work at the office hereafter.
    Clothes that fit are sexy. Shoulder seams at the shoulder. Waistlines at the waist (unless it’s against the law that year). I think more people buy things too sloppy than too small, on the theory they’re going to grow another foot or that a size 16 gives you a lot for your money.
    Skin-tight skirts and sweaters are sexy, but wearing them is like trying to meet men in a bar. If the sweater and skirt are that tight, a man figures you must want action badly and you are distress—you know—merchandise.
    A black dress is sexy. The black dress. The dress you paid more for than you should but every time you wear it you feel bitchy and beautiful. Incidentally, if you have bony shoulders and a small bust and decolleté styles are not for you (or even if your shoulders and bust are fine), a cocktail dress with a solid bodice but long chiffon sleeves and throat part is infinitely alluring. The crepe part comes up to the top of your bosom and the chiffon fits like skin above that and forms the sleeves.
    Perfume is sexy and, unfortunately, the costlier the perfume, usually the sexier! Any good French perfume wafting from a pretty girl’s bosom is about the nicest thing that can happen to air! Three inexpensive perfumes I’ve found that smell nice are Max Factor’s Hypnotique, Revlon’s Intimate and Fabergé’s Aphrodisia. (Of course there are many more.) Douse the perfume on cotton, put another piece of dry cotton in front of it and tuck it inside your bra. Use the same cotton again and again to build up a residue of scent. Remember, if you can’t smell it, probably he can’t smell it either so you’re being wastefully stingy.
    Good health is sexy. Tired girls are tiring! Enough energy to dance till dawn when other girl-blossoms are losing their petals is a great plus. I know a man who says he married his wife because she had so much vitality and enthusiasm. He never says enthusiasm for what , but apparently for everything.
    Being delighted to be called on the telephone is sexy (unless it’s four o’clock in the morning, in which case hang up, put the phone in the icebox and toddle back to bed). Some girls find it easier to be sexy and oomphy on the telephone than in person. They don’t have to worry about how they look and can depend altogether on how they sound.
    Light up when a guy calls. It isn’t going to establish you as overeager Edith. I’m not even for being cool to a man who has recently been a swine in the way he has treated you (if it’s somebody you adore!) You’ll have the grand showdown later. Meanwhile don’t dissipate its impact with petty carping.
    About your telephone voice … or any-other-time voice, it’s a tough assignment to change its timbre, but movie stars have sometimes lowered theirs a whole register. Lauren Bacall has, I believe. Listen to voices in movies. Most of them were willed into being by practice, practice, practice. If you squeak or squawk, are thin or reedy (and only dogs can hear you in your upper register) or are decidedly nasal, consider a voice revise. (A high school dramatics teacher in your town with a great deal of savvy about these things could help you.) If you don’t know how you sound—and most people don’t, record your voice on tape. Ask someone you trust to tell you honestly. Not your family—they probably sound just like you do. A dictaphone machine will give you the good or bad news. If a test proves nothing really annoying about your voice, leave it alone (but get right to work on your fanny-paring exercises!) But if you have one of those voices that make people wish they or you were in the next county, do something. You would about bad breath, wouldn’t you?
    A girl I know did something. A switchboard operator changed her squeaky soprano into such a sexy