Helen Gurley Brown has ignored the segmentation of the women’s marketplace for my entire lifetime. As editor of Cosmo Magazine -- that lynch-pin of the Hearst publishing empire -– her work has never spoken to me or my purchasing interests, let alone my investment proclivities. I have placed my money alongside everyone else’s, yet the advertising world has either ignored me or insulted my intelligence. I do not believe that "me" in any way is equivalent to simply "coffee" or "tea."

I got along without Ms. Brown before, and I certainly will get along without her for the last two score of my life.

The women’s market is divided into at least three segments. One is the followers of HGB and Heidi Fleiss -- those who hustle men and their money, as dominatrix or diminuatives. It doesn’t matter: they’re a dime a dozen at any entertainment hub, Las Vegas or New York, as call girls or other professional equivalents.

The second segment includes the women who find themselves lost outside of the warm, comfortable nest of home. There’s nothing wrong with stay-at-home. It’s just another segment, with economic demands and expectations that are unique to the home.

The third segment is the venturesome woman: she who is curious about the outside world and interested in its discoveries and challenges. She has aspirations and seeks to change the world which she has inherited.

There may be more: subsectors and sub-segments. What is important is to realize and recognize that not everyone reads Cosmo, buys bling ad nauseum, or limits themselves to a self-conception of themselves as defined by the men in their lives. Helen Gurley Brown does not define the entire woman's marketplace. Never has and never will.