Marabel Morgan

Morgan has said she had turmoil in her early life, and found counselling for this useful in later life. Her mother had an interest in the occult, and displayed unusual behaviours, including being bed bound for long periods.[1] Morgan's father left her mother when Morgan was 3.[2] Morgan's mother remarried, and Morgan had a good relationship with her stepfather until he died when she was 14.[3]

By working as a beautician, Morgan earned enough money to study home economics for one year at Ohio State University. After a conversion experience, Morgan worked with Campus Crusade for one year at the University of Miami, where she met and married a law student, Charlie Morgan, in 1964, when she was age c.28 and Charlie c.26. [4]

After 6 years of marriage Morgan was disappointed with how the marriage was working.[5] After reading widely,[6] she developed some relationship principles. The impact in her own life was visible, with some of her women friends asking “What happened to Charlie?” She began to teach the principles in classes.[7][8] In 1973 she published The Total Woman. The book sold more than 10 million copies and was the bestselling nonfiction book of 1974.[9] Grounded in evangelical Christianity, it taught that "It's only when a woman surrenders her life to her husband, reveres and worships him and is willing to serve him, that she becomes really beautiful to him," and that "A Total Woman caters to her man's special quirks, whether it be in salads, sex or sports."[10] It is perhaps best remembered for suggesting that wives greet their man at the front door wearing sexy outfits; suggestions included "a cowgirl or a showgirl."

These lessons were reiterated in Morgan's popular Total Woman Seminars. Due in part to her sunny disposition and facility with soundbites, Morgan became an unofficial spokesperson for opposition to the women's movement. She was a regular guest on The Phil Donahue Show, was featured on the cover of Time Magazine,[11] and was named one of the most influential women in America by People magazine and the 1975 World Almanac.[12]

Her writing was part of a complex development of thought in the West about successful relationships.[13][14]

An episode of the popular sitcom Maude entitled "Feminine Fulfillment" (28 February 1977) dealt with main character Maude Findlay's best friend Vivian Harmon giving herself over to "Feminine Fulfillment" (also the name of the episode), which Maude says is "like Total Woman." Vivian, expecting her husband Arthur, shocks Maude and her husband Walter by opening her door to them in a trench coat, revealing herself to be wrapped in saran wrap. "Total Woman" is again referenced later in the episode, when more aspects of the movement are elucidated. Maude, a staunch feminist, is incensed by her friend's change, and confronts what she believes is her husband's growing interest in being pampered in this manner by seemingly also dressing in saran wrap under a trench coat and greeting a male neighbour who knocks on the Findlays' door.[15] In an episode of James Garner's NBC-TV series The Rockford Files entitled "Trouble in Chapter 17" (23 September 1977), the character of Anne Louise Clement (Claudette Nevins), who believes her book on how to be the perfect wife is the cause of the death threats against her and for whom Jim must act as bodyguard, is closely based on Marabel Morgan.[16] A 1978 episode of Rhoda also dealt with the topic. Although the book carries a different title in the episode ("How to Be a Different Woman in Every Room"), the episode is entitled "The Total Brenda." In it, Rhoda's sister Brenda takes to wearing frilly dresses and fulfilling her fiancé's perceived fantasies on a variety of levels, much to the chagrin of liberated Rhoda.[17] In the 1991 film Fried Green Tomatoes, the character played by Kathy Bates attempts to seduce her husband by wrapping herself in saran wrap; a takeoff on some of the suggestions in the book: "Be a pixie or a pirate -- a cowgirl or a showgirl." In a 2000 episode ("Rory's Dance") of Gilmore Girls, Lorelai (played by Lauren Graham) jokingly tells her mother (Kelly Bishop) that she would have come to the door to let her in, but she didn't have any saran wrap.[18]

Morgan and The Total Woman were satirized in the Earwolf podcast The Complete Woman, which takes the format of a self-help audiobook from the 1960s with actress Amanda Lund portraying the fictional hostess Marabel May as a parody of Morgan. The Complete Woman was followed by two sequels, Complete Joy and The Complete Man.

After her book-writing, Morgan worked in the health industry.[19]

Morgan was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 1987.

Her husband Charlie worked as a tax lawyer and sports player representative.[20] As of 2017 they appear to continue happily married.[21][22]

Morgan, Marabel. The Total Woman. Old Tappan, N.J.: F. H. Revell, 1973.

• Ohio History Central
• 1977 Time profile
• The Rockford Files at IMDB
• Interview
• Interview