Not Safe For Work: Author of the viral essay 'My boyfriend, a writer, broke up with me because I am a writer'

Product Information

I thought the project had a lot of promise and wanted to see if there was anything I could do to push it forward. Only after the fact did it occur to me to wonder why a male executive would ever think it appropriate to give a female employee a goodbye kiss at the end of the work day, regardless of where on the face his lips landed. I hadn’t spoken to him in years; he knew me when I was an assistant, and he was a very important executive. Here, the former Hollywood assistant and current director of book-to-film development at a literary agency reflects on the horrifying behaviour she witnessed as a twentysomething – and how little has actually changed in the five years since the Harvey Weinstein scandal. I do not miss any of the above, but I did appreciate the reminder and the confirmation that it happens to most of us.

The writing is fresh and stylish and the conversational tone helps the thought-provoking narrative zip along. Recommended if you’re looking for something like Devil Wears Prada, not too deep but a nice entry into further reading. I get the impression it was supposed to be more hard hitting than it was, and it didn’t really say more than we already know. When I started the job, one of the projects represented by my agency was under option with a production company where I knew a senior executive. How can I separate my desire to raise awareness and increase discussion about complicity in Hollywood from my desire to be one of the voices in the conversation?I thought it was so insightful, even though it was about a subject that as a female, we can all relate to, we all understand and a lot of us have probably had some experience of. You will work whenever you are asked to, you’ll do whatever you’re asked to, you won’t complain, you’ll wait your turn for promotion and most importantly for the females; you’ll stay looking pretty. When whispers start to circle that your office might have ‘a bit of a rape problem,’ and your close friend confesses her own unsettling encounter, you know there is plenty to gain from staying silent, and all too much to lose through speaking out.

I ran open-armed into a burning building hoping if I moved quickly enough, I’d be spared the flames. I remember being 23, anxiously navigating halls where executives didn’t look me in the eye, holding the muted phone to my ear, thinking: if I have the opportunity to speak, I hope I make the most of it. Otherwise, too many people will remain silent because they will decide it’s not worth the discomfort and emotional fallout of making a fuss about a minor comment.

My job straddles the worlds of Hollywood and publishing: I run book-to-screen development at a literary agency, which means I am responsible for identifying books that would be good for adaptation, whether as a movie or TV show, and then pitching and helping shepherd them from page to screen. It is widely understood that you are not to grope or make sexual advances on your employees, and that if you do so, you may face consequences. If I thank him for his congratulations and leave it at that, am I demonstrating complicity, failing to practice what I preach? The nuances of our lead character’s co-dependent, majoritively toxic, mother-daughter relationship are also looked at in depth and reveal how much this affects all areas of both of their lives.