her message and personality forth all tion (those born between 1961 and IS THAT A GUN the while spealung in pop-culture 1981): "I held special status between IN YOUR POCKET? terms that both fascinate and in- Loser and Pot Hole." trigue. This is a book that will not only WOMEN'S King Street, a Mecca of con- make you think, make you laugh but EXPERIENCE OF crete contrasted by afew, small, will fill your entire senses to capacity, POWER IN ill-looking, token trees in little will leave you reeling with light- HOLLYWOOD. grey corporate cubicles. It's a headedness from Mariko's ability to land without pity, sucking the spin images and fragrances before Rachel Abramowitz. life out through the souls of my your very eyes and nose. New York: Random House, 2000 shoes as I puff thoughtfully on my cigarette and survey the sec- If my father was a rock, my BY SHARON FERGUSON- retaries in their business suits mother was that rock candy, HOOD AND MARlE and Nikes, basking like seals in pop candy, we used to buy at the the sun. Modern seals, with convenience store for the thrill TOVELL WALKER protein drinks and outrageous of oral demolition. Slick plastic Visa bills. pockets with a smattering of sweet, sour dust that would blow Rachel Abramowitz, in her book, Is This tale is of a girl (Traci - your taste buds to pieces, as you That A Gun In Your Pocket, exposes supposedly not her) who is trying to sat on the porch and let them go the power that has controlled, ma- get by in this world filled with a to town on your tongue. Sizzle nipulated, and destroyed women in Starbucks on every corner and the Pop Kablam. Rice Krispies on Hollywood. She tells us what it is like continuing pursuit of the all-mighty dextrose. to be a woman in Hollywood. dollar. Abramowitz interviews women who It is a book that will appeal to any have been there: actresses, directors, 12:13 pm. I extinguish my ciga- 20130-somethings who has ever felt producers, agents, and studio pro- rette and push through the thick like they are smarter than their sur- ducers, and they openly tell how they slabs of heavy glass that serves roundings but the rest of the corpo- view the world they live in. The as doors. It requires all my rate world just hasn't caught up yet. picture they give is not a snapshot strength to wedge them open. view because Abramowitz covered I'm sure there's an entrance with At recess, I retreated to the shady the period from the late 1970s to the normal doors. These doors are spot in the backofthe schoolyard present. She interviewed, to name probably just here to intimi- with a book and my lunch. I only a few, Jodie Foster, Barbra date people like me and make learned that being smart was a Streisand, Meryl Streep, Callie clients feel important. Mission suitable explanation for being Khouri, Paula Weinstein, Sherry accomplished. weird, and I became the best Lansing, and Sue Mengers. version of smart I could muster. Many of the women interviewed Trying to deal with her mother's The first lesson of smart: always shared the belief that their parents nervous breakdown, Traci visits her have a book in your hand. played a significant role in who they father's ofice in Toronto and relives were and who they became. Paula times of her upbringing where she This book, like the films Ghost Weinstein said, tried to fit into the family's mould, Worki and Clerks, shows that to be but ended up being a square in a different is still to be celebrated. And Our parents reflect for us the circling eddy of strange family be- if Mariko is going to celebrate it, we possibilities ofthe world. I never haviour: are going to be right beside her, with knew any other way than to book in hand and a feeling ofbelong- assume that anything was pos- My father bristled. "If either of ing to an elite, albeit eccentric, crowd. sible and to go after it. you kids ever screamed like that I'd have you in the car faster But most of the women inter- than you could fart." I won- viewed gave mixed reviews of their dered if that meant farting in parents, citing both helpful and dam- the restaurant would be OK. aging interactions. Nearly every one of them talked at length of her many Moments ofcomplete honesty and years in therapy. utter nakedness are notes that ring In Hollywood power was, and still true to most ofthe thirteenth genera- is, very individual. It was the late '80s

172 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME before women began to realize that if tive positions. Lansing is interesting journey has been. And while she is they worked together their future in because she attained her success be- doing this, she helps us to under- Hollywood would be more produc- having in the male fashion, yet she stand how men and women are de- tive. Meryl Streep was one of the wanted change for women and she fined through films. Not only are the leading figures in pulling women said that women were responsible people working in the movie defined together- to work for their own bet- for ending violence against women. through their movies, but also the terment. Barbra Streisand and Jane Lansing might have been success- people who watch movies come to Fonda played a lesser role in this ful but most women lagged behind understand society and the world piece of history. It appeared that their male counterpartswhen it came through what they see on the screen. there was always great difficulty in to both dollars and film roles. In With irony, she also points out that understanding what feminism 1989, 71 per cent of feature film the Columbia symbol is the only meant, or perhaps that there was no roles went to men. The combined female symbol in the entire movie benefit in understanding feminism. income of all male actors, at $644 industry. Feminism does not support thestyles million, was twice the money paid to This book reads like a novel. It is of politics, power or interpersonal all women actors. long, and the reader is anxious to dynamics that happen in Hollywood Abramowitz goes to great lengths find out what will happen when the so how could one be a feminist and to explain the lives of women in story gets to the '90s. It is worth the succeed?Women who wanted even a Hollywood. She wants the reader to read-all 446 pages. It documents low-key position in Hollywood had understand just how difficult this yet another struggle against sexism. to fight with everything they had to get there. For many years the only ones who succeeded followed the models of male power that they saw around them. AMANDA NASSIF In contrast, Australian women were earlier in finding ways to work Family together. This had paid off and women were both writing and di- recting much sooner than women in Hollywood. In the beginning There were many women in the silence American movie industry who fed by the old hands wanted to create strong roles for whispered throughout the hallway women in movies. As women, they lined with dark wall paper had no power to protect their work, that bandaged these lips and it was written over by male which cried for the beaten truth screenwriters, often at the demand resting in empty corners of directors and actors. The stories where the fire flamed again became strong- male movies with wo- others tried to put it in a water bottle men as victims or as the ones blamed my sister walked past again for all that was wrong in the world still wearing glasses. while the men became the good guys, the heroes. Callie Khouri was the In the end the days were nights, first woman to write a script with uncovered pain I did strong female characters that didn't crawling on the cracked glass get changed in the making of the they had laid down for me, film. She wrote "Thelma and Louise" numb limbs crippled to these and insisted that the story not be artificial names bound by blood changed in the screenplay. She want- clotting some more everyday. ed to direct "Thelma and Louise" but that did not happen. The film debuted in 1991 and women direc- tors were rare until later in the '90s. Lansing became the first woman director to survive the "Hollywood old boys club." She attained execu-

VOLUME 21, NUMBER 3 173 174 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME