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

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He ended up leaving that production company shortly thereafter, so I didn’t feel compelled to engage in further communication. 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. Do I actually care enough about these systemic issues or am I also, in a way, exploiting them as literary material for my own professional gain?

I heard sexist and racist comments and fumed silently, exchanging outraged instant messages with other assistants. 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.

With her sun-bleached Hollywood setting, Kaplan transports us to another world - one which is achingly familiar. I told myself that someday, when I had enough power that people cared what I had to say, I would make a stand for what was right. When someone senior tells you how pretty you look, you smile and thank him – and make a mental note never to wear that dress alone with him again.

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. She gets a job in an agency through family connections – her mother is a well known, ball-bustin’ lawyer.

You know, the kind of uncle who spends a little too much time with the young women and gives goodbye kisses that land too close to the mouth. I felt personally that I’m just a little bit out of the age range for this as some of the situations in the book were fairly obviously on the way and she just didn’t seem to pick up on the cues. 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? Quickly becoming embroiled in the day to day discussions, power struggles and gossip in her office, she meets a pretty astonishing array of dreadful people, classic LA/Hollywood characters. I do not miss any of the above, but I did appreciate the reminder and the confirmation that it happens to most of us.

We also need to stop blindly applauding powerful women in Hollywood as if their success is inherently “good for women” or an illustration of the system working in a more egalitarian way. Everyone likes to speak loudly and frequently about how committed they are to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and on screen. Will I try to convince myself that if they are interested in supporting a critique of Hollywood, the ends will justify the means?A novel which makes us examine our own complicity, while also weaving in threads of tenderness, drive and office-based humour which at times feels delightfully absurd . To climb the ranks, you do whatever it takes:- Pull all-nighters – Lean on your powerful mother’s contacts – Stay in shape at cult-like fitness classes – Secretly wear your boss’s fitbit to improve his stepcount – and his temper. I wanted to know what the characters were feeling and what their next move was going to be and I think that was done really well.

I left my job at the TV network to go to graduate school, during which time I wrote a novel about a Hollywood assistant and the slippery slope of complicity. Opening sentence: The thing about Los Angeles is that it’s awful and I hate it, but when I’m there, nowhere else exists, and I can’t imagine leaving.If I thank him for his congratulations and leave it at that, am I demonstrating complicity, failing to practice what I preach?