Is That a Gun in Your Pocket?: Women's Experience of Power in Hollywood

by Rachel Abramowitz

"Women and power-perhaps no other confluence of subjects has launched as many myths, or stirred as much gossip."

Eight years ago, a remarkably talented reporter named Rachel Abramowitz began interviewing the women of Hollywood to, in her words, "puncture the mythology and to circumvent the silence" of this rarefied world. At the time, women directors, agents, producers and studio executives made up only a tiny minority of the industry. Abramowitz wanted to find out what had allowed this handful of women to infiltrate the male-dominated world of moviemaking-and what was keeping other women out. Is That a Gun in Your Pocket? is a vibrant social history that brings to light the previously untold saga of the rise of women in Hollywood over the past forty years.
        
In these pages, some of the most famous, most powerful, and most outrageous members of the film industry go on record with their war stories. From superstar actors to independent directors, women in all arenas of the moviemaking business opened up to Abramowitz. Their firsthand tales of jealousy, struggle, sexism, and success make for a fascinating behind-the-cameras look at what it is really like to be a woman in Hollywood.
        
Abramowitz's insight and novelistic style make for a fantastic romp through every major studio, every agency, and hundreds of sets, back lots, and dressing rooms. Here, in their own candid and pro-vocative words, are Jodie Foster, Penny Marshall, Dawn Steel, Sue Mengers, Sherry Lansing, Polly Platt, Barbra Streisand, Paula Weinstein, Nora Ephron, Carrie Fisher, Meryl Streep, Jane Campion, Amy Heckerling, Callie Khouri, Joan Tewkesbury, and many others. Together they form a community of friends, colleagues, and competitors that constitutes one of the most riveting casts you're likely to find in fiction or nonfiction.

Woven throughout the individual dramas is a strikingly original analysis of the films of the last four decades that fairly and accurately shows the difficulty women have faced in getting their stories on screen. With telling details from the insiders them-selves, Abramowitz reveals the almost reflexive sexism that exists in Hollywood and traces how the male-dominated atmosphere influences what is seen by moviegoers around the world.

Inspiring, scandalous, poignant, and hilarious, this is both a landmark look at the evolution of women's place in filmmaking and a glimpse inside one of the most powerful industries in American culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film

512 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2000

About the author

Rachel Abramowitz is the author of the chapbooks The Puzzle Monster, winner of the 2021 Tomaz Salamun prize (forthcoming from Factory Hollow Press in 2022), and Gut Lust, the winner of the 2019 Burnside Review prize (Burnside Review Press, 2020). Her poems and reviews have appeared in Tin House Online, The Threepenny Review, Seneca Review, The Kenyon Review Online, Crazyhorse, Tupelo Quarterly, Prelude, Oxonian Review, POOL, jubilat, Sprung Formal, Transom, Colorado Review, and others. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the University of Oxford, and has taught English Literature at Barnard College in New York.

Reviews

[Alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, that was fascinating. I wish there was an update to cover 2000-2016. I loved getting "to know" these women. The author seemed privy to so many private moments. The daughter of Dawn Steel telling her mom that was she beautiful choked me up.

I was startled to read how difficult the relationships on set could be-- i.e. Callie Khouri having to fly herself to the premiere of her own film--what?? How do you not include the writer? Without them there is no film.

I was reminded in grim detail how unfair this industry is with women. Seriously, the studio being worried Foster wasn't "rapeable" enough for the Accused?! That is a multi level offense for women. And that is just one example...

I definitely feel like I need to hold on to this book as a primer for dealing with some of these icons. (May that day come.)

[Cammy]

This was very, very educational. I really didn't know about a lot of the stuff that happened in the 70s and it stressed me out and me really irritated and upset for everything these women had to go through. It focused a lot on two female executives, Sherry Lansing and Dawn Steel, coming back to them the most out of any of the women included. There was a lot about the very negative sides of Hollywood -- the money, the sexism, the big egos and all of the attitudes (SO many attitudes.)

At the same time, the way the book hops around between women could get confusing. I'd be in the middle of one story and get snapped out of it in the middle to go and talk about someone else. This is also a gigantic book. That isn't necessarily bad, but it can be tiring.

I also think it's important to note that there are no women of color in this book. There were a lot of Jewish women, which was nice, but that was sort of it. Whoopi Goldberg was discussed, but as part of someone else's story, and not very positively. At one point, one of the Jewish women used the n word, which wasn't fun.

It's definitely interesting to see how far we have come as a culture, though. Now, a lot of women still distance themselves from being called feminists or having their work labelled as feminists, but it seems like that was every single woman in this book. Basically none of them wanted to be feminists or be associated with other women. That really sucked. But the culture they were in also really sucks, and you can sort of see why they did what they did. A lot of them succeeded, but only for a little while, and it seemed to make them miserable. Like... none of them were happy, even though they had achieved amazing things. So I don't know. This sort of was a heavy book.

[H. Magee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread ;)

[John Bleasdale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent stuff

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, somewhat escapist read about women's experiences in Hollywood.