Staci Greason's Blog
September 8, 2022
How did the #MeToo movement and Hollywood become the subject matter for All the Girls in Town?
I was already writing All the Girls in Town (ATGT) when the #MeToo movement broke wide open, and then I read writer Jenny Lumet’s heartbreaking and honest letter to music producer Russell Simmons about the night he raped her which was published in The Hollywood Reporter. I was left shaken, sobbing, and nodding my head in solidarity. Yes, this is how it happens. Her courage to come forward and the many other sexual assault survivors who spoke up added fuel to my fire to finish the novel. Not everyone can speak, or has to, so I will.
According to the CDC, one in five women will be raped in her lifetime. One out of three will experience sexual violence. This didn’t happen to me while working in the entertainment industry but I was assaulted when I was younger. I wanted to write about what happens to a woman after verbal abuse and/or sexual trauma. In what insidious ways does unhealed trauma affect the trajectory of a woman’s life? I wanted to find out how to write about healing. How to encourage women that we deserve to heal and laugh and have big wonderful lives.
Living in Hollywood, I witnessed the widespread misogyny. The boy’s club is real. “Yeah, she’s talented, but would you f*#% her?” is a question I’ve heard repeatedly.
It’s just the business is the way people justify their bad behavior. The problem is insidious. If a director or actor or producer (and there are some rotten women, too) makes a studio a boatload of money, he can grab and assault and be as verbally abusive to as many people as he likes. Just keep it under wraps. Look the other way. I personally know of women who lost their careers because they said “no” to Harvey Weinstein. Some other huge actors, too. Hollywood is filled with wounded artists and the unwell people who prey on their talent. The music industry is no different. And of course, any world in which there’s a gender disparity in positions of power.
Fiction can be an act of political defiance. You can ban my novel filled with angry women who fight back and win. But people will still read it. Here, I get to use my voice uninterrupted to say how I think we can make the world a better place:
Believe women. Champion women. I believe in women. We are complicated, beautiful, smart, sexy, funny, and amazing! I believe in healing and transformation and coming to life after trauma again because I have. Just like Jenny Lumet and all of the brave women who came forward – let’s make it wrong again to be bad. Whether the predator is the President, a music exec, or your Uncle Joe Schmoe, make them face the consequences of their actions. Women are powerful. United, we can change the world. We have to stop believing our own bad press. We have to keep fighting to be heard and stand equal in this world.
Hollywood?
Well, Los Angeles is always a main character in my stories and not just because I live here. She’s filled with the most talented and best people I’ve ever met. It’s a complicated beautiful dirty hard-to-love, green shiny city. There’s unbelievable income disparity. And - she smells like orange blossoms, jasmine, and salty air. I love living in Los Angeles. You can be in the snow or at the beach in two hours. You can sit for five hours in traffic just to get home from work. I have. My friends are from countries all over the world which fills my life with a kind of richness I never had growing up in a small mountain town. I love hiking her hills, driving her golden palm-lined streets during magic hour, eating her amazing foods, and exploring her diverse neighborhoods.
There’s no place like Hollywood. It’s beautiful, funny, and ugly. Just like people.
According to the CDC, one in five women will be raped in her lifetime. One out of three will experience sexual violence. This didn’t happen to me while working in the entertainment industry but I was assaulted when I was younger. I wanted to write about what happens to a woman after verbal abuse and/or sexual trauma. In what insidious ways does unhealed trauma affect the trajectory of a woman’s life? I wanted to find out how to write about healing. How to encourage women that we deserve to heal and laugh and have big wonderful lives.
Living in Hollywood, I witnessed the widespread misogyny. The boy’s club is real. “Yeah, she’s talented, but would you f*#% her?” is a question I’ve heard repeatedly.
It’s just the business is the way people justify their bad behavior. The problem is insidious. If a director or actor or producer (and there are some rotten women, too) makes a studio a boatload of money, he can grab and assault and be as verbally abusive to as many people as he likes. Just keep it under wraps. Look the other way. I personally know of women who lost their careers because they said “no” to Harvey Weinstein. Some other huge actors, too. Hollywood is filled with wounded artists and the unwell people who prey on their talent. The music industry is no different. And of course, any world in which there’s a gender disparity in positions of power.
Fiction can be an act of political defiance. You can ban my novel filled with angry women who fight back and win. But people will still read it. Here, I get to use my voice uninterrupted to say how I think we can make the world a better place:
Believe women. Champion women. I believe in women. We are complicated, beautiful, smart, sexy, funny, and amazing! I believe in healing and transformation and coming to life after trauma again because I have. Just like Jenny Lumet and all of the brave women who came forward – let’s make it wrong again to be bad. Whether the predator is the President, a music exec, or your Uncle Joe Schmoe, make them face the consequences of their actions. Women are powerful. United, we can change the world. We have to stop believing our own bad press. We have to keep fighting to be heard and stand equal in this world.
Hollywood?
Well, Los Angeles is always a main character in my stories and not just because I live here. She’s filled with the most talented and best people I’ve ever met. It’s a complicated beautiful dirty hard-to-love, green shiny city. There’s unbelievable income disparity. And - she smells like orange blossoms, jasmine, and salty air. I love living in Los Angeles. You can be in the snow or at the beach in two hours. You can sit for five hours in traffic just to get home from work. I have. My friends are from countries all over the world which fills my life with a kind of richness I never had growing up in a small mountain town. I love hiking her hills, driving her golden palm-lined streets during magic hour, eating her amazing foods, and exploring her diverse neighborhoods.
There’s no place like Hollywood. It’s beautiful, funny, and ugly. Just like people.
