Monday, December 12, 2022

"Girl" reporters get real: SHE SAID

HALLIE EPHRON: Last week I went to the movie theater (have you noticed how many movies are now opening IN theaters instead of streaming?) to see SHE SAID.


It’s the true story of two New York Times reporters, Jodi Cantor (played by Zoe Kazan) and Megan Twohey (played by Carey Mulligan), investigating sexual abuse allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Reviewers praised it as a slow simmering thriller, every bit as exciting and suspenseful as ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN.

It was great. Simply great.

And it took me back to my youth when, in my dreams, I imagined being a star investigative reporter like comic books’ Brenda Starr.

Back in those days, as these covers attest, the public wanted to read about a woman reporter who outs toxic men, as long as she had big boobs and got tied up in the process.


SHE SAID is the perfect antidote.

But the reality of what it takes to be an investigative reporter made it clear to me that I never would have lasted a minute. Tracking down people who don’t want to talk to you, showing up on their doorsteps, ringing the bell, asking tough questions … I’d much rather make it up.

It also got me thinking about other fictional “girl” (aka female) reporters. The female reporter was always bookended by a male lead. She was smart but she was also beautiful. Single. And unencumbered.

Lois Lane (Noel Neill to George Reeve’s TV Clark Kent) in SUPERMAN.
Hildy Johnson (Rosaline Russell to Cary Grant) in HIS GIRL FRIDAY
Tess Harding (Katharine Hepburn to Spencer Tracy) in WOMAN OF THE YEAR
Jane Craig (Holly Hunter to William Hurt) in BROADCAST NEWS

Then along came SPOTLIGHT. Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams) and a pair of male colleagues investigating a decades-long cover-up in Boston's Catholic, legal, and government establishment.

She didn’t need a love interest.

SHE SAID takes it a step further, two female reporters who work together to take down a predator. No big boobs. No witty dialogue. They have to juggle kids (though apparently without babysitters or nannies) and husbands with trips to Europe to track down victims. A whole lot of courage and tenacity is on display.

Of course here at Jungle Red Writers we are fortunate to have a genuine investigative reporter among us. But I’m wondering if “girl reporter” (in the best sense) was an aspirational goal for any of us, and was it a conscious decision to make stuff up instead?

JENN McKINLAY: I’ve heard amazing reviews about SHE SAID. Definitely, going to see it.

I remember seeing female reporters on television and thinking it was super cool, but I was definitely more into being a female archeologist (thank you, Elizabeth Peters). It was either that or a Bionic Woman or Wonder Woman.

I do feel like my formative years were full of newly divorced women (1970’s and 80’s) who were working outside the home, going back to school, having careers, and really putting themselves first for a change. I remember films like Educating Rita and Working Girl - both of which came out when I was mid to late teens - and they definitely had an impact and helped shape the women of my generation (X).

RHYS BOWEN: I have to make time to see this. And yes, girl reporter was one of my aspirations.

I went to college convinced I was going to be a journalist. I edited the college newspaper for two years. But along the way I saw the movie La Dolce Vita and a scene in which paparazzi hound a woman whose family has just been murdered and I thought “I can’t do that!” Luckily I was accepted into the BBC instead.

I grew up with a working mother ( assistant principal and later principal) so I took it for granted that women worked and had power.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Hmm, nope, girl reporter was not one of my goals, funnily enough–although my mother always called me Brenda Starr, so maybe she had a premonition. But I have been on TV since 1975 (!) and on the radio before that.

I am in LOVE with all the reporter movies. All The President’s Men, and Network, and Broadcast News! And Spotlight was a treasure, truly, so realistic. (And you have to realize, I was a reporter in Boston while that story was breaking, and my boss kept coming into my office and asking–do YOU have any of this? Gah.)

His Girl Friday, of course, and oh, Mr Deeds with Jean Arthur! And even though Adam’s Rib was a lawyer movie, that one, too.

Working Girl, Jenn, was a pivotal pivotal movie for me in so many ways, I cannot watch it without crying.

(Sidenote: I will confess, the night I was offer the job at ABC Network (including Nightline) I flew home to Boston, SO happy, looking down at the lights on New York and started singing Let The River Run, let all the dreamers wake the nations…–Oh, it makes me cry even now. AND I didn't even take the job!)

Anyway, cannot wait to see that movie. ANY TIME there's a scene where the presses start rolling with the big story, it really gets me.

LUCY BURDETTE: I’ve been wracking my brains but cannot remember wanting to be a girl reporter. I did love all the movies you mentioned, Hallie. This could be another post, but I actually can’t remember much of anything I wanted to be!


I was a very good student and spent a lot of time reading, but somehow that didn’t translate to I want to teach, or I want to be a librarian, or a reporter…so weird! 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Hank, now I'm singing "Let the Rivers Run" to my doggos. I love that movie! So, even as a youngster, I didn't have ambitions to be a reporter. Somehow I knew, even then, that deadlines and I would not be good friends. I did actually want to be a Girl Criminal Lawyer, though! I read F. Lee Bailey's THE DEFENSE NEVER RESTS when I was about twelve, and thought defending criminals was the coolest job anyone could do. Sadly, my passion didn't survive actually going to law school!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Somehow GIRL REPORTER never made it on my kid's radar . Girl archeologist, girl marine biologist, etc., etc. I had a rock collection, which pretty well sums me up. But I love the reporter movies and Spotlight is way up there on my list, just brilliant. I can't wait to see SHE SAID!

HALLIE: I dare say, the "investigative reporting" that each of us do is the research we put into making our made-up characters and situations feel believable. Fortunately we never have to get in there and ask real people to reveal their secrets. We give them secrets that in turn drive our story lines.

Was there a life goal that you fantasized about but reality convinced you that it wasn't for you, after all?

86 comments:

  1. I dreamed about being a writer, but I realized I don't have the patience to create a fully novel, much less polish and edit and then get it published. My hat really is off to all those of you who can do that.

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    1. Mark, you are so right about it being a very long haul. I think that's why I didn't start getting serious about writing novels until I was in my 40s. Short attention span, or so I thought.

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  2. I never regretted my desire to teach, but if I could have had my heart’s desire, I would have been an astronaut . . . .

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    1. Teaching was my heart's desire as well. You be the astronaut. I be the chef.

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    2. I will cheer both of you on from the solid earth!

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    3. I wanted to be an astronaut, too, Joan! I read so much about the space program, and was thrilled when my Alabama grandparents took me to Huntsville to see the exhibits and a real Saturn rocket. However, between my terrible vision and utter and complete lack of talent in mathematics, it became obvious that wasn't going to be my career path. :-)

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    4. My terrible vision stopped me, too . . . .

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  3. Yes, I wanted to be a lawyer like Perry Mason. That illusion failed when I realized that I had to spend several more years in college and then learning the craft.

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    1. I remember thinking about law ... took a con law course in college and between those thick books and small print you had to digest and build on, not for me! And I'm realizing "women lawyers" really didn't show up in popular media the way female reporters did. Go figure.

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  4. Agree about Spotlight - and I love that Sacha Pfeiffer is our local reporter. We're going to see She Said tomorrow.

    I now realize that becoming a girl journalist was when I stopped writing fiction. It's funny that, while I loved working on my high school newspaper (I was Cub Editor in ninth grade) and also in college, I didn't have dreams of becoming a reporter as a career. Maybe it was because I didn't enjoy those short-term deadlines. Book deadlines are different, and I've never missed one.

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    1. Edith, you're reminding me that I was also on my high school paper. Managing editor and then editor. Me and my co-editor ended up having to report to the principal's office and explain an editorial we wrote about how much money was being spent on what were essentially trashcans. That was our big scoop.

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    2. It was pretty small potatoes in those days! I also reported on high school news for our local paper (Temple City Times), I now remember.

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    3. Hallie, the trash cans are hysterical! I was editor of the yearbook and our big event was having to get the right to quote from Tommy the musical. We used those lyrics as our theme:)

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    4. Did you get permission? Did you have to go through ASCAP... notoriously difficult and expensive.

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    5. Edith, I had forgotten about being a part of the school paper in ninth grade! (Where I learned not to overuse ellipses.) The next year I stopped because I started working after school. Wonder how my life would have been different if I'd kept on writing.

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  5. JENN and I are about the same age, so it's no surprise that I also watched the same TV shows & dreamed of being a secret agent like the Bionic Woman or Wonder Woman. It's not really the super powers or disguises I wanted. I admired how they both used their physical strengths and brains to get the job done.

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    1. Grace, I can imagine you easily as Bionic or Wonder... I've always envied anyone strong or graceful... two traits which elude me.

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  6. A life goal that reality dashed? Why yes I did have one. I wanted to be the starting center for the Boston Celtics. Height and a decided lack of ability let reality rush in and dash that plan.

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    1. Jay, that was my 5' 11", not very coordinated husband's career goal, too. He loved Bill Walton, because, as Ross would say, "At least I have the red hair necessary to lead the Celts."

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  7. I cycled through all the standard roles -- teacher, nurse, ballet dancer -- but, maybe strangely given how I've ended up, not 'girl reporter', journalist or even writer. Then, in my mid-20s, I went to journalism school and loved everything I learned. However, during a placement in the local CBC newsroom (in pre-internet times), I was sent out to get a photo (from family or neighbours) of the woman and her daughter who had been murdered by the husband. I was hugely uncomfortable (not prepared by anything I had learned in the classroom) and also unsuccessful. That opened my eyes to what all journalism included -- and I've never worked as a reporter. I respect and admire every journalist everywhere who has the guts and the skills to dig for the truth and get those photos required to tell the tough stories.

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    1. How awful. Sounds almost like hazing, the way they sent you out to do that... you were just a kid.

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  8. I too am wracking my brains to see if those movies ever moved me to want to be a reporter or lawyer but all I really wanted from those movies was the outfits. LOL
    I've had many jobs but not one turned into a career. Other than raising Jonathan, the only thing I ever did that lit my passion was a volunteer position as spokeswoman for a national women's organization here in Connecticut and the positions I had when I served on their national board. That satisfied in a way that no childish imaginings ever approached. (Except if I could have been a cowgirl.)

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    1. Wardrobe! I'm remembering Rosalind Russell's tailored suit with a crisp white collared shirt.

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    2. Judy: Cowgirl! Yes. I wanted to be Audra from Big Valley.

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  9. Can you believe I've never seen Working Girl? I just watched the Carly Simon video of Let the River Run, which I don't think I've ever heard, either. What an anthem!

    My aspiration in high school was to become a detective and solve crimes, which led me to my major in college, Police Science. However, since it was 1969 and just at the very beginning of women being accepted into nontraditional jobs and roles, there was no chance of that happening, at least not around here.

    My other aspiration was to become a fashion designer. I did better with that goal, although I never went the whole route, for various reasons. And then I became an insurance agent. Where every sale depended on tracking people down, talking one's way into their home or office, asking nosy questions (like a reporter!) and trying to get people to spend money on something they absolutely needed but absolutely did not want to buy. It makes me tired just thinking about it now.

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    1. Police Science, Karen? I had no idea! No wonder you hang around crime writers (we're still waiting for your debut novel, by the way...). I don't think I've seen Working Girl, either - off to check out the song.

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    2. When you watch Working Girl, be sure to catch Alec Baldwin as the super sleezy boyfriend. (Auto correct just changed sleazy to sleepy. ROTFL) Boy, he was fun to watch! Still is.

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    3. Thanks, Judy!

      Yes, Edith, and why I ended up married to a cop for three and a half of the worst years of my life.

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    4. Oh Karen! There's so much about you that we've yet to discover! You have a truly inquisitive brain.

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    5. Oh, dear, Karen. Glad you found a keeper in Steve!

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    6. Aw, thanks.

      Oprah says everybody has a story, after all!

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    7. More OMG's, Karen. Today's blog is very revealing.

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  10. Thanks for the recommendations - She Said is now on my list the trailer looks interesting. I missed Spotlight and just watched that trailer - a must see too.

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    1. Oh, Spotlight is a must-see. Top notch both as a movie and as a slice of important American history.

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    2. I agree, Julia. Spotlight was absolutely a must see.

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    3. Oh, yes, it's really authentic. And it makes research seem incredibly exciting!

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  11. I loved all those old Girl Friday type movies--not for the career, but because the women held their own and more. In second grade I wanted to be a surgeon, not just a doctor. My teacher told me I could be a nurse, but I held my ground until I saw what a surgeon had to do. Blood?? No, thanks! Fast forward two years later, fourth grade and archaeology. Never looked back.

    But I have always admired women reporters. Jessica Savitch was smart, delivered the news, and made me feel like women were busting down some doors. Of course, here in northern Ohio, we had Dorothy Fuldheim long before women held their own on TV news programs.

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    1. In Boston, one of our earliest female news anchors was Natalie Jacobson who anchored the news with her husband Chet Curtis... they were a formidable team.

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    2. Flora, Jessica Savitch was a grad of my alma mater, Ithaca College. She was about ten years ahead of me, and she was definitely held up as a goal and as an example for undergrads in the early eighties.

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    3. Hallie, I should have said 'before women held their own on national news programs.'

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  12. I once had a dream of being a teacher, and then a Home Ec teacher, but by the time I hit high school and college, like Lucy, I really didn't have a career goal in mind. The closest I came to journalism was my stint as Localgram Editor for AFSCME 189, which is one of the main unions for city employees in Portland. I enjoyed figuring out what to write about each month, taking some pictures and dropping it off at the NW Labor Press office. They would print it up and send it out as a page in the edition of the Labor Press that went to our members.

    I love movies focused on journalism. Spotlight was wonderful. I also enjoyed The Post. As a me-too-er well before the Me Too movement (remember Sen. Packwood?) I am really looking forward to She Said.

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    1. I don't think "home ec" even exists any more. They probably call it something else. Writing a newsletter is a near cousin to journalism except you have to please the organization you're writing about. I learned that writing for a union/organization... investigation was not welcome.

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    2. Yes, there definitely was a "party line"--I just wrote about what we were doing--events, conferences, bargaining. I didn't cover the infighting that exists in all progressive organizations :) "On Tuesday night the membership meeting spent a lot of time in heated discussion with employees from the Water Bureau pitted against employees from the Permits Department."

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    3. I know the answer to that, Hallie! At least in my kids' schools, as of 5 years ago, it was called "Life Skills," which everyone, boys and girls, had to take.

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    4. That's great, Julia! My son didn't get to take anything like that.

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    5. Life skills classes are generally limited to private schools. Public high schools offer classes in credit and consumerism, limited to a semester.

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    6. A good friend taught in public schools; all the local middle schools required life skills classes. All students--male and female--took them. They covered basic cooking skills, basic sewing, as well as managing money, etc.

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  13. A wonderful (true story) book titled, A Person of No Importance, The Untold Story of the American Spy who Helped Win WWII, by Sonia Purnell, combined my childhood dream of being a woman spy and undercover agent. Every move she made could mean capture by the enemy. A real page turner. She had many aliases but now her real name, Virginia Hall, is on a CIA building.

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  14. HALLIE: Great post! I grew up watching a Deaf lady sign the TV news on the local affiliate of the NBC News in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. Unfortunately, by 1982, the new owners of the TV station DID NOT want the Sign Language news so I boycotted that TV station. Refused to watch KRON TV for many years.

    When I was in college, I had a classmate who interned with CNN TV news. I briefly thought about a career in journalism, though I recall saying to Bill Moyers that if I went into journalism, I would like to do what he does. Talk to people. Like interviews? I an trying to recall what kind of journalism it was called.

    Had many different aspirations. When I was a young child, I wanted to be a teacher like my Mom. She took three months "sick leave" when I was a baby so that she could stay home with me. In these days, there was NO maternity leave. And she had a good friend who agreed to sub teach her classes for three months so she could go back to teaching. Then Proposition 13 happened! Yikes. Many teachers lost their jobs! My Mom was lucky to continue her career as a teacher. I remember wanting to be the Bionic Woman or the Wonder Woman because they looked strong to me. And I entertained thoughts about becoming an actress.

    Unfortunately, high school drama club was not "deaf friendly". No roles. Not even chorus. Not even a walk on. Just take my word for it! I did Not live in Chicago where they had a acting workshop with Henry Winkler (the Fonz). I was a model for a very short time. I thought that modeling would lead to acting. Now I know that it would have been smarter to look for acting workshops. There was nothing for deaf children. Once in a blue moon the National Theater of the Deaf would tour the country so I got to see Deaf actors.

    And I seriously considered a career in International Relations. My grandfather was an attorney and his clients included people like Mae West. My Mom met her when Mae West was a tiny old lady. I thought about becoming an attorney. I took the LSAT and did not get into any of the law schools. Though I got into a paralegal program, which was great because I got to learn a lot about legal stuff.

    Sorry this is so long!

    Diana

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    1. Diana - What... wait... **My grandfather was an attorney and his clients included people like Mae West.** And btw you can go on as long as you like - it's always fascinating.

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    2. We are sitting back and waiting for the rest of the Mae West stories, Diana...:-)

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  15. I was all fired up to be an international journalist...but covering war zones erased that ambition. Thanks for the movie review! I'll take my daughters over Christmas.

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    1. The last few years have been particularly brutal for journalists. And folks like doctors who go into war zones to provide care.

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  16. I wanted to work at Good Housekeeping magazine's test kitchen. That didn't pan out and although I hadn't planned to go into teaching that's what I ended up doing, doing it very well and loving it!

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    1. Amazing how many of us fell into teaching and loved it. I wonder if that still happens.

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  17. When I was very, very young, I wanted to be a detective, a la Nancy Drew. I also was a devotee of Wonder Woman — she of the invisible lasso and the bracelets that could deflect bullets. Later, watching TV, I was hooked on Perry Mason and wanted to be someone like Stella, Mason's secretary, To my memory she solved all the cases. As it turned out, I became first teacher, and then writer.

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    1. DELLA! Della Street (I love the way you combined her first and last names) - played by Barbara Hale who had to wear the same dumpy suit in every episode.

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  18. I loved all the movies you mentioned. May I add Pentagon Papers to the list, even though Katharine Graham was not a reporter?

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  19. I wanted to be a criminal defense lawyer. I had visions of arguing in front of the Supreme Court. Then I shadowed a lawyer for a day. That, as they say, was the end of that.

    I flirted with the idea of sports journalism, but ultimately didn't go for it. I had a friend who did. She enjoyed it at first, but ultimately the cost-cutting tricks of the industry did her in.

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    1. There's something to be said for internships, and the earlier the better. A dose of real world with the fantasy.

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  20. I'm going to echo Gillian and suggest The Post as another great movie about journalism, with some amazing performances from Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep.

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    1. Chiming in on The Post. Fascinating, and great performances.

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    2. Another enthusiastic two-thumbs-up for THE POST.

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    3. This is Gigi. I love all the reporting movies you've mentioned, and have re-watched both Spotlight and The Post many times.

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    4. Yes, loved that. (I have a scar on my finger from where I burned it pouring tea for Katharine Graham. I didn't even yelp.)

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  21. I wanted to be a naturalist from watching shows like Wild Kingdom (remember the jokes about the host staying safe on the side lines while Jim went up against dangerous animals?) I also loved Daktari. I went into science in college, but felt there'd be few real opportunities as a naturalist, so I went into microbiology and molecular biology (an expanding field at the time).

    Scientists, like journalist, go through rigorous education to instill objectivity, and correct methodology, in the search for truth. It is sad, and puzzling, that both are now ignored/distrusted by about half the population in favor of conspiracy theories and such.

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    1. Science has gotten a bad rap of late. I'd love to have been a scientist, too. But there's a whole lot you have to memorize in order to have a basis for doing the interesting stuff, and I'd be terrible at that.

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  22. I definitely wanted to be Brenda Starr, girl reporter. I couldn't wait to read the daily comic strip. She was so self-assured. She was an investigative reporter ferreting out and righting injustices. She had her feet on the ground, getting caught up in some dangerous situations, and traveling to exotic places. I didn't become a journalist, but I did get the travel bug from her, as well as possibly my interest in orchids. https://mysteryreadersinc.blogspot.com/2022/04/orchids-mystery-national-orchid-day.html. I need to reread Brenda Starr. Dale Messick's archives, BTW, are at Sonoma State University, Special Collections.Thanks for this trip down Memory Lane..

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  23. Nope, nope, nope. No girl reporter here. I wanted to be a writer, well, there was a the brief time where I wanted to be a trauma surgeon, but that didn't work out so it was back to writer.

    Hank, I seem to remember you in the 70s reporting in Miami. Is that right? You were great.

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    1. Being a trauma surgeon "didn't work out"?? One wonders...

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  24. Just a note--SHE SAID is available to view on Amazon Prime, rent or buy the digital copy. Not inexpensive but still less than a two cinema tickets with popcorn and drinks:-) My parents, who were manufacturer's reps for theater concessions, would cringe to hear me say that!

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  25. When I was in either the fourth or fifth grade, a friend and I wrote a play together about archeologists discovering some tombs in Egypt. Our teachers let us put it on for the whole school. Archeology and writing a play were so cool. Of course, little Kathy did neither. I also didn't pursue writing stories after my second grade teacher took two of my stories to the principal and had me read them to her. I'm thinking the powers in charge were scratching their heads and wondering if they needed to hit me in the head with a rock, since the obvious signs weren't working. However, my elementary school librarian, Ms. Donna Root, made a lasting impression on me, and while I've never been a practicing librarian, I did finally earn my Library Science Masters. And, of course, the reading I started doing in elementary school became a life-long, wonderful habit.

    The one semi-solid idea I had when I was in college was wanting to work in book publishing, to go to New York City and have an exciting career in that. However, I graduated from high school in 1972 and college in 1976, so the prescribed careers for women were usually teacher or nurse. I went with teaching English, which was fantastic in some aspects but not so much in too many more. There was that little matter, too, of meeting my future husband the last semester of college and marrying him the next fall. That rather cut down on the flying off to anywhere to be anything better fitted for a single gal.

    There are so many things that shape our lives and steer our decisions on what to become, what career to pursue. In my case, the time in which I came of age to choose a path was more limiting to women than choices are today. I deeply admire those women who said bullshit to the limited choices and made their own paths on their own terms. Another factor is where you're born and where you grow up and what family you land in. I was lucky to land in a family where my mother valued education and reading, which in turn influenced me to love the same. But, my wonderful mother was also cautious, wanting her children to be safe rather than adventuresome. My small town was an ideal place to grow up, but I didn't run into people who encouraged the pursuit of "off the beaten path." Then, expecting young people to make life choices in their first few years of their 20s is rather insane. Choose a major and career path by the time you're 21 or 22? I took that one step further and got married at 22. I should have been made to travel at the very least before I said "I do." I'm not regretting anything. I have had a great, interesting life so far and a family I wouldn't trade for anything. I'm just saying that the expectations of the time in which you come of age and the environment of conventional or exploratory living make big differences in the road you travel. My passions have guided me to a world full of readers and authors, and that's a great place to be.

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    1. I am only a few years younger than you, but grew up in California. I never felt or was made to feel that my professional opportunities were limited in any way. Everyone went to college from Community college to Stanford University or the University of California at Berkeley. It sounds as if your community was still in the 1950’s in terms of women’s progress. California is so obviously at the other end of spectrum, even to this day. Thinking in Kentucky is not progressive, which is unfortunate for those living there.

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  26. Orchids? Really?? I associate them with Nero Wolfe. Going to read the link you posted.

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  27. I actually was a "girl reporter" for a few years, only I just called it "reporter." It was fun. There was always something different to learn about, and I got in on all the best courthouse gossip. There was even a time when I edged over into investigative reporting territory, doing a front page story on illegal tire dumps all over my rural county. Years later, when I had long-since moved on to a more comfortable job in the arts, someone else picked up that tire story and called me for background on it, because I was, apparently, the "expert." Good times.

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    1. Humm . . . I got published as "anonymous," but this is Gigi Sherrell Norwood.

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  28. I didn't have any particular career goals when I was a youngster. Forget Lois Lane, I wanted to be Superman and fly! Or be a cowboy (loved Roy Rogers). In fact my potential job "titles" were mostly masculine because even back then, I thought the female equivalents were too cutesy. Heck, I even decided against playing in a girls' softball league because the name, Powder Puff League, offended my 6th grade sensibilities.

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  29. My father was a radio and TV reporter so I tread my hand at print and a little TV. Not for me. Like you say, Hallie, it means knocking on the door of someone who does not want you on their doorstep, asking questions a sleazy business owner does not want to answer, etc. One quibble: In BROADCAST NEWS, Holly Huner's character decides firmly that she is no one's "girl" and I love her for that!

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  30. Sorry to chime in so late. Spent the day moving the Hooligans into their new apartment on the third floor - no elevator. I am officially too old for this. LOL.

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