Marcia van Zeller was a young woman fresh out of university in Canada when she obtained her first job in the male-dominated television industry of the 1970s. There was the rambunctious nature of being in an office full of directors, producers and actors, a place of great profanity and political incorrectness, she tells Have a Go News.
“There was lots of sexual harassment and innuendo, the kind of dark side of the profession,” Marcia says “It was way back in the past, but this behaviour came to the forefront about 2018 when ‘Me Too’ struck and made headlines around the world.
“When that happened I was listening with great interest to the stories of the women who came forward to accuse Harvey Weinstein.
“The stories they told were uncannily like some of the things that I either observed or experienced myself. For me, it was nothing as big or violently extreme as some of the things that happened to his victims, but I experienced a constant sort of ogling and innuendo.
“I had this kind of sense of, my gosh, nothing has changed, because the Weinstein accusations really range between the 1980s and almost the present day.”
Marcia decided to write a fictional book, Be a good girl, Valerie set around now 63-year-old Valerie who has long accepted that’s she has reached the age of invisibility and works in a dull corporate communications job.
But when Valerie learns her Gen Z co-worker, Anna, has been fired for rejecting her older boss’ advances, Valerie boldly steps up and becomes Anna’s champion.
Through this process, long-suppressed traumatic memories surface for Valerie, of when she was sexually assaulted by her male boss in London in the late 1970s.
“The character of Valerie came to life for me as I was writing,” Marcia says. “I realised she was a bit of a smart talking, rather crusty, curmudgeonly but also dry-humoured woman and I think her wisecracks are what really bring in that humour.”
Marcia van Zeller settled in Perth from Canada in the 1980s and embarked on a career in journalism (including a stint at The West Australian), public relations and professional writing. She has spent the past 12 years as a sessional academic at Curtin University, teaching professional writing and publishing.
She decided she had a story or two of her own to tell. She completed a PhD and published an historical novel, The Capes in 2015. With an urge to write something more contemporary and personal, she wrote the recently released Be a good girl, Valerie.
“This stuff is still going on,” Marcia says “But the women are coming forward now and then. That led me to the question, why didn’t we do something about it and that’s where I guess that phrase of being a good girl came from, because I felt as young women we were told to be a good girl, don’t complain, go along with it.
“Men are right, men will be men, we just have to put up with it. So, this is where the character Valerie comes in who is a kind of spin-off of my own experience.”
Marcia has spoken about her new book to audiences at several Perth libraries and says many of the attendees are mature women.
“I see the heads nodding as we are talking about the theme of the book so I think the message I am getting from women, both young and older, is that they relate to it.”
Has there been much advancement in this field?
“I think that it looked as though with ‘Me Too’ that things were progressing and there were some wins and the issue raised awareness. But there are so many conflicting movements, those sort of male chauvinistic podcasters and influencers who are promoting the exploitation of women and promoting the superiority of men so we’ve got these other kinds of movements working against them.
“Statistically I suspect that ‘Me Too’ hasn’t made a difference to the attitudes of many men at all, but that’s really just a sort of anecdote. There are many counter forces such as Andrew Tate, the American and British social media personality who gained notoriety for promoting various highly controversial positions in the manosphere and has been dubbed the king of toxic masculinity.”
Is there another book in the pipeline?
“I’m working on another book and I think it will be of interest mainly to women but possibly a broader range from Gen Z to mature and it will be set in Perth. It’s got a different theme and I hope to put it forward to a publisher later this year.
“It’s one of those things where you’re going to be spring boarding off the success of your existing books so I’m writing about what I’m interested in and what really moves me to write.”
Be a good girl, Valerie by Marcia van Zeller ($32.99, Ventura Press), is available at all good book shops.
