So if you pay any attention at all to what I share on Facebook (which would surprise me if you did tbh) you would have noticed that at any chance I get, I’ve been sharing the trailer for the Netflix film; Moxie.
Well, that’s because I read the book the film has been adapted from and I LOVE IT.
For those of you who don’t know…
Vivian Carter is done.
Done with the football team who think they can get away with anything and everything.
Done with the school faculty with their “turn a blind eye” and sexist behaviour to the female students.
So yeah. Vivian Carter is. Over. It.
And then she finds a box of her Mom’s old stuff. Turns out she was a Riott girl. Smash the patriarchy and watch it burn type sh*t.
And that gives Vivian an idea.
She starts distributing an anonymous zine around the school, calling out all the sexist bullsh*t and encouraging the rest of the students to do the same.
But as momentum builds, so does pressure from the principal and the football team to shut it down.
Well Vivian can’t stop it now. Can she?
So, I love this book and I wish I was half as brave as Vivian. Even doing something like that anonymously takes guts.
This story talks about a lot of things that are actually so important. I never realised how much sexism and misogyny is engrained in society, even in somewhere that’s supposed to be equal like a school.
But as I was reading this, a lot of the crap that Vivian’s fictional school pulled happened at my school as well.
Dress code: even though we had a uniform unlike Viv’s school, I swear on all that is holy I will never forget the time in YEAR SEVEN that our MALE assistant head of year, pulled half a dozen girls out of line up after first break because of the length of their skirts. Including me. ME! Me, who brought large skirts just so I would have the extra length.
This guy pulls us out of line and says that our skirts are an inappropriate length because our KNEES WERE VISIBLE! OUR F*CKING KNEES! SOMEONE CALL THE POLICE THE GIRLS ARE WIELDING KNEES IN PUBLIC!
I.
WAS.
TWELVE!
I really hope I don’t have to point out on how many different levels what he did was inappropriate. If you don’t understand, then I’m afraid there is very little hope for you.
Moving on to sports.
Boys football team? Gods among mortals apparently.
Girls football team? We got one game before they disbanded us.
Now maybe that wasn’t entirely their fault but if more was invested in girls sports as a general rule, then maybe I would have got to keep being a goalie. Which I really freakin’ loved by the way.
My point is, is that there are so many sexist things just ingrained in society, in boys and more sadly in girls themselves, that are just not okay. Girls police each other just as much as men try to do so as well, and it’s because it’s what we’re taught. All. The. Freakin’. Time.
And Moxie as a book makes you see them. Makes you realise them and makes you wonder how the hell anyone ever gets away with them!
My only, ONLY quibble (I like that word) with the book is that there is a romance subplot. It’s just personal preference but I just want one YA book without a central romance plot. Again, it’s just a personal thing, but I fully understand it makes it more real. A girl can worry about smashing the patriarchy and if their crush likes them back at the same time.
I would recommend Moxie to anyone and everyone.
Read it!
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