"I'm a girl who studies for tests. I'm a girl who turns in homework on time. I'm a girl who tells her grandparents she'll be over in five minutes and shows up in three. I'm a girl who doesn't cause a fuss. I even shrink into my desk when a teacher calls on me in class. I'm a girl who would prefer to evaporate into the ether rather than draw even positive attention to herself."
Vivian Carter thought she was used to the ways of highschool life in her small Texas town: football, and football players, and pep rallies and cheerleaders. The football players are treated like gods, meanwhile the girls soccer team hasn't had new uniforms in decades. The boys play Bump 'n Grab in the hallways, and when girls complain about it, they're told that it's "just a joke".
Inspired by her mother's Riot Grrl youth, spent in Washington State attending punk shows and publishing feminist zines, Viv decides to take action. She begins her own zine, called Moxie, and anonymously distributes them around the school. When she sees the response, and realizes that she is not the only girl who is fed up with "the way things are" she is inspired to continue, and soon other girls in the school begin adopting Moxie as as a brand name for their own revolution.
This book is a narrative of a teen girl's feminist awakening. "It's not just one type of girl but all kinds. Jocks and loud girls and girls on the yearbook and quiet girls and black girls and white girls and brown girls." In this statement, Vivian is seeing for herself that feminism isn't a word for a punk-ish lifestyle, nor is it an indicator of someone's interests or appearance. Anyone can be a feminist. It also functions as a brief summary of third wave feminism. In case you need a cheat sheet:
-First wave feminism is considered to be the 19th century- early 1900's. This wave concerned itself with issues of its time such as voting rights, and a woman's rights regarding marriage and childbearing. It expanded to include advocacy for other marginalized groups, advancing causes such as abolition, Indian Rights, child welfare, and even animal rights.
-Second wave feminism came about in the 1960's, and focused on issues such as equal pay and labor activism, and women's right to control their reproductive destinies. It functioned on the idea of universal womanhood.
-Third wave feminism is a reaction to second wave feminism, and the assumptions and misconceptions that the "universal womanhood" philosophy operated on. Third wave feminism asserts that women are not the same simply because of biology, but that we are diverse due to our races, heritages, sexual orientations, gender identities and economic classes. We have worlds of differences among us, but rather than divide ourselves, we should use those differences to learn of each other's struggles and unite so that we can all achieve equality not only with men, but with each other.
*technically, we are now in the Fourth Wave, but that's something I'll wait to discuss in another post*
Even though Vivian gains a boyfriend in the story, and he's a really nice guy who supports her beliefs and her subversive efforts to undermine the chauvinist agenda of the school administration, she knows that he'll never truly understand:
"He can't ever know what it feels like to walk down a hallway and know you're getting judged for the size of your ass or how big your boobs are. He'll never understand what it's like to second guess everything you wear and how you sit and walk and stand in case it doesn't attract the right kind of attention, or worse, attracts the wrong kind. He'll never get how scary and crazy-making it is to feel like you belong to some big Boy Monster that decides it can grab you and touch you and rank you whenever and however it wants."
I was inspired to make a playlist, so here are a few songs that came to my mind as I was devouring this book:
Siouxsie and the Banshees "Hong Kong Garden" (1978)
Joan Jett "Bad Reputation" (1981)
Bikini Kill "Rebel Girl" (1993)
No Doubt "I'm Just a Girl" (1995)
Spiderbait "Sunshine on My Window" (1996)
FILI-13 "Mansplain It to Me" (2017)
This is a YA title, but I am 100% for adding this to a middle school collection. In fact, I think that's the perfect age for girls to read a book like this. Middle school is the point where most kids really begin to think about their values, and develop their ethics, and really start figuring out who they are, who they want to be, and what's important to them. It's also the age where we see alot of girls stop participating in class, start comparing their bodies to other girls, and the Mean Girls really begin to rise. They need to start thinking about how they are treated: by males, by other females, by the media. . .and compared to how they think they SHOULD be treated.
Moxie is more than a book. It's a call to action.
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