Moxie

This book is a narrative of baby's first feminism. If I had read this in high-school, I would've been so inspired and amped up. Being an adult who has studied feminism for years at this point, I still love it for the younger generation. I greatly appreciate that Mathieu included women of color and how easily white women and girls ignore intersectionality due to privilege. This book is definitely a top intro to feminism book.

THIS BOOK. I've been interested in this book for awhile because 1) Houston author 2) it involves Riot Grrrl and feminism 3) AMY POEHLER bought the movie rights 4) the hilariously missing the point review by Kirkus review & the 5) shitstorm that followed the review calling it out. So of course I jumped at the chance to read it in advance through Net Galley and I'm ready to gush about how great this book is.

In a small town in Texas the girls put up with a lot of sexist behavior from the boys and the administration doesn't do a thing about it. Vivian reaches her limit and wants to let the girls know that this isn't ok, but Viv is a bit of a shy girl that likes to go unnoticed, so inspired by her mom's Riot Grrrl past she creates a zine show more (NOT A NEWSLETTER!) called Moxie to call out the bullshit going on at her high school. The girls in her school respond to the zine and Moxie becomes more than the zine that Viv created, it becomes anything the girls need or want it to be that unites the girls.

What I really liked about Moxie is how Vivian is portrayed. She is like a lot of girls in high school and doing something that draws attention to her is really intimidating, but she finds a way to do so in her own way. Viv questions how involved she wants to get in her own creation, because she's scared of the consequences. I liked that the Riot Grrrl movement was included, critiqued, and built upon. Moxie is intersectional feminism, something that Riot Grrrl kind of dropped the ball on. As a fan of Riot Grrrl music, I would of liked more of the history and bands explored than Bikini Kill, but that is not the main focus of the book. Moxie also looks at high school relationships, Viv dates a boy that is new to her high school and is not like the other guys at her school, he isn't perfect and doesn't always understand why Viv is upset with how the school is and he doesn't always say the right thing, but he tries. That is an important theme in the book, the characters and the club are not perfect, but they are trying. show less

This book made me mad, and it made me sad, and it made me cheer. This book reminded me of how exciting it is to be a feminist. This book celebrates female relationships, and shows how powerful they can be. This book is not perfect, but it's pretty dang good, and it makes me look forward to more great novels by this talented author.

"This is what it means to be a feminist. Not a humanist or an equalist or whatever. But a feminist. It's not a bad word. After today it might be my favorite word. Because really all it is is girls supporting each other and wanting to be treated like human beings in a world that's always finding ways to tell them they're not."

YA FICTION
Jennifer Mathieu
Moxie: A Novel
Roaring Brook Press
Hardcover, 978-1-6267-2635-2, (also available as an e-book and on Audible), 336 pgs., $17.99
September 19, 2017

“Dutiful” Vivian is a junior at East Rockport High. She’s a “nice, normal” girl who tries to stay out of the spotlight, enduring another school year “like a long stretch of highway.” Vivian’s mom, Lisa, keeps a shoebox on the top shelf of her closet labeled “My Misspent Youth,” filled with old zines and photos of her Riot Grrrl days, punked-out in baby-doll dresses with combat boots, half her head shaved, “Riots not diets” inked down one arm. Lisa is a nurse now and wears lavender scrubs covered in butterflies, but when Vivian is upset, Lisa’s show more mementos of her youth comfort Vivian, even if she doesn’t yet understand why.

One day a boy interrupts a girl voicing her opinion in class one time too many with “Make me a sandwich” and something in Vivian ignites. She’s had enough of the humiliating dress code checks (while the boys wear T-shirts with “Great Legs—When Do They Open?” printed on them), the “bump ’n’ grab” in the hallways (the girls should take this assault and battery as “a compliment”), East Rockport’s “Most Fuckable” bracket posted online. Faced with inaction from the administration, Vivian creates Moxie, a zine for girls to educate, exhort, and inspire. Eventually threatened with suspension and expulsion, Vivian starts a movement that both scares and excites her.

Moxie: A Novel is new young adult fiction from Houston’s Jennifer Mathieu. Vivian’s fast-paced, first-person narration uncannily channels the sometimes insecure-and-anxious, sometimes righteous-and-incandescent, rapid-cycling emotions of teenagers (Vivian: “I am certain that I’m the first person on Earth to ever feel this awake and alive”). In the beginning her timidity is frustrating, but you’ll soon be fist-pumping and cheering her on. We care about the well-developed, relatable, sympathetic characters of East Rockport High, and we hope the entitled creeps get what’s coming to them.

Mathieu skillfully skewers Friday Night Lights culture; during the mandatory pep rallies, her characters “hide toward the back, like people who only go to church on Christmas.” Moxie is often funny. The local funeral home sports a sign that says, “Don’t text and drive. We can wait!”

Mathieu’s own interest in feminism was kindled by a high school teacher who once called her a “feminazi” during class, so “the joke is on you. Revenge is best served cold, you jerk,” she writes in the novel’s dedication. The Author’s Note at the end of the book includes a list of online resources and reading recommendations.

Kudos to Moxie’s design and marketing teams. The book jacket and interior style take a cue from Vivian’s creation, bringing the style of the zine alive for readers. The laudatory blurbs included with the advance review copy are all from girls between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. Amy Poehler’s Paper Kite production company has acquired the film rights to Moxie.

Although a fun, quick read, Moxie challenges assumptions and divisions masquerading as tradition. It is an encouragement, a comfort, an inspiration, an education, and a call to action. Refuse to sublimate objectification; stake your claim.

moxiegirlsfightback.tumblr.com

Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life. show less

This book is a mess. Fatphobia, throwaway references to the very real intersection of race and misogyny that don't go anywhere, repetitive, and confusing messages- Vivian's former Riot Grrrl mom is a fuckin' sellout if she's dating a 'fiscally conservative' Republican. The writing has the staccato rhythm of an actual high school kid's homework. "I walked to school on the street. I wore my blue sweatshirt. I opened my yellow locker in the hall at school. I took out my history book. I went to history class.'

The author also seemed to have a really hard time coming up with instances of misogyny to work into the text. The boys were either repeating 'make me a sandwich' as a non-sequitur or sexually assaulting girls in the hallway during show more school hours. Also, the misogyny only seemed to come from two boys, the vice principal, and the principal, sort of undercutting the point of institutionalized misogyny.

The book also imagines a world where Riot Grrrl had no lasting cultural impact and there are no punks or feminists at all high schools in the country. This is not the world we live in. Kids have the internet now, which has equalized access both to news and art.

Finally, I found it strange that Vivian just listened to 'Rebel Girl' on repeat rather than listening to any other Riot Grrrl band or even other Bikini Kill songs. Kathleen Hanna is not the be-all and end-all of Riot Grrrl. She's also married to Adam Horowitz from the Beastie Boys and is a millionaire now, so acting like she's some obscure character from history is really strange.

P.S. Did Vivian need to 'put on her Runaways t-shirt' like 600 times in this book? She didn't even listen to the Runaways- what a missed opportunity. show less

teen fiction (realistic fiction set in sexist, misogynist small town highschool in modern-day Texas).
Inspired by a mysterious, underground zine urging girls to fight back, the female students unite to rebel against a principal and his underlings who unfairly target and shame girls with their dress code regulations, and who consistently look the other way when it comes to the criminal misbehavior of the principal's star quarterback son and his friends. Contains some swearing, incidences of sexual assault (potential triggers).

This story uses pretty clearcut and extreme instances of sexism--the school's administration and the football players it supports are all seemingly corrupt to the core and it would be hard to argue that the girls are show more in the wrong to rebel against it, yet they still face opposition from their closest friends (of both genders) and family. In that way I could feel that the story was totally not real, but at the same time it felt all too real. It doesn't deal a whole lot with LGBTQA issues (Viv makes friends with one lesbian couple at her school but they don't really play a significant role in the story) or race issues (since it's Texas, there are a significant number of Hispanic characters; Viv realizes at one point that the school's beauty ideal is "white and thin"). It does deal with the unwarranted, negative perceptions of the "feminist" label, as well as the fact that even Viv's sweet boyfriend might not understand the girls' perspective (i.e., the systemic sexism and misogyny they've experienced their whole lives) well enough to take their side when it comes to believing or not believing claims of attempted rape--he is not a bad guy, he is just uninformed/misinformed/indoctrinated with the same system of male-centric thought since birth. show less

MOXIE GIRLS FIGHT BACK! Vivian Carter lives in a stifling small Texas town that revolves around the high school football team. The boys on the team have free license to do anything, it seems: wear disgusting t-shirts ("Great legs, when do they open?"), make rude comments when girls talk in class ("Make me a sandwich"), and commit sexual harassment and assault in the school hallways (the "bump and grab game") and off, with no repercussions (particularly as football player Mitchell Wilson's dad is the school principal). Meanwhile, the girls have no way to fight back against the harassment and double standard.

Finally, it's targeted, humiliating dress code checks that sends "good girl" Viv over the edge; inspired by zines from her mom's show more Riot Grrrl days, makes a zine called Moxie and distributes it in the girls' bathrooms at school. Each issue has a call to action, and more and more girls participate: marking their hands with stars and hearts, wearing bathrobes to school, having a bake sale for the underfunded girls' soccer team, and having a girls-only fundraising dance party. Moxie grows out of Viv's hands as other girls become involved; its anonymity gives other girls the opportunity to put out their own calls to action, culminating in a walk-out inspired by one girl's announcement of attempted rape and how the school admin refused to listen to her.

This is primarily a novel of female friendship, solidarity, feminism, and making change, but it's also a romance, as Viv begins her first relationship with a new kid, Seth, who moved to town recently from Austin with his self-absorbed artist parents. Seth is far more enlightened than the misogynist football players, but there are still things about the experience of being a girl at their high school that he doesn't get, and through a few awkward, tense moments and one or two fights, Viv is able to talk him through it so he understands better.

Satisfying and inspiring, Moxie is girl power at its best.

Quotes

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to live in a town that doesn't revolve around seventeen-year-old boys who get laid way too often just because they know how to throw a football. (27)

I want to tell Claudia she has to be wrong, that there's no way her dad would choose to support some small-town football team over his own daughter. But how can I even know I'm right? (191)

...it hurts to see Lucy so defeated. If I had the guts to admit I started Moxie, maybe Lucy would want to keep the fight going. The only trouble is, I think part of Moxie's power is that it is a secret who started it. Would it be as powerful if everyone knew it was my idea? (221)

"It's cool you tried, but it's hard to believe anything will ever permanently change that school...At least you know you have one more year and they you're out of there."
"Maybe, but it's not like there aren't going to be girls left behind after I leave. I didn't do Moxie for me. I did it for girls."
...
"No, I get it."
"I don't know if you could really get it."
(Seth and Vivian, 233)

I clench my fists. I feel like a match about to be lit. Or like the first crack of thunder before the storm. (248)

...it occurs to me that this is what it means to be a feminist. Not a humanist or an equalist of whatever. But a feminist. It's not a bad word. After today it might be my favorite word. Because really all it is is girls supporting each other and wanting to be treated like human beings in a world that's always finding ways to tell them they're not. (269)

"Sometimes I think even the best guys have a hard time getting it," Lucy says, her voice sad and soft. "And I think Seth is a really great guy. I do. But if he hasn't lived it, he just can't know, I guess." (289) show less