Krishna
This is a story meant for young adults, targeted towards girls. And it has a stong slant to feminism. However, it appeals to all, and the feminism here is not the agitative feminism – which has its uses too – but the raising of fist against sexist behaviour in a high school.
This will appeal to all, and is skilfully constructed. The main protagonist, Vivian is a model student, ignores the obvious sexist attitudes of boys, especially the principal’s son Mitchell who thinks he owns the school. From there, she slowly travels towards rebellion, at the same time fearful of the consequences of the small town school which seems to want to suppress any sign of change to the status quo, especially the worship of the school football team and the license given to boys to openly humiliate girls due to their star status.
Vivian, the narrator, is in the class of Mr Davies. Mitchell Wilson, the class bully surprises the new girl Lucy with his coarseness. The story is very juvenile but meant for juvenile audience anyway, so I guess it is OK. Vivian’s mother is a nurse, trying to feed her family when the dad disappeared from their lives but as a young girl she was a rebel with shaved head and not taking ‘no’ for an answer. She fought for injustice but was also in a screechy heavy metal band as ‘a sign of her independent identity’. Vivian is full of admiration for the old mom who was young, courageous and a rebel.
On the other hand, Vivian cannot even stand up for Lucy. She is totally shy with boys but is interested in a new boy who has (what else?) half shaved head and looks totally, you know, cool.
If you suppress your gag reflux and read on, are you rewarded? No, it just goes in this vein for a very long time.
She finally decides that she will not slavishly attend football to add to the hype surrounding the abominably behaving football playing students (Who openly wear shirts like ‘Great legs, when do they open?’ in front of professors and girl students).
She creates and copies a zine called Moxie and places those copies in the girls’ toilet. First, she does not hear of any strong reactions. Then on the designated date, her suggestion of writing stars and crescents on hand as a protest movement succeeds more than she imagined. Even the new boy has them on his hands.
Lucy, Vivian and Viv’s old friend Claudia are drawn together by the camaraderie this created. She also is inspired by Claudia’s anger at the sexist attitudes at the school, which punishes and humiliates girls for slight dress code infractions while letting boys – who are their football stars – run riot with openly insulting and revolting messages on their shirts.
The next campaign by Moxie was about wearing bathrobes to school in protest of the discrimination. Seth notices Viv is the creator of Moxie and promises to keep it a secret. What is more, he has kind of invited her to a date.
The bathrobe protest is a huge success but Viv is disappointed that her own best friend Claudia chickened out of it.
Then the story sags with them arranging bake sales in support of the women’s football team which is neglected in the school. Meanwhile the boys start a trip and hurt campaign against the girls and Vivian is completely mad again.
Finally Viv and Seth make out. When the bump and grind of the boys goes out of control, Moxie decides to push back with another campaign (though the idea of just putting stickers on boys’ lockers sounds tame compared to what the girls are going through). Shockingly (in the story) the professors take the boys’ side saying ‘that must have been a joke; relax and try to forget it’ was the advice to Claudia who was a victim of serious sexually inappropriate attack. The real response would have been a media tipoff.
Anyway, the principal comes down hard on the unknown Moxie girls and since Lucy was the ‘face’ of it because she did an open bake sale, she is sent home as a warning. The girls go quiet. Not for long.
The story grows on you. Initially you are not very deep into the troubles and travails of a youngster in a school – all boys around are yucky and nothing matters except to get good grades and escape to university. Then the slow transformation – after she discovers that her normal seeming mother was a rebel in her youth – and after slowly she seethes with anger at the double standards – all draw you into the story.
The fear of Vivian to even admit she started Moxie, fearful of repercussions, feels real. The slow drawing in of the various girls in the school – and some boys who are equally disgusted by the their fellow male students’ behaviour – is well told. The threat escalation by the Principal comes out well.
Many tiny mysteries (as for instance ‘who is the girl who put in Moxie stickers on the principal’s car’) are revealed in the natural course of the story so that you have no loose ends left at the end. How the situation escalates with the Principal threatening to expel all girls who disobey the school rules and how they manage to overcome that threat from the person with the highest authority in the school form the rest of the story.
All good points that help sell the story. I would definitely say that – if you are into young adult books – this book is worth a read.
7/10
== Krishna