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A review by bookph1le
Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu
5.0
This book gets two very enthusiastic thumbs up--with hearts and stars drawn all over my hands, of course.
There are so many things I loved about this book. It's the kind of book that gets you all fired up as you read, that makes you want to put together your own protest sign so that you're ready for the next Women's March. It does such an amazing job of framing feminism in a contemporary context and explaining why it's not a relic from the 90s that has no relevance to current high schoolers. I'm a product of the 90s myself and I find it both depressing and enraging that girls in 2018 are still experiencing the same kind of bullshit I put up with in high school.
What's more, I thought the book was thoughtful in the way it addressed the many facets and problems with feminism, especially as to intersectionality. The book doesn't get super deep into those issues, but it is very pointed when it comes to things like white privilege, and the ways that feminism needs to improve because in the past (and, sadly, sometimes in this day and age) it has prioritized straight, cis-gendered white feminism over women of color and queer women. It also touches upon the racial divides that still exist in our society, divides that are in some ways more insidious today because they're more invisible--though this isn't always the case in our current American atmosphere, where some people feel emboldened to trot out the racism, sexism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and transphobia they once felt was safer to hide.
I also really like that this book doesn't view girls through a single lens. Not every girl in this book--just like not every girl in our current world--is on board with the concept of feminism. Some of them are thoroughly enmeshed in the patriarchy that was specifically designed to keep them in their place. I like that we get to see some of the girls struggle with feminism and how it fits into their life, that for some of them it's a gradual awakening, with them learning to spot the underlying structures working to maintain women's second class citizen status.
The romance is also more than worthy of a mention because it's more complex. I do wish that it had been a bit more developed in that I would have liked to see Seth and Viv connecting on a deeper level. There's a lot of making out and swooning, which, let's face it, happens with both adult and teen romances when they're new, but I would have liked a better sense of what each saw in the other. Still, I really loved that Viv and Seth have to learn to communicate, and that even though Seth doesn't think of himself as a sexist, he also has to learn how deeply ingrained misogynist beliefs have affected him.
If there was one thing I didn't entirely love about the book, it was Viv's mom. I like that the book isn't presenting anything in a simple manner, and that it's so nuanced in all its facets, but I was disappointed that Viv's mom wasn't more supportive of what her daughter was doing.
Otherwise, this was a book that got me very fired up, one I want to share with every teenage girl I know. What's more, I want to share it with all the teenage guys too, because just as girls are expected to put themselves in guys' shoes and try to understand them, there also needs to be an expectation that guys learn how to empathize with girls. The only way I can imagine reaching a better, more equitable place for all is when people in general learn how to stop "othering" those whose gender or skin tone or sexual preference or religion differ from theirs, instead focusing on the thing that unites us all: our humanity.
Moxie Girls Fight Back
There are so many things I loved about this book. It's the kind of book that gets you all fired up as you read, that makes you want to put together your own protest sign so that you're ready for the next Women's March. It does such an amazing job of framing feminism in a contemporary context and explaining why it's not a relic from the 90s that has no relevance to current high schoolers. I'm a product of the 90s myself and I find it both depressing and enraging that girls in 2018 are still experiencing the same kind of bullshit I put up with in high school.
What's more, I thought the book was thoughtful in the way it addressed the many facets and problems with feminism, especially as to intersectionality. The book doesn't get super deep into those issues, but it is very pointed when it comes to things like white privilege, and the ways that feminism needs to improve because in the past (and, sadly, sometimes in this day and age) it has prioritized straight, cis-gendered white feminism over women of color and queer women. It also touches upon the racial divides that still exist in our society, divides that are in some ways more insidious today because they're more invisible--though this isn't always the case in our current American atmosphere, where some people feel emboldened to trot out the racism, sexism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and transphobia they once felt was safer to hide.
I also really like that this book doesn't view girls through a single lens. Not every girl in this book--just like not every girl in our current world--is on board with the concept of feminism. Some of them are thoroughly enmeshed in the patriarchy that was specifically designed to keep them in their place. I like that we get to see some of the girls struggle with feminism and how it fits into their life, that for some of them it's a gradual awakening, with them learning to spot the underlying structures working to maintain women's second class citizen status.
The romance is also more than worthy of a mention because it's more complex. I do wish that it had been a bit more developed in that I would have liked to see Seth and Viv connecting on a deeper level. There's a lot of making out and swooning, which, let's face it, happens with both adult and teen romances when they're new, but I would have liked a better sense of what each saw in the other. Still, I really loved that Viv and Seth have to learn to communicate, and that even though Seth doesn't think of himself as a sexist, he also has to learn how deeply ingrained misogynist beliefs have affected him.
If there was one thing I didn't entirely love about the book, it was Viv's mom. I like that the book isn't presenting anything in a simple manner, and that it's so nuanced in all its facets, but I was disappointed that Viv's mom wasn't more supportive of what her daughter was doing.
Otherwise, this was a book that got me very fired up, one I want to share with every teenage girl I know. What's more, I want to share it with all the teenage guys too, because just as girls are expected to put themselves in guys' shoes and try to understand them, there also needs to be an expectation that guys learn how to empathize with girls. The only way I can imagine reaching a better, more equitable place for all is when people in general learn how to stop "othering" those whose gender or skin tone or sexual preference or religion differ from theirs, instead focusing on the thing that unites us all: our humanity.
Moxie Girls Fight Back