This was a pretty good book about a girl who lives in an unbelievably sexist town in Texas, where the school football team are fawned over and the girls have to put up with harsh dress codes and harassment. At the back of a closet, Viv finds a shoebox of old zines from her mum's Riot Grrrl days in the nineties and decides to do something similar.
So overall this was a really powerful book and an excellent treatise to what people can do when they decide to band together and support each other. because like any other bully, the patriarchy survives by the old Divide and Conquer. Girls being mean to each other plays right into their hands, because if we're all busy judging each others cellulite then we have no time left to call men out on their sexist behaviour. One of the most powerful parts of this book was the big walk-out. Loved it.
In fact, I liked the whole idea of Moxie and how it grew and evolved and became everyone's, not just Viv's.
The town Viv lives in in Texas was pretty backwards in its views on gender equality and while not every town is quite so oppressive, the things that happen to the girls in this book (discrimination, harassment, sexual assault, victim-blaming) happen to girls everywhere, so it feels very relevant.
The author tries to bring intersectional issues into the book. She shows how the town's ingrained misogyny affects a lesbian couple and some of Viv's black friends and how their experiences are different to Viv's as a straight, white girl. The book really isn't long enough to do the intersectionalism justice, but it's good that the author tried to touch on it and hopefully it will inspire readers to look up other books or essays that deal with this subject.
The only bit where I felt this book fell down was with the treatment of Viv's relationship with Seth. He felt like a plot device, like an unwitting foil who was only there so Viv had a boy to explain feminism to. I get why he was included - to show that even guys who are allies can be thoughtless with the things they do and say because of the societal nature of misogyny. Because guys will never truly understand the impact of sexism and misogyny, in the same way that white people will never truly understand what it is to be discriminated against racially. And what Viv has to explain to Seth is the whole thing about anyone born into a position of privilege having a moral duty to think about how their actions and the things they say affect others.
All in all, really quite good.
4.5 stars