Moxie
When this month started, I didn’t even know this movie existed. It’s a Netflix original film that was just released and instantly grabbed my attention when I saw a featured clip on my Netflix profile. It was then suggested to me by my sister to include in the list, so I watched the full trailer. It immediately piqued my interest.
I’ve actually just finished it, and there are still tear tracks on my face and snot in my nose from all the crying. This movie feels so good, even though within the first five minutes I wanted to yell in frustration with how the women were being treated by the men in their lives. The film takes place in a high school setting and revolves around the lives of a few high school girls who want to see things change in their school. One of them anonymously starts a ‘zine and distributes it, calling out the everyday sexism and misogyny going on, from the male students, to the teachers to the principal herself.
We follow the stories of several different young women as they deal with discrimination, including sexist dress codes, dismissal of their fears, and ignoring of harassment and assault. This movie, from the get-go, calls out the typical ‘boys will be boys’ attitude we so often see and hear about from people who want to make excuses for sexism and misogyny in action. A particularly poignant scene in the first 20 minutes of the film tells it like it is, after one character describes another teenager as ‘just annoying’.
“You know that annoying can be more than just annoying, right? Like, it can be code for worse stuff.”
“Annoying can be more than just annoying,” another character points out, and this proves to be true. The teenage boy in question goes on to do much worse things through the course of the film.
But this isn’t the only message this movie excels at sending. The girls are constantly being silenced, whether it be the principal trying to ban their ‘zine or suspend or expel them, or simply their teachers and classmates not allowing them to speak or give their opinions. This message is the first thing we see in this film; the opening scene shows the main character in a dream, running through the woods, presumably away from something, as she keeps glancing back. She comes to a stop and she tries to scream but nothing comes out. She tries again, but no one can hear her. And for much of the movie, this is what we feel like is happening to these girls. They are screaming for help and nobody can hear them.
This film also has great representation. While the main character is a young white cis girl, her friends are incredibly diverse. Her best friend is an Asian woman, who struggles with common difficulties for young Asian students in the form of extreme pressure from her mother. The other prominent members of the club include a biracial black Latina woman, two other young black women, a trans woman (played by a trans actor!) and a disabled woman. Two more of these students are explicitly queer, shown kissing each other on screen. Each of these girls experiences unique harassment and gatekeeping based on their personal identities.
At the end of the film, one black student stands up in front of the rest of the school and declares that her hair is beautiful and natural and amazing and, no, you aren’t allowed to touch it. The disabled student is constantly being pushed to the back of the marching band or other positions where she will be unseen and disregarded, so nobody else has to think about her. The trans character explains that not even the teachers call her by her right name. We see these characters struggling against the patriarchal society they live in, not just because they’re not allowed to wear tank tops without being blamed for distracting the male students (though that does happen), but because of many real-world intersectional issues faced by women all across the world.
There is a moment in this film, in the third act, where it starts to feel like this character who has incited a feminist movement in her school is only finding punishment and more hardship as she tries to fight against the powers that be. Her best friend has been suspended and she is at risk of being expelled if she’s found out. Her boyfriend is angry at her for how angry and upset she is about the things going on for her, and from her perspective, her mum doesn’t seem to be the inspiring feminist woman she first thought. She feels like her whole life is falling apart and she doesn’t know what to do.
This section of the movie really hit me. I started crying at this point and I don’t think I stopped for the rest of the film. Because this is what it feels like. On a day to day basis, trying to fight against these old, outdated patriarchal ideas and systems feels empty and useless and like I’m only being punished for the effort and energy and time I’m putting into this. This is not to say I’m some feminist icon, I could do so much more than I have done and am doing right now. By no means am I a role model for others. But I do know this feeling that she goes through in this part of the movie and I understand the struggle of finding the will to keep going.
What eventually spurs her on to continue is an anonymous letter left for her in one of the school bathrooms. Another girl at the school has suffered through a traumatic experience and wants Moxie’s help, because she doesn’t feel brave enough to speak out for herself. And our main character helps. She tries to go to bed but she can’t sleep because all she can think about is the horrifying injustice her fellow woman has faced. And that’s part of what I love about this movie. It doesn’t make any promises that things will instantly get better or that the fight won’t be hard. But that doesn’t mean that we can stop fighting.
If you’ve ever heard the negative experiences of friends or family or even perfect strangers at the hands of patriarchal society, you know that feeling of having to get up and do something to help. Sometimes there are clear answers of what to do and sometimes it seems like you’re watching everything through murky water and you don’t know which way leads to the light anymore. But you’ve gotta do something. That’s how this movie made me feel. I’ve gotta do something. I’ve gotta keep going. Because it’s better than doing nothing, right?
Moxie is available to stream everywhere on Netflix.
