https://www.netflix.com/title/81078393

I recently watched the Netflix movie, Moxie. In the movie, Vivian starts a feminist movement at her school after observing the unfair treatment that girls have to endure from the administration and their male peers. She creates an anonymous magazine highlighting the injustices she sees, calling on her classmates to help solve the problems. The group is eventually banned by the principal, and as the subaltern, they struggle to find their voice to cause change.

 After a classmate gets sent home for wearing a tank top, Vivian instructs everyone to wear one to class the next day. She is trying to tackle the injustices of school dress codes, which primarily prohibit clothing items that girls might typically wear. Dress codes like this are harmful because they normalize girls being the object of the male gaze. It shows that boys’ education is more important than girls’. It perpetuates rape culture, by blaming the victim for what he or she was wearing, rather than holding people accountable for their actions. Many schools implement dress codes that seem to target girls, and have a negative impact on them.

Vivian also helps to campaign for a female athlete to win the athlete ambassador position and scholarship, which in the past has always been given to a male student. Male athletes are continuously given more recognition and resources than female athletes, despite them constantly proving that they are just as capable as their male counterparts. This year the NCAA gave the female basketball teams fewer accommodations than the men, despite having the means to give them more. The US women’s soccer team wins more and brings in more money than the men, yet they are paid less. Women are continuously underrepresented and recognized in sports from high school to the professional level.

Though Moxie provoked some thought about gender inequality in schools, I thought it could have been more intersectional. Though everyone is invited and encouraged to join the movement, not everyone could benefit from it in the same way. It addressed injustices that are common to many women, but did not seem to include other identities, such as lesbian, transgender, or women of color. This movie could have done a better job at examining the injustices that affect women belonging to more than one identity.