Moxie - A Poor Attempt at Girl Power

(an article i wrote in march that i would like to share on this blog) 

Just in time for International Women’s History Month, Netflix dropped Amy Poelher’s most recent effort, Moxie, adapted from a novel of the same name. The film centres around a quiet high schooler, Vivian, who creates an anonymous zine, which turns into a feminist movement within her school, inspired by the discovery of her mother’s collection of riot grrrl zines. I’m usually wary of Netflix teen films, as they tend to be cheesy and uninspired. However, a film centred around feminism and anything riot grrrl sparks my interest. I was curious to see if Poehler could bring riot grrrl culture to a modern audience successfully. In all honesty, my expectations weren’t high, but I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt.

Unfortunately, this film did not deliver on what it set out to achieve. In one scene, Poehler’s character -Vivian’s mother- claims that as a teenager, her friends argued whether their feminism was intersectional enough. Yet, in Moxie the amount of tokenism is blinding. At the forefront of the film is Vivian, a blonde, white, conventionally attractive cisgender girl. However, there is the promise of ‘intersectionality’ by the side characters being black, disabled, transgender, gay, Asian, and second generation immigrants. These are all characters that could make for a more genuinely inspiring, thought-provoking tale if they were the leading character of a film about female empowerment.

What’s more problematic is that Vivian frequently steals her feminist ‘ideas’ from her black friend, Lucy, for her own personal gain. Lucy was a great character, but lacked the attention she deserved. High school bully Mitchell is seen tormenting Lucy, going as far as spitting in her drink. It’s clear that his problem with Lucy goes further than her being female. Yet the issue of racism is never addressed. So much for intersectionality. The topics of ableism and transphobia are briefly mentioned, but so fleeting that their placement just feels like a poor attempt at diversifying the cast to fit the film’s agenda. If you want to create a proper feminist film, it must be intersectional. This means addressing issues that affect women all around the world, such as racism, classism and transphobia, within your discussion of feminism. Moxie fails to create a film that feels authentically feminist and genuinely inclusive.

Another issue I have with the film comes with the relationship between Vivian and Seth. It is the bare minimum for men to be feminists. Yet, Seth is treated like a saint for simply not being a misogynist. This depiction is problematic as it perpetuates the notion that girls will find men attractive if they demonstrate the bare minimum of advocating for women’s rights, (when Seth is seen with the female solidarity doodles on his hand Lucy says “that’s hot”)leading to a wave of performative feminism from certain men wanting to get into women’s pants. Of course, it is great that men are feminists, I just find that Moxie approaches this completely wrong and praises Seth’s actions too highly.

There were moments I enjoyed in Moxie, particularly the middle school girl band that covered Bikini Kill’s Rebel Girl, and the overall demonstration of female solidarity. However, I found that it lacked nuance and was out of touch with the needs of feminism in modern society. The story had so much potential, that was wasted by the lazy and at times irrelevant dialogue and uninspired cinematography. 

N.B. Why has it become a trope for girls on screen to become revolutionised only upon hearing Rebel Girl by Bikini Kill? It is a great song but I swear I’ve seen this happen in so many pieces of media and it's just become so predictable. Before I clicked play I was positive there would be a scene in which the main character undergoes a feminist transformation as Rebel Girl plays and guess what... I was not wrong.

Moxie (2021)

Written by Aimee Ferrier,