Have You Ever Felt Shamed by a Dress Code Check?

Moxie Book Review

***This post contains affiliate links. I will receive a small commission if you purchase something using these links at no cost to you. Thank you for reading.***

Title: Moxie

Author: Jennifer Mathieu

Page Count: 352

Publication Date: 9/18/2018

The novel Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu follows Vivian Carter in her small Texas town called East Rockport. Carter and her friends have never really been at the top of their school’s social hierarchy while also not being at the bottom. They just exist at school in the background of everything. Never in the spotlight, but not outcasts either. Like NPCs.

East Rockport is an extremely misogynistic town. A lot of the town’s residents, especially the school’s administration, believe “boys will be boys”. The male students are allowed to make crude remarks, perform suggestive movements, and sexually harass/assault the female students, without the faculty looking twice. There is an obvious double standard, but no one wants to acknowledge it. Throughout the novel, Carter and other girls in her high school learn to stand up for themselves and use their voices with the help of Carter’s zines, and events organized by the other female students. A zine is like a self-published booklet created by cutting and gluing text and images onto a master flat and then photocopying the master flat. It’s like distributing a call to action in paper form.

I read a lot of books, but the ones that stick with me are ones I have a personal connection with. This is why I enjoyed Moxie so much. 

The town that I grew up in shares many similarities with East Rockport. The town is a Texas suburb, but it has that small-town feel in how football season rules the Fall. Even though my high school football team was 3-7 junior year, those stands remained full under those Friday night lights no matter what. The women’s basketball team didn’t get this much attention, and they were 1000 times better.

Though my high school was pretty progressive, there was one part that paralleled Moxie a lot: the dress code. Over the years, my school’s dress code relaxed, but there was still a double standard. For example, one day I was walking to chem class, and as I turn into the hallway, I see this guy wearing khaki shorts so short that his underwear was peaking under the hemline.

The fingertip rule didn’t apply to guys, but it certainly did to girls. The administration had more of an issue with girls wearing leggings than they did with this. In Moxie the school’s administration was like mine. The boys wore what they wanted shamelessly while the girls got mercilessly dress-coded day in and day out. The difference is that in Moxie, the female students go against the dress code and fight back for their rights through protest. Throughout the novel, I felt so angry. I wish I could go back to high school and find a way to fight back. I can’t, so to anyone that is still in high school, protest, fight back, and stand up for yourself, but do it peacefully. Also, do it with your friends and peers because there’s strength in numbers.

Though the ending of the novel is dark as one of the student’s deplorable acts comes out, it has this beautiful full-circle moment between 2 of the students. It was a girlboss moment that was so satisfying to read.

I bought Moxie at half-price books for around $6. I was trying to buy a book for my AP Lit class but instead walked out with Moxie. A book that ignited a fire within me. As I close this week’s article my final rating of the novel is 4.5 stars out of 5. I could’ve rounded up to 5 stars, but I can’t give my first book review 5 stars. How can the next book follow that?

I highly encourage you all to purchase this book on Amazon, from Half-Price Books, or borrow it from your local library. Click here to check out last week’s post. Thank you for reading and stay sharp 😉