Moxie

Vivian’s mother is in her thirties and attractive, with long, dark hair. She is a sensible, good-natured woman who devoted herself to the care of her infant daughter after her husband died. Lisa initially wanted to escape East Rockport because she felt the conservative values of the town were at odds with her own beliefs, and she especially hated the sexist and restrictive environment of her high school. Lisa was drawn to the outspoken lyrics and politics of the punk bands of the Pacific Northwest that called themselves the Riot Grrrls. She wore grunge clothing and sported handmade tattoos. Lisa now thinks of those days as “my misspent youth” (10), which is how she labels the shoebox with the music cassettes, pictures, and zines she kept—but the fact that she kept them shows how much this movement meant to her at the time.

Lisa has made compromises as an adult to fit back into East Rockport, but she doesn’t resent these choices because she made them to support Vivian. Lisa got a degree as a nurse and now works in an urgent care center, a demanding but rewarding career. Her growing relationship with John, a doctor she works with, provides an example to Vivian of how romance develops between mature adults. Lisa also shows Vivian how compromise between adults can sometimes be necessary for harmony, especially in her tolerance for John’s political beliefs, which differ from Lisa’s. Lisa wants a relationship of open communication and honesty with her daughter and is doing her best to teach Vivian the skills of being an independent young woman. She encourages Vivian to identify and stand behind her own values and beliefs, and in the end admits she is proud of her daughter for speaking out.

Lucy is a fellow junior who provides a foil to and inspiration for Vivian, modeling feminism and activism as well as outspokenness. Lucy is Latina and tall, with a big presence and a bubbly personality. Lucy is intelligent, perceptive, and already has a developed social conscience, evidenced by her participation in a feminist organization called GRIT at her former high school. Lucy offers friendship and validation to Vivian as she articulates many of Vivian’s beliefs about the sexist culture at East Rockport High and the privileged treatment of the football players.

Lucy’s embrace of Moxie and her wish to contribute with an all-girls bake sale show Vivian the further possibilities of what she began. However, Lucy is also ambitious and avoids trouble, like Vivian, and she is deeply shaken by threats from the principal over her involvement with Moxie. She tells Vivian, “I know I come off like some tough girl here or whatever because I actually care about social issues and stuff […] but honestly, I really just want to do well in school and go to college” (220). Lucy’s cleverness helps the girls win their fight against Principal Wilson when she draws attention to their protest using social media. Vivian feels close to Lucy, relates to her easily, and finds in Lucy a model of what she wants to be.

Claudia has been Vivian’s best friend since kindergarten and serves as her foil in a number of ways. In contrast to Vivian’s height, Claudia is petite. She is also Latina, but Vivian has never noticed a cultural difference between them because of this. Claudia is another good girl who shares Vivian’s initial fears about speaking out because she doesn’t want to get in trouble or risk becoming a target of attention. Claudia believes in keeping quiet and going along with the system until one can get out—the belief that Vivian initially holds but grows away from.

Claudia performs a thematic function in initially voicing a critique of feminism for being loud and complaining. She would rather call such activism a movement for humanism or equality because she prefers to avoid looking disagreeable or making people uncomfortable, and she wants to avoid accusations such as that leveled by Mitchell Wilson that feminists are man-haters and lesbians. After Mitchell Wilson assaults her in the hallway and the principal dismisses her report, Claudia comes to agree with Vivian and Lucy that sometimes speaking out is necessary to draw attention to a problem. She has reached the limit of her compliance.

Claudia’s cautious adoption of Moxie’s mode of resistance, by slapping the asshole sticker on people who openly harass or intimidate them, thrills Vivian because she is giving Claudia, and other girls who have been subdued and told to be quiet, a voice and a way to fight back against their harassers. At the end of the book, Claudia joins the walkout, showing that she is ready to risk the repercussions of standing up and standing out to challenge an unfair system and the people invested in maintaining it.

Seth Acosta is Vivian’s love interest and also a foil to her evolving feminist beliefs. He represents the role of the male ally who doesn’t endorse sexism or rape culture and is trying to understand the basis of feminist complaints. Seth is attractive, with long, dark hair and “olive skin and full lips and dark eyes like two storm clouds” (24); Vivian compares him to the actor Ralph Macchio in his youth. Seth is sensitive and intelligent. His parents are artists with progressive political and social beliefs, so Seth is amazed and a bit repelled by the culturally bereft, football-centric culture of East Rockport. His perspective offers Vivian an outsider’s lens on her town, which adds to her discomfort with the status quo.

As Vivian’s love interest, Seth contributes to her developing sexual maturity in healthy ways, as their interactions progress with mutual consent, enjoyment, and open communication. Seth and Vivian’s compatibility in many of their interests and preferences helps confirm and validate Viv’s sense of self. But Seth also provides a contrast and conflict when he voices the “not all men” response to sexual harassment and assault, which diminishes the lived experience of women, especially when all men do benefit from the systems that promote men and men’s value over women. Seth also takes the stance of those who are cautious about believing women who make claims of sexual assault. While the legal standard is that a person is innocent until proven guilty, dismissing or suspecting claims of sexual violence, as Vivian perceives, values a man’s reputation over a woman’s bodily integrity and personal rights. The role of the ally is to believe and support women and to call out instances of harassment or rape culture; Seth demonstrates his allyship when he convinces his friends to join the walkout. Vivian and Seth reconcile at the end because their personal and political beliefs are essentially compatible, along with the sexual and personal attraction between them. In offering her a real boyfriend instead of a fantasy boyfriend, Seth contributes to Vivian’s character growth.

Principal Wilson is the chief antagonist of the novel and the defender of the rape culture that prevails at East Rockport High. He is rude, short-sighted, aggressive, and focused on the success of the football program at the expense of all other school activities. Wilson began as a teacher of seventh-grade Texas history before he became principal of East Rockport High School. He repeatedly demonstrates his sexism by advising Emma Johnson to run for vice president of the student council because a male student will be a more respected president. He also chooses not to take appropriate action when both Claudia and Emma report that they have been assaulted by his son. In addition to defrauding the school by misuse of public funds, which shows his lack of personal integrity, Wilson represents the forces of the patriarchy that want to keep women in a subservient position where their value is defined by their relationship and attractiveness to men. When he tries to expel all the girls who participated in the walkout, Wilson shows he is more interested in maintaining his authority and his version of order than in addressing their legitimate reports of sexual assault.

Mitchell Wilson is Principal Wilson’s son. The star of the football team, he is arrogant and entitled. Mitchell’s football skills have made him a leader among the other boys, and he is a chief perpetrator of the sexual harassment of East Rockport High’s female population. Mitchell has never been held accountable for his behavior: Teachers look the other way when he is disruptive in class or rude to other students. It’s unclear if Mitchell, the villain of the novel, understands his behavior harms others because he might be modeling what he has been taught is appropriate male behavior. It’s also possible he would refuse to remedy his conduct if disciplined. At the end, Mitchell simply disappears, escaping all accountability for his actions.