Moxie

The novel poses the question of whether traditions are in themselves good and asks when traditions need to be interrogated and changed. One of Vivian’s learning experiences is deciding when traditions have ceased to be useful and may, in fact, be harmful.

One of the aspects of life at East Rockport High School that Vivian initially accepts is that the school’s culture, and the town’s social life, revolves around the high school football team. As a result, the boys aren’t disciplined for their disruptive behavior. Cliques and social groups are decided in middle school, and students group themselves by identity. Lisa, Vivian’s mother, notes that the same culture existed when she was a student. The generation-spanning sexism suggesting that such things don’t change unless people challenge or critique them.

The example of the Shirley Jackson story “The Lottery” asks why a community might retain a harmful tradition. While she is uncomfortable with the adulation of the football team and the hierarchies at the school, Vivian isn’t able to perceive that existing culture might actually be harmful until she is exposed to outside viewpoints through her mother’s shoebox and the literature and the music of the Riot Grrrls. Lucy Hernandez and Seth Acosta, who come from bigger towns with more cultural diversity, also offer new perspectives. In contrast, Meemaw and Grandpa represent the conventional values and traditions of East Rockport. Because Vivian has never known otherwise, she has never thought to question these values and traditions.

Vivian’s example suggests that activism begins when one finally becomes aware that a culture or tradition is no longer relevant or may be causing harm. Her example further suggests that activism requires from role models—in Vivian’s case, her mother, the Riot Grrrls and, to some extent, Lucy. Activism also requires shared effort. Vivian creates and shares Moxie at first to identify and voice displeasure about the harassment of girls, but she also presents a call to action: She asks girls to decorate their hands with an innocuous form of self-identification—emblems that indicate they agree with the Moxie stance. When this bit of activism is a success, Vivian makes her second call to action a form of resistance. Wearing a bathrobe is meant to call attention to the vagueness of the dress code and the arbitrary, and sexist, nature of the dress code checks.

Building on this action, Vivian’s third call to action is a form of more overt active resistance, that of naming and shaming perpetrators of sexual violence. This is the point—when targets become personal—that her growing movement of resistance encounters pushback and punishment from the authorities who are invested in protecting and maintaining the traditions that specifically and materially benefit them, in this case, Principal Wilson.

As part of her maturing, Vivian realizes that activism involves not just speaking out but working to change the existing culture to something more just. She learns that this process is not always easy, but she also realizes there is more communal investment and ownership when the action feels like a collective. In time, the sheer weight of voices—exemplified by the girls shouting over the principal’s bullhorn at the end—overcomes the weight of oppressive traditions and encourages a change of administration. Vivian and the girls remain cautious at the end about how much the culture will change because they realize it can take a while to dismantle entrenched behavior. They see the success when different girls come forward and add their talents, as do Lucy, Keira, and Emma Johnson. Part of their new awareness as activists is understanding that there may be risks, but persistent, collective action is the way to continue to call for the changes of equality and justice that they want to see.