So tonight I needed something funny and uplifting and enjoyable to watch while I took my bath.... and because I'm me I also needed to have already watched it so I wouldn't have to focus to much.
I chose to rewatch Moxie which is a charming little netflix movie about high schoolers and feminism and love and coming of age. It's charming I'll give it that and overall it's a fun movie to watch but I couldn't help but wish a few little things had been done differently. And so, here I am blogging about them because I can haha.
My first issue is that they separated the male characters into angels or devils. No in-between. (Exept sort of the teacher- but he's portrayed more as the "I was wrong and now I've learned my lesson" type character. Which is fine but maybe there wasn't a lesson he needed to learn?). The reason this bothers me is that anytime we completely divide men, or women or anything, into purely good v. bad we loose sight of the truth. The truth that a good man can be a bit of a dick, and a good woman can be a witch sometimes. Because we are human and flawed and imperfect but we don't just throw away any human being who's ever messed up. *I'll just throw myself away if that's the case.* And wouldn't it be better to show character who actually had some depth who could grow and change and be given permission to exist imperfectly? I'm not saying we excuse the bad actions but honestly when we show the villain as being the r*pest or someone who SA's others we make the standard of "villainy" so high that no one in the audience except for r*apests feels called to change.
My second (and frankly bigger issue if you can believe it) was the lack of accountability in the main character. She defaced public property, honestly I'm fine with that-- it was in reaction to the knowledge that a girl had been r*ped at their school. But she also was rude and unkind towards her mother, her mother's boy friend (which again I kind of get because divorce and parents dating is always hard) and towards her boyfriend. Objectively this isn't a big deal- sometimes people are unkind towards others. Back to point 1, we're human and make mistakes. My issues was you never see her apologize for her behavior. They literally have her boyfriend upset with her and express that he doesn't deserve to be treated like her punching bag and her response is: "I've been under so much pressure and my life is so hard." Blah! Ick! Nope! That's not accountability! That's not how we react when someone says, "You've hurt me. I am hurt." And the thing is they just ignore her actions and have her boyfriend end the movie as a perfect 'simp king' who just loves her and let's it all go. It's a true disservice to the ideal of feminism! Feminism is about equality for everyone!
And it would have been an easy freaking fix!!!! After the couples fight she tries to give him a note which he doesn't read and gives back to her. She chases him and then they have their conversation where she takes no accountability. Here's how you could fix it:
After the fight she again tries to give him a note which he doesn't read- then you have her chase him and their verbal fight. She realizes what a good man she has when she is informed of the rape that took place at her school and writes him new note (maybe do a little voice over read) that she leaves in his locker. Then the next day when everyone is walking out and everything when he lifts his sleeve have him also be holding the note so you see that he's actually received and accepted an apology vs just being a "simp king" in a toxic relationship. SEE?! Easy fix!
Anyways I'm not saying it was a bad movie I just feel like it went so hard in one specific message it let other things get lost and in doing so lost some of the power to the message it was sharing. But still go watch it- it's a good time!
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