Watching the Netflix drama Moxie*, I was piqued by feelings of nostalgia and bang up to date anger. Women banding together to protest male violence? Zines? Protests? Vigils? All quite relevant to the situation unfolding in the UK after the murder of Sarah Everard, a woman snatched from the streets of London and found dead a week later. #shewasonlywalkinghome was trending while I watched and I viewed the awful footage on Twitter of police, one of whose number is the suspect, attacking vigil attendees that night. It was shocking. And yet not.
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| Moxie |
Women fearing for our safety on the streets is nothing new. And sadly other cases of women disappearing and being found dead attracted next to no attention even recently, among them Blessing Olusegun.
But, it was still refreshing to watch a drama about high school students in which the main relationship is between female protagonists, in which a mother is able to pass on her love of Riot Grrrl to her daughter and in which difficult issues of race, class and sexual violence are raised, albeit briefly in the case of the two former. I do wish there had been a bit more diversity of desire as well. One kiss between teenaged girls at a gig was not quite the representation it could have been. Kudos to Amy Poehler for picking up a YA book to develop in this way. We await real action on male violence, as well.
*force of character, determination, or nerve
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