Girls Are Angry Too

 

    In lieu of the animated show Big Mouth’s recent finale, I wanted to write a blogpost about that show, because I personally loved it, and because it did a wonderful job of discussing women’s issues, as well as race, sexuality, mental health, and more. The show is set in a middle school with students trying to navigate their feelings and identities in a confusing time in their lives. One episode in particular that stood out in terms of boldly discussing a girl’s issue was, “Girls Are Angry Too.”

On this episode, a girl was dressed in a tank top at the school in a woodworking class. One of the boys, Jay, gets distracted while using a saw and accidentally saws off the tip of the finger of another student, Andrew. Andrew and Jay and their parents end up in the principal’s office to discuss the issue. The principal is near retirement and indifferent about how the situation is handled, so a male teacher, Lizer, decides to handle it by implementing a dress code. He holds an assembly for all the students to explain the new dress code and has a student modeling the kind of clothing that is no longer allowed. The new dress code clearly specifically targets the girls at this school, so the girls plan a “Slut Walk” to protest after a few girls are dress coded the day following the implementation of the dress code. The next day they wear their most revealing clothing in protest and go head to head with the boys who were saying they were “sexy” rather than understanding the point of what they were doing. One boy, Nick, tries to defend what the girls were doing, but gets called a "pussy" by the boys and angers the girls by saying the wrong thing simultaneously. Another thing that frustrates the girls is one girl, Missy, who wanted to protest but was uncomfortable dressing differently for the Slut Walk.

    The next day uniforms are implemented much to the disappointment of all the students, but Missy comes to school with her usual outfit outside of uniform and screams at Lizer for "being a creep" and policing what young girls were wearing, and at the other girls for shaming her when she was uncomfortable dressing for the Slut Walk, and at the boys for refusing to take ownership to their own lack of self control and blaming it on what the girls were wearing. This makes everyone reevaluate what they were doing and the dress code is overturned.

    I wanted to unpack a few things in this episode. The first is that the dress code in real life does typically only target girls and the most common logic for it is to say that it is distracting to boys and that boys cannot control their impulses. The main thing this mentality does is perpetuate rape culture by reinforcing the notion that men are animals that cannot control their sexual desires and putting the responsibility on women to prevent sexual harassment or assault by telling them to dress a certain way rather than telling the boys to control themselves. How can we expect adult men to take responsibility for their actions when we are raising young boys to believe that they are incapable of self-control and cannot be accountable for their actions?

    In addition to that, it is the girls being taken out of class and forced to change for sake of the dress code which strips them away of education time so that the boys can focus on their own education. This prioritizes male education and reinforces the idea that men's education is more important than women's education.

    The next is that this dress code was made by a male teacher. While it was over exaggerated in the animated show for comedic effect, the teacher was definitely over-sexualizing middle school girls, which is effectively what dress codes do. Girls bodies are seen as inherently sexual and prone to the male gaze regardless of age, and it is an institution that needs to be questioned. It is mot okay to teach young girls that their bodies are essentially objects for male gratification and that they cannot be respected as individuals if they are dressed a certain way, nor is it acceptable to allow male teachers in particular to see these young girls' bodies as sexual, and thus in need of a dress code, in any way.

    In addition, the whole purpose of protest is often undermined when it comes to women. History is frequently taught as a man's subject with very little room talking about the women's rights movement or other major contributions women have had in history. All their protests and efforts often go unheard of, and this continues to happen today. Women today will protest about having the right to choose when it comes to abortion and their voices are still not listened to by male legislators making laws controlling female bodies, for example. This episode does a great job of showing girls protesting and showing boys missing the point of it, which is sadly still common.

    Another thing they touched on was the difficulty in being a male ally. The character Nick was the only boy that seemed to show any sympathy towards the girls in the episode, and he discussed the situation with his parents who told him he needs to support the girls, much to the disapproval of his brother who warned him that the other boys at school would call him a "pussy." This is a very real risk some young boys face when defending girls. We as a society have normalized boys being viewed as weak when they side with women, which is something that ought to change, because some men simply will not respect women unless the idea to respect women comes from another man. As awful as that is, it is the harsh reality that men need to be standing up for women too in order for change to really occur. However Nick was not only made fun of by the boys for trying to defend the girls, but also reprimanded by the girls for what he was saying in trying to defend them. While he was not saying any of the right things, his intention was pure at heart in trying to help the girls. I think we often see people attacked for saying the wrong thing regardless of what they meant by it, and I think in order to have a sustainable conversation about major issues we need not attack those who are trying to help us but rather explain what they can do to improve their advocacy.

    Another issue within this episode is the girls getting mad at Missy for not dressing for the Slut Walk. It is an issue in and of itself when women shame one another because we should be standing in solidarity, especially when it comes to fighting something that the patriarchy created. The girls should have been fighting in unity, and Missy did intend to protest with them, but instead they attacked another girl rather than the oppressive system for a brief moment. Often people do get caught up in fighting with people who are on the same side as them rather than the oppressors in a situation, and that goes back to my previous point that we can have an open dialogue about improving advocacy without outright discrediting people who are trying to help. In addition to that, the purpose of the protest was to not police what women were wearing, and yet the girls proceeded to do just that to Missy. The purpose of such a protest should be to allow women to wear what they want without fear of repercussions or harassment, not to dress provocatively to prove a point, and these concepts got mixed in the characters' minds.

    This episode did truly phenomenal work in showing the issue with the dress code and how people address advocacy. I think it is very applicable to real life scenarios in which we see the dress code being enforced unequally and specifically to allow boys to focus while depriving girls of education time.

Sources:

https://www.netflix.com/watch/80241183?trackId=14170287&tctx=2%2C0%2Cc7ff7397-9ebf-4b42-bd33-f3ff8397566f-3947119%2Ccb2194f5-7918-4805-83f7-11a5b666d854_2214489X3XX1638557570993%2Ccb2194f5-7918-4805-83f7-11a5b666d854_ROOT%2C%2C

https://time.com/3892965/everydaysexism-school-dress-codes-rape-culture/