Netflix’s Moxie and the End of the Popular Girl

Are we finally ready to stop worshipping at her altar?

Carly J Hallman
7 min readMar 21, 2021
Photo by Rojan Maharjan on Unsplash

Once upon a time in teen America, you had to be white, slim, and pretty to be popular. You had to be sexually desirable. You had to dress well. The boys had to want you; the girls had to want to be you. It certainly helped if you came from a well-off family, although there was a certain allure to being gorgeous and from the wrong side of the tracks. Maybe you were “easier.” A little more desperate. Either way, you had to make reasonably good grades and do the things popular girls did: cheerleading, volleyball, attending raging house parties and pious church youth groups in equal measure.

Once upon a time in Hollywood, things were the same. Teen movies have long centered around the trials and tribulations of the popular girl. The glowing sun, around which all other planets revolved. She was a ringleader, fierce, sharp, as bad as she was good. She was Summer Wheatley from Napoleon Dynamite. Betty Rizzo from Grease. Regina George from Mean Girls. We love her, we hate her, we can’t get enough of her. Or maybe we can.

Recently, I watched Amy Poehler’s Netflix movie, Moxie, a dramedy about modern-day riot grrls and feminism. Yes, it’s a flawed movie, particularly at the end, and it earned the mixed reviews to match. Still, it…

Carly J Hallman
Carly J Hallman

Written by Carly J Hallman

Just another 30-something writing about the internet, nostalgia, culture, entertainment, and life. Author, screenwriter, copywriter. www.carlyjhallman.com

Responses (4)

What are your thoughts?

The popular girl is about whiteness asserting itself and teaching us what is lovable, cute, or beautiful. We all let her get away with murder. We prop her up. We love her instead of ourselves.
And we need to stop.

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mousy best friend

This is a great read! I am 60, and damn if YOU didn’t describe MY life, as the mousy fat friend. Sometimes life equals out but I have been haunted by ‘those days’ from the past for many years. Absolutely great read. Warm regards.

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She wasn’t mean, and she wasn’t strutting around hatching evil plans or spreading vicious rumors or attempting to steal anyone’s boyfriend. No one was trying to be her or dress like her...

She was being bullied herself. That list, and she was a victim of her ex boyfriend.

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