Grade 10
"Remember, girls. Put a little color on your face. Don't wear short skirts. Be funny but don't hog the spotlight. Don't give him the wrong idea. Don't blame him for trying."
Rules for Being a Girl by Candace Bushnell and Katie Cotugno is a short, sharp, feminist novel depicting a girl who pushes her way through expectations and "rules" for being a girl. In modern society, women are expected to be and act certain ways. This book highlights sexism found in the everyday world and highlights upon feminism.
This story is led by Marin, a typical sophomore high school girl who has a boyfriend, her best friend, and a favorite teacher. She leads life normally at school until an incident which flips her perspective around and makes her realize the sexist mindset of teachers and students alike in her high school. Let's talk about her favorite teacher for a moment. Mr. Beckett, or "Bex" as he's referred to by all the students is a charismatic and youthful teacher who is loved adored by all the kids. He's extremely friendly with students, and often gives them rides in his car, hangs out with them etc. Marin considered him as her teacher best friend and casually hung out with him until one day, he takes her to his house. Before I reveal the incident, let's not forget that is teacher is 40-ish years old whereas Marin is 16. He kisses her. Marin didn't want anything of the sort, and let's just say she was traumatized. But she was even more shocked that her teacher was completely casual about it, not to mention, she had to see him everyday in school. This happens near the beginning, so this isn't a spoiler. Throughout the rest of the book, Marin deals with telling people about what happened to her (only to find out no on believes her), noticing subtle sexism from her peers (including her boyfriend), having everyone turn their backs on her and opening a feminist book club. The rest of the story is quite interesting to say the least.
I find the setting and the characters very relatable. Marin is like every other teenage girl, and I can almost put myself in her position. Before the incident she doesn't think much of what people say, but after it she starts to notice many different issues found in her high school itself. For example, her English teacher "Bex" gave a list of books the students have to choose to write a report on, but all the of the authors were only male and white. She finds this weird and speaks up in class about why there weren't any female authors in the list, and everyone just looks at her weird and even her teacher blows it off with a joke. Another example (which I think everyone can relate to) is the dress code. There is a dress code for both boys and girls, yet only the girls are enforced to follow it. Boys violate the dress code, and no one seems to care. The moment a girl wears a skirt that's half an inch too short, she has to go to the principal's office because apparently she is "distracting" the boys with her legs. Marin notices these things and starts to speak about it, but of course, no one listens.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone and everyone because I feel like this book highlights important issues on sexism and feminism in today's world. The character development was absolutely brilliant because before the incident, you can see the sexism that prevails but you notice that Marin just brushes it off. Post incident, she starts noticing every little thing wrong in the the system and the mentality towards girls and women. This book provides and lessons that everyone needs to be educated about. Hope you liked my review! Furthermore, for books similar to these, I highly recommend The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed :)
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