How Speak Fails Feminism

Coming into this class I had only read one of the texts on our syllabus, 13 Reasons Why. I quickly became excited about the prospect of examining this novel in an educational setting. I assumed it was selected as a result of the recent Netflix adaptation and surrounding controversies. Soon I realized that almost all of our texts deal with touchy subjects or hot button issues facing adolescents today. Because I am a passionate feminist and a subscriber to the educational philosophy of reconstructionism, I was interested to examine Speak’s treatment of rape culture and depression among adolescence. Despite this perspective and my enthusiasm for reading Speak, I ultimately found the novel to be underwhelming, unrealistic, and unconvincing. It had so much potential, but far too many pitfalls. Before I delineate these issues I want to address one possible explanation for why Speak writes, in my opinion, a subdued, mollycoddled portrayal of rape. This novel was published in 1999. Topics like feminism, rape culture, enthusiastic consent, and depression are still taboo and controversial to discuss today. Sexual assault survivors still feel ashamed and are reluctant to report their experiences. Perhaps in 1999 the concept of rape was even more taboo to talk or write about and this book needed to be written in a certain way to be palatable for the masses.

That being said, I still feel that Speak needs a lot of revision in order to become as groundbreaking as it makes itself out to be. The first issue I found myself having with the text was its overreliance on stereotypes. Melinda depicts everyone around her in a very boxed in, one sided way. All of the jocks act tough, arrogant, and entitled; all of the cheerleaders dress the same and act as a bitchy hivemind of gossipers. I feel that Melinda’s stereotyping of girls/women in particular undercuts the novel’s wannabe feminist message. One quote that particularly incited anger in me was Melinda’s description of the cheerleaders. She states, “In one universe, they are gorgeous, straight-teethed, long-legged, wrapped in designer fashions, and given sports cars on their sixteenth birthdays. Teachers smile at them and grade them on the curve. They know the first names of the staff. They are the Pride of the Trojans. Oops- I mean Pride of the Blue Devils. In universe #2, they throw parties wild enough to attract college students. They worship the stink of Eau de Jocque. They rent beach houses in Cancun during Spring Break and get group-rate abortions before the prom” (Halse 30). There are so many problems with this commentary! Melinda suggests that the cheerleaders have flippant attitudes about relationships and sex, and even goes so far as to suggest that they casually have abortions on a regular basis. Just like those cheerleaders, Melinda enjoyed going to the end of summer party. She was interested in Andy at first, she enjoyed kissing him, she just didn’t consent to sex. Now, I’m not trying to shame her, but she is shaming the cheerleaders for having parties and liking popular jock boys- which she also used to do! I also greatly dislike her condemnation and shaming of abortion. Melinda was raped. What if she got pregnant? Certainly she would want an abortion or at least be sympathetic to those that do. Her suggesting that women treat abortion in a casual manner seems very antifeminist and disrespectful. I don’t like that a supposedly feminist novel tears down other women in an extremely harsh, jarring way.

Melinda continues this tedious, overdone stereotyping with her teachers. Melinda’s teachers are painted as exaggerated caricatures. Her English teacher is a strange, nondescript woman with weird hair while her history teacher is an angry coach with a buzz cut who was plopped in a class he has no desire or qualifications to teach. Melinda even goes so far as to give the teachers nicknames based on their appearance which reinforces that she only views them in one narrow light. Even the most influential teacher she has, Mr. Freeman, is depicted in a stereotypical way. She gives him the respect of referring to him by his name but his character still fulfills the dreamy, rule breaking, underfunded artist.

Because of this lazy reliance on stereotypes I immediately felt that this book did not portray adolescence as authentically as other novels such as Part Time Diary. However, the more I considered the novel I came up with one possible explanation for the generalizing Melinda takes part in. Perhaps Melinda is meant to be an extremely unreliable narrator with a very narrow and specific negative worldview. She is a victim of assault and is slowly falling deeper into depression through the first ¾ of the novel. The only way to reconcile the over stereotyping with the novel’s overall merit is by viewing it as evidence of Melinda’s negative attitude towards her parents, her ex friends, her teachers, the school system, and the universe at large. However, I still have problems with how this technique was executed. For one, it took me time and careful contemplation to see that this stereotyping could be a purposeful technique rather than lazy writing. I’m not entirely convinced that most adolescents and inexperienced readers would be able to pick up on these nuances, especially because teens ARE constantly exposed to lazy writing in other YA novels and Disney channel shows where the writers DO rely solely on stereotypes to provide characterization. I also feel as though sometimes the stereotyping isn’t used in this manner. Because it’s hard to tell when this technique is supposed to reveal Melinda’s depression or when it’s just another tired YA trope, I am not entirely convinced about whether or not Melinda’s stereotyping is an authentic, purposeful, and ultimately successful characterization technique.

The other problem I had with the novel that could not be overlooked was the rape scene itself and the novel’s ending. Firstly, I felt that the rape scene was far too vague and sugarcoated. The entire novel centers on this one crucial scene but the event itself is condensed into just one simple paragraph. I found this to be very anticlimactic. I also had a problem with the aftermath of the rape. Everyone shunned Melinda because she called the cops, not because she was raped. I understand that her keeping the rape a secret changes the course of the novel in a crucial way, but it would’ve felt more realistic for her to experience victim blaming and shaming after the rape. Even though Rachel supposedly hates her, when Melinda tells her she’s been raped she is very surprised and sympathetic. She only changes her tune because she assumes Melinda is just jealous of her dating Andy.

I also felt that the ending of the novel-Melinda and Andy’s confrontation in the custodial closet- did the novel a great injustice. To me, this scene was like a second rape scene. I assume the author ends the novel with this second conflict to show how Melinda found her voice and finally speaks out and escapes when Andy is cornering her. While I see the value in that, I felt that this confrontation undercut the initial rape. I guess I would’ve preferred either an ending that focused solely on Melinda’s recovery and identity formation by herself, or a more “real” and serious delineation of the consequences Andy faces once Melinda speaks out against him. I felt that the adults were passive throughout the entire novel, including during this second confrontation. I never got the sense that Melinda was ever validated or that her issues were “real” because they never really came to light in the eyes of the adults and Andy never faced any consequences.

Following the possible ending of Melinda’s private recovery and identity formation…I was extremely disappointed at what became of Melinda’s tree project. Melinda does eventually gain some clarity through her tree endeavor. She sees how the tree in her yard is getting its old dead pieces removed so new pieces can grow and she is able to positively apply this concept to her own life. However, I wish she had created an original depiction of a tree that meant more and changed her outlook more. The tree symbol followed Melinda through the entire novel so I guess I expected something more unique and groundbreaking at the end.

Overall, I think that this novel brings a lot of important issues into the spotlight. Feminism, rape culture, enthusiastic consent, and depression are all things adolescents should be educated about. I just think other books tackle these issues in better, more mature ways. Speak had the potential to be one of these novels, perhaps the first, but it simply fell short.