Article contributed by Zoë Leonarczyk
The Feminist Agenda of Jemima Kincaid by Kate Hattemer is a modern-day feminist manifesto for young men and women alike. Jemima Kincaid, because with a name like that how could you not say the whole thing, is smart, witty, and over the male “agenda.” Being one part of the Senior Triumvirate, Jemima decides that this is the year she will make a difference to the problematic misogyny and toxic masculinity at her private high school Chawton.
Jemima soon picks her target of change: the senior prom. To her, this is the absolute worst tradition as the girls are forced to wait for some epic promposal in order to get a date to the dance. And don’t even get her started on the heteronormativity of it all. So, Jemima comes up with a solution to give the females some power of attorney for prom as well as to leave an epic mark on the history of the school. Instead of just a regular prom, the Senior Triumvirate decides to throw a Last Chance Dance.
Jemima must work with the other two thirds of the Senior Triumvirate, Andy the flirty athlete and Gennifer the most popular person in school, to ensure that this is the best dance Chawton has ever seen. As the three plan out the dance, they set up a private website for every person in the school to submit their crushes. And by crushes, the Triumvirate means anyone you have ever even considered liking. Once all of these are uploaded, the Last Chance portion of the new and improved prom is put into action and mutual matches between individuals are sought out. Because they must be mutual, this is all about levelling out the playing field between the guys and girls of illustrious Chawton.
But, will everything go according to plan?
Jemima is one of those characters you will either immediately love or hate. She is amazingly herself and not afraid to share each and every opinion she has. Especially when it comes to feminism. Jemima Kincaid lives, breathes, and practices her feministic ideologies. She’s also lucky to get through any conversation without having to point out a problem with society’s frustrating ideologies about women. But Jemima’s concerns are not only about leaving her mark on the hallways of Chawton. She’s going through senior year with a secret romance while also dealing with the fact that her best friend is pulling away from her. As Jemima spreads her gospel of woman, she must also deal with the relationships in her life.
Hattemer has a very witty and sharp style of writing which pairs perfectly with Jemima Kincaid. All of the characters reflect to “typical” people you find in high school. You have the brainiacs, the athletes, the basket cases, the princesses, and the criminals. Oh wait, that’s The Breakfast Club, but you get the idea. There are the typical cliques you see in a high school, but Hattemer elevates these characters another level by pointing out the flaws and the similarities between these seniors. And, in typical Breakfast Club style, Hattemer brings three very different individuals together to form the Senior Triumvirate.
Overall, The Feminist Agenda of Jemima will leave you with nostalgia of Senior Year. It has all of the anxiety and rush that comes with graduating from high school. Each member of the Senior Triumvirate is afraid to move on from Chawton and be forgotten, much like the fear of many seniors in high school. I mean, who wants to spend four years of one’s life in school only to leave the doors one day and never be remembered. To never have some sort of legacy that students will talk about for years to come. And what better legacy for Jemima Kincaid than to stick it to the man and showcase the power of women.
The Feminist Agenda of Jemima Kincaid is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers as of February 18th 2020.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
A novel about friendship, feminism, and the knotty complications of tradition and privilege, perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Stephanie Perkins.
Jemima Kincaid is a feminist, and she thinks you should be one too. Her private school is laden with problematic traditions, but the worst of all is prom. The guys have all the agency; the girls have to wait around for promposals (she’s speaking heteronormatively because only the hetero kids even go). In Jemima’s (very opionated) opinion, it’s positively medieval.
Then Jemima is named to Senior Triumvirate, alongside superstar athlete Andy and popular, manicured Gennifer, and the three must organize prom. Inspired by her feminist ideals and her desire to make a mark on the school, Jemima proposes a new structure. They’ll do a Last Chance Dance: every student privately submits a list of crushes to a website that pairs them with any mutual matches.
Meanwhile, Jemima finds herself embroiled in a secret romance that she craves and hates all at once. Her best friend, Jiyoon, has found romance of her own, but Jemima starts to suspect something else has caused the sudden rift between them. And is the new prom system really enough to extinguish the school’s raging dumpster fire of toxic masculinity?
Filled with Kate Hattemer’s signature banter, this is a fast-paced and thoughtful tale about the nostalgia of senior year, the muddle of modern relationships, and how to fight the patriarchy when you just might be part of the patriarchy yourself.
