Gender, Sexualization, and Agency Theme Analysis

Thirteen Reasons Why suggests that when men take advantage of women, feeling that they’re entitled to view, touch, and judge women’s bodies without their permission, they help to maintain an environment of gender inequality that disempowers and distresses women. When Justin spreads the rumor that Hannah let him touch her sexually (when the truth is that they only kissed), not only does everyone believe Justin instead of Hannah, but it’s Hannah, not Justin, who faces mockery and judgment for what (according to Justin) happened between them. Similarly, Alex’s “Who’s Hot/Who’s Not” list allows people to objectify and ridicule the female students included on the list—while Alex suffers no consequences for including them on the list and objectifying them without their consent.

Though the novel’s male characters often suggest, encourage, and control these sexualized situations, they face relatively few repercussions, either emotionally or practically. For example, when a boy grabs Hannah’s wrist to stop her from leaving Blue Spot Liquor—then tells her to relax, claiming that he’s “just playing”—he simultaneously touches her against her will and invalidates her perfectly justified feelings of panic and powerlessness. As a result, in addition to feeling physically trapped, Hannah is also unable to take control of her emotional reality. Furthermore, Hannah doesn’t bother to name Bryce, the boy who she knows raped Jessica at a party, on her tapes, because she knows he would try to bury the story—and would probably succeed in doing so. So when it comes to Bryce’s sexual advances on Hannah, she feels both physically and emotionally disempowered—she allows him to touch and have sex with her without verbally consenting. That decision echoes her decision to almost completely give up on her own life. This sense of powerlessness illustrates that her inability to fight back against unfair treatment she’s dealt—mostly because of her gender—leads Hannah to believe that her life is utterly out of her control. The novel therefore demonstrates that society with a foundation of gender inequality can lead to situations of intense emotional and physical harm, leaving women feeling desperately disempowered.