Gender Roles In Mean Girls

By creating a video as well as a hashtag movement, #LikeAGirl captures the attention of a mass audience, relying on the support of both females and males. In the video, a young boy is asked if he thought that he had insulted his sister by his actions, to which he replied, “No. I mean yeah, insulted girls but not my sister.” Herein, Greenfield illustrates the extent of the issue since the male gender does not view its comments and actions as problematic.

It can be contended that varying contemporary texts which have been created for both children and young adults endorse post-feministic values and the importance of adhering to a consumer culture. The text Pink by Lili Wilkinson (2009) can be viewed as promoting post-feminist ideals through the inferences of dialog between characters; specifically, through the protagonist Ava. Additionally, the film Mean Girls (2004) mirrors similar ideologies as Pink which portrays a post-feminist society, revealing issues which individuals face once gender equality has largely been achieved. Both of these texts have been created for a young audience and utilise various narrative strategies to convey their ideological position. Accordingly, this essay will

The GSA Girls played with the line between masculine and feminine identities through gender maneuvering. “Gender maneuvering refers to the way groups act to manipulate the relations between masculinity and femininity as others commonly understand them.” (116) These girls were politically active in their approach to masculinity and sexuality, something that caused friction with school administration. An example was when the Homecoming Pep Rally fell on National Coming Out Day.

For example, when Denise as a teenager comes out to her friend, she states that “some black people think being gay’s a choice. And when they find out that their kid is gay, they try to figure out what they did wrong”. Catherine internalizes the pressure as a black, lower class, single mother to consent to hegemony, and through this, she outwardly disapproves of her daughter being gay because it makes her feel as though she failed to raise her daughter properly. Similarly, Catherine internalizes racial stereotypes and projects them onto Denise through her stating that she should have played basketball. Her statement, “a basketball scholarship would’ve come in real handy right now.

A girl who is being forced to be a certain way to fit into society. The reader must understand what gender roles are. They should also understand that certain behavior and expectations were required to be accepted into society. In to Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee teaches her readers that society has a restricted perspective in how girls and boys have to be.

It centers on females and how they act at that certain age. The four mean girls, Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, Karen Smith and Cady Heron represent the stereotypes of the popular girls of high school. The role of gender plays an important role in the movie. The movie discusses the aspects of how a “typical” teenage girl should be, in order for her to fit in.

The essay “Why Boys Don’t Play With Dolls” by Katha Pollitt, is an essay angled at young people who are, or potentially will be parents. The piece begins with an analysis of the indoctrination of gender roles upon children, with the focus beyond societal influences. Pollitt says other people claim that the reasoning behind children’s affinity for specific toys can be traced to things innate in humans, listing “...prenatal hormonal influences, brain chemistry, genes…” (Pollitt 1) as the top offenders. She also includes “...that feminism has reached its natural limits.”

Each of these concepts are utilized at the advantage of men, and the disadvantage of women, and has shown to provide detrimental consequences and results for women in society. However, in this film, and other films by Tyler Perry, appear to take the added step to combat these aspects that are present in the media’s portrayal of women. While these are present in the movie, he often makes a point to combat it with an inverse portrayal of each

She employs many literary devices that support her specific claim in this passage as well as she provides many clear examples of how stereotypes have shaped young girls’ lives throughout the book. Through these examples she succeeds to use them as evidence so the audience does not conform to

The image portrayal of women in this film is a way for the people in our society to see women as not having good standards. As when Waldo is first introduced to the film Darla instantly started gazing after him for being the rich, clean cut young man. Also Boys see girls as a scapegoat when it comes to their problems such as the scene when the club house burned down, and Alfalfa almost lost his best friend he says, “it all happened because I liked a girl” but it was really nothing to do with Darla that caused all of those events to happen it came from him not telling the truth and trying to hide her. One can also see the ideal role a woman should play in society. For instance, after the race Spanky did not expect Darla to be the one that helped them or be the one under the helmet.

The film Mean Girls, produced by Lorne Michaels and directed by Mark Waters in 2004 focuses on a teenage girl, Cady Heron, who experiences the drastic change of living and being home schooled in Africa to moving to America and attending a regular high school. While attempting to sabotage the plastics, the girls who hold the most popularity in the school, Cady unknowingly turns into one of them, leaving aspects of her old personality behind. By analyzing the film through sociological perspectives, the deeper meaning of the film can be revealed.

The movie Mean Girls is a perfect example of many social-psychological principles. Three of the major principles that are seen in the film include: conformity, in-groups and out-groups and prejudice. Cady Herron, a naïve sixteen-year-old who has been homeschooled her entire life, is forced to start as a junior at North Shore High School because of her family’s job relocation. Throughout the movie, you see Cady struggling to maintain acceptance in the school’s in-group known as The Plastics.

All of a sudden, I found myself thinking sociologically when I was watching the movie “Mean Girls,” because it reminded me of the cliques and peer groups that were in my old high school. The movie is about a teenage girl who ends up becoming a part of this clique full of mean girls and after an incident she sets out to try and ruin the leader of the clique’s life. It was the cliques and peer groups that made me start thinking sociologically, because it made me look back and see how much I have changed since I came to the University of Kentucky, and left my old clique or peer group behind.

Sexism in America affects how children and young adults act within our society. Toys, along with playing, are extremely important to a child’s development. In, the article, Playland, the author, Alice Rob, discusses how gendered labeled toys are changing, and how more changes are needed.

The development of kids is directly impacted by gender stereotypes in toys. Toys can help children develop certain skills and functions. Play helps kids learn how to solve problems, get along with others, and develop motor skills (“Children”). Toys can help kids develop physical skills, cognitive concepts, language skills, and social skills (“Children”). Gender stereotypes negatively impact a child’s development.