Theme Of Adolescence In The Film 'Mean Girls'

What is a discourse community? According to “The Concept of Discourse Community,” it’s a “discourse operates within conversations defined by communities, be they academic disciplines or social groups.” In other words, it is a group that has goals or a purpose and use communication to achieve that goal. In the movie Mean Girls there are many examples of discourse communities but I’m going to focus specifically on The Plastics. The movie Mean Girls is about a sixteen year old girl, Cady Heron, who has recently moved from Africa to the United States, and is attending public school for the first time. Her first day of school was not the best, but on her second day of school she meets Janis Ian and Damian Leigh who start to guide Cady into high school by telling her about different groups (cliques/discourse communities) in the school, including the Plastics, which is made up of Karen Smith, Gretchen Wieners, and Regina George. The Plastics soon take interest in Cady ask her to sit with them at lunch. Thanks to that we learn all about the discourse community of The Plastics. According to John Swales, there are six characteristics of a discourse community which I will discuss and use The Plastics as an example.

For example, Cady’s friends were the ones that coerced her to adapt into the lifestyle of a plastic, in order to have an insider in the Plastics so that they could know the horrendous things popular people said about them and in order to seek revenge on Regina for her treacherous deeds by overthrowing her. Correspondingly, another example is when Gretchen talks about how Regina had restricted the accessories she could wear. She mentions: “Two years ago she told me that hoop earrings were her thing ad that I wasn’t allowed to wear them anymore.” Clearly Regina had forced Gretchen to conform to her rules in order so that she could continue to look unique. Consequently, it becomes evident that much of the pressure being put on others in Mean Girls originates from peers. Not only are there differences, but there are also similarities in the way that the issue of having the pressure to conform comes across to the

Cole is the main character in Touching Spirit Bear. He is an “innocent-looking baby-faced fifteen-year-old from Minneapolis ” (5) Cole has a temper and  he really doesn't care about anyone but himself. He blames everyone but himself Like when he blamed Peter Driscal for telling on him, but Cole was bragging about it. (7) Cole is a very selfish kid and is very stubborn. Cole thought to himself, “Circle justice was a bunch of bull.” (6)

I learned that there are many different types of social norms, but the two depicted in Mean Girls are, implicit and explicit social norms. Implicit social norms are the behavior rules that are implied without anyone having to talk about them, while explicit social norms are stated clearly and there is no room left for confusion. These types of social norms are often seen in everyday life, and if you break the norms it can lead to you being shunned by others or all the way up to punishment with the law. Social norms are all around us. In the film Mean Girls, Cady moved from Africa and had to figure out both sides of the social norms. She had not experienced any of the social norms that everyone else lived by each day. Cady had to learn all the explicit and implicit rules of girl world. For example, when Cady first told Gretchen and Karen that she thought Aaron Samuels was cute they yelled at her and warned her that she could not like him. The reason she could not like Aaron was because he was Regina’s ex boyfriend and that breaks “girl code”. Cady had no idea about the girl code which is an example of implicit social norms. An example of explicit norms is the plastics burn book and when they write “Amber D’Alessio, she made out with a hotdog” they are shunning her for breaking the behavior

Self-discovery is essential to a prosperous life. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie, the main character, discovers who she is through her relationships. Janie learns from each of her experiences, but the most significant are her husbands: Logan, Jody, and Tea Cake. Each of these people attempt to control her thoughts and actions, but Janie rebels against them. Janie stands up for what she believes in, and through these confrontations, she better understands herself. Janie reacts in different ways to people in her life trying to control her, and this can be seen with Grannie, Jody, and Tea Cake.

What is a teen activist? A teen activist is someone who inspires people to do good in the world. They take a little cause and make it known worldwide. I believe that if we have teen activists in the world, people will want to do good things to help them. If that is true teen activists could make our world a better place. The three teen activists who inspire me the most are Malala Yousafzai, Faye Carey, and Emily Rigel.

Youth culture can pertain to interests in styles, music, clothes and sports. It also pertains to behaviours, beliefs, and vocabulary; this refers to the ways that teenagers conduct their lives. The concept behind youth culture is that adolescents are a subculture with norms, morals, behaviours and values that differ from the main culture of older generations within society. For instance, young men and women, teenagers in this case, are mostly represented as unpredictable and not easy to understand. In the film, Mean Girls directed by Mark Waters (2004), adolescents are represented as bullies, who use manipulation to achieve what they want and are two-faced with the people around them; they are constantly stereotyped as a high social group like the plastics and a low social group like the mathletes; also they are presented as young people that fall under peer pressure, and are overly concerned about their appearance and about being socially accepted.

The film Mean Girls is an American comedy movie for teens that illustrates the mainstream high school experience in the west. The main character, Cady Heron is a sixteen-year-old girl who is a new student at bob school in Illinois. Cady moved from being home-schooled in Africa, and therefore is unaware of the environment and lifestyle at a public high school. Cady then meets Daemon and Janis, who are part of an outcast group. Janis and Damien expose Cady to the norms of their school, talking her through cliques, and most importantly introducing her to “the plastics”, a group that Janis and Damian hated. “The plastics” were the leading group of the school, consisting of three popular, attractive girls, Regina, the leader of the group and two other girls, Karen, and Gretchen. “The Plastics” then scouted Cady since she had been attractive, and got the attention of popular boys, in which Janis and Damien originally supported in order to manipulate and plan to destroy “the plastics” through Cady. Cady’s exploration with social psychology is shown through her being unaware of everything at her new high school; social psychology concepts that are shown throughout this storyline are implicit personality theory, norms and group schemas, gender roles.

Children in the age range thirteen to fifteen are often transitioning through a critical time of their lives. They frequently look to others as a cicerone on how they themselves should act. In the novel, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino calls the cops on an end-of-summer party at which she was raped. The novel depicts Melinda’s excursion as to how she copes with the heart-wrenching events that have affected her momentously as well as creating “[a] frightening and sobering look at the cruelty and viciousness that pervade much of contemporary high school life.” (Kirkus Reviews, Pointer Review). The tragic event along with the rejection of her friends took a rather large toll on Melinda Sordino, in which, at one point, she stops

Conformity is present in every group situation with adolescents. Adolescents are always looking to be a part of a group, usually conforming to the standards of the group. Adolescents often conform because they want to have the approval of the peers that are well liked or “popular”. A great example of adolescents and conformity is in the chick flick ‘Mean Girls’ through the different cliques in high school and how it affects the peers themselves. Caty, the main character, is faced with several difficult situations where she decides to conform with her high school peers getting her in trouble that becomes hard for her to escape. Caty begins the movie with a real genuine friendship with Janis and Damien, two individuals who struggled with popularity because they were considered the “outside” group. However, the popular girls, infamously called the “Plastics” try to recruit Caty into their popular group, but only because she is considered one of the prettier girls in the school. The ring leader, Regina George, of the Plastics is the most popular girl in school who is really hated by alot of peers because of her horrible attitude and how she

Although this principle of conformity results in public compliance with the group’s ideas and behaviors, it does not always result in private acceptance of the same ideas and behaviors [Social Psychology, 2014]. This was seen towards the end of the movie as Cady began to realize her conformity resulted in her being known as the North Shore’s bully and “mean girl.” At the end of the movie you see Cady realizing what her conformity has done to her social identity and begins to change her conformed attributes and apologize for her

In “How to Handle a Bully,” by Kathiann Kowalski, an experienced journalist, Kowalski reports the different strategies to stop bullying. She informs that bullying is at its peak in the late teenage years, but can start in an early age. Kowalski concurs that girls intimidates as much as boys; however, they do it differently. She explores many reasons why bullying occurs at the first place, and who starts bullying. Kowalski exemplifies the situations that victims could be in, and the solution on how to handle the bully. She encourages students to collaborate to come up with a school’s code of conduct, which will be used to fight bullying.

The film, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, follows the story of Charlie as he braves through the challenges of freshman year. Throughout his first year, Charlies experiences friendship, alienation, love, mistakes, depression, acceptance of past events and newfound motivation. With the help of his love interest Sam, her stepbrother Patrick, and other likeminded individuals, Charlie is able to gain a sense of belonging and a boost of confidence that ensures his survival for the high school years yet to come (Halfon, Chbosky, 2012). This essay will delve into an in-depth analysis of adolescence from a socio-cultural perspective, using events from the film to provide examples and further enhance arguments. Furthermore, topics highlighting what I believe to be the most crucial aspects of adolescence will be discussed. The analysis of hegemonic masculinity, age induced frustration and restrictions, and the discourse of innocence will be defined and elaborated on. Finally, a comparison between the socio-cultural and developmental lenses of youth analysis, the unique view they each offer and my personal experience using the socio-cultural lens, will be discussed.

Personal fable is the second concept in adolescent egocentrism, that is teenagers have an inner belief that they are invulnerable, unique, and special so that they can take risks such as unprotected sex, alcohol and drug abuse (Irwin et al., 1991). Specifically, teenager excessively discriminate their own feelings and thoughts from others and assume that their experiences are very distinctive than others’ experiences. Expressively, the teenager who is unsuccessful in comprehending the experiences and feeling they come across are also familiar to other people. Lapsley et al. (1989) pointed out that personal fable promotes the progress of identity during adolescence.

Hollywood has made many movies that involve teenagers and their lives in high school. In most of those movies, they portray high school differently than actual high school. One of those movies is Mean Girls. The movie is about a girl named Cady Heron who moves to a new city from Africa and attends a public school for the first time. She gets in trouble a lot at first because she does not know the rules and customs of an American school. She quickly becomes friends with social outcasts Janis and Damian who warn her to avoid the school’s most popular girls. The popular girls take in interest in her, so Janis asks her to pretend to be friends with the popular girls, so they could mess with them. She