Youth Culture In Mean Girls

This emotional satisfaction stems from the “remembered hurts which then get recast into symbols” (Denby 11) and are eventually eliminated or fixed when “the outsider who joins the system also modifies it” (Denby 13). The system he mentions is the social constructs American teens create for themselves as they view the world is constantly judging them and they constantly judge the world. The high school teen movie genre in a whole is an inaccurate representation of reality, according to Denby. They are “merely a set of conventions that refer to other films” (Denby 4) and simply reaffirm for the yearning viewers that “the outsiders can be validated only by the people who ostracized them” (Denby 13) creating yet another unrealistic

With today’s American teens, the concept of social norms can be easily be pointed out. As social norms is an established manner of behavior maintained by a society, teens today can easily be argued to follow a manner of behavior, such as texting, taking selfies, and wearing the latest trends. The ,hipster, is unique to today’s American teens, an example of visual representation and a subculture. Even with our own personal experience and observations, most teens today represent the typical hipster. Skinny jeans, chunky glasses, and checkered or plain T-shirts, the American teen hipster is a recognizable figure in the modern U.S.

Cady Heron’s life changed dramatically when she moved to a suburban area in Illinois, after living in Africa and being homeschooled her whole life. She started at North Shore High and quickly got sucked into the stereotypical girl drama. Prior to the drama, Cady met two of her best friends Damian and Janis, who were apart of the out-caste clique. The two compiled a map of North Shore High and how Cady will survive it. A big part of the map was the cafeteria and where all the different cliques sat. Cady was warned about a certain clique called “the Plastics”, she was told they are the worst people she would ever meet. The Plastics are the popular clique at Cady’s new

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.

Mean Girls, set in Illinois, depicts the socio-political climate of an American high school, with it’s protagonist, Cady Heron moving from Africa and homeschooling to be socialised in her new society. The antagonist throughout the film, Regina George, is portrayed as an authoritarian woman who has total control of the school (Mean Girls 2004). Regina is shown to engage with numerous sexual partners at the same time and promotes her liberation through wearing a tee-shirt with her bra protruding out the front when she finds two holes cut at her breasts; motivating a new fashion trend throughout the cohort (Mean Girls 2004, Robinson-Cseke 2009, p. 45). This depiction of a strong, independent woman aligns with ‘Post-feminist texts-films, books, magazines and television programs characterised by a model of young womanhood that is empowered, successful, entitled, independent, socially mobile and free to choose her destiny’ (Toffoletti 2008, p. 72). Post feminism is further reflected in the film through the power change which occurs, transferring from Regina to Cady, mirroring the transfer of power from second wave feminism to post feminism. The tension between these two women can be attributed to more than personality differences, but rather ‘opposing territorial forces including middle

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.

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

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.

“Ex boyfriends are just like off limits to friends. I mean that’s just like the rule of feminism” (15:15). This famous saying said by Gretchen Wieners from Mean girls is widely known and most of the time ridiculed by people. Mean Girls is a movie that portrays the stereotypical American high school life. The movie has a main focus on the girls of high school, rather then on the boys. 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.

At the beginning of the film (4 minutes and 50 seconds) shows how the different Hierarchical Groups taking part in this movies. Social Dominance Theory explains the behaviours that being participated in and experienced in middle and high school as well as the behaviours in the above mentioned move, Mean Girls. The theory states that people all belong to groups and members protect their group and act to maintain their hierarchical groups. The clip demonstrates this principle in how a member of the group did not follow their standards and therefore, in order to protect the group, she was dismissed. The top group has high social value which motivates and maintained the hierarchical status. Such social value leads out group members to have out group favouritism towards the high status group due to hopes of joining and also acquiring high social value. This is also viewed in the movie Mean Girls in how everyone admires the members of the plastics (PSU WC, 2015).

There is no doubt that the film Mean Girls is full of conflict. Director Mark Waters did an excellent job at presenting how conflict can transpire and spread between females. The conflict that occurs in Mean Girls can easily be seen through the main characters Cady and Regina, however, conflict does not only takes place between the two of them but the entire school as well. Conflicts that arise throughout this film can be explained through power and power currencies, conflict styles and tactics, assumptions and triggering events, and forgiveness and reconciliation. Each conflict allows there to be understanding as to why the conflict took place and how it got as destructive as it did.

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.

The movie that I have chosen to write a Film Analysis on is Mean Girls, which stars Lindsay Lohan and Tina Fey. The film tells the story of a girl named Cady Heron (who is played by Lindsay Lohan) and her family whom just moved from Africa to the U.S. Cady was homeschooled for nearly all of her life until she came upon her first public school; Northshore High School. As she starts her first days of schools, she finds herself with two, who can be seen as, outcast friends named Janice and Damien. They both take Cady into their group and become friends. They guide her around the school and and inform her about the “groups” and “cliques” in the school ranging from jocks to mathletes, she especially points out one group in particular, “The Plastics”. They inform her that the “The Plastics” consist of three mean popular girls, starting with Regina George (Rachel McAdams) being the head of the trio who is manipulative, backstabbing and the main antagonist in the film. Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert) and Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried) Regina’s two best friends, all who are admired and treated with high

For example, at one point when trying to sabotage Regina, Cady takes advantage of teenagers’ need to fit in and be part of a group. Cady tricked Gretchen into thinking that she had received a candy cane gram from Regina when she actually sent it to herself. Once Gretchen thought that Regina didn’t like her she spiraled out of control because she was so worried about being kicked out of the group. Additionally, in the movie everyone seems to be star struck by Regina George, this is evident in the beginning of the movie when they interview many people of different cliques in the school and they all seem to think that Regina is some kind of goddess. Even the principal seems to know what is going on in Regina’s life as he even gives a detailed account of when and where got back together with her ex-boyfriend. The students speculate outrageous things about her life like that she “does car commercials in Japan” or that “her hair is insured for $10,000”. Everyone in the school wants to be of the “popular” crowd or at least be relevant. In turn Regina and the other plastics obsess over everything in their lives to maintain their elite status among their peers. For instance, one of their daily activities is to stand in front of a mirror and talk about what they feel is wrong with their bodies. “The Plastics” constantly go on crazy

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