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Mean girls psychological analysis
Sociological analysis of mean girls the movie
Sociological analysis of mean girls the movie
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Recommended: Mean girls psychological analysis
Paige Bushnell
Gender Development
Film Review #1 For my first film review, I have chosen to watch and discuss Mean Girls, a movie about a previously homeschooled girl from Africa, Cady. Cady is portrayed as the stereotypical shy and naive “new girl” who is introduced to the pecking order of public high schools and the stereotypical cliques with which the student body divides itself when she befriends outcasts, Janis and Damian. Janis and Damian become Cady’s genuine friends, and we see examples of gender stereotypes and sexual orientation immediately with them. Damian is her hysterical gay friend, who Cady makes the mistake of mentioning is “too gay to function” in front of the Plastics, after hearing her other friend Janis say it. Janis is
Cady transitions from being a victim of mean girl behavior to becoming the most popular mean girl herself, as she picks up on the gender roles deemed appropriate by the Plastics. She is originally shown wearing loose fitting clothes, a ponytail, and minimal makeup. She is very quickly introduced to a set of rules that the Plastics follow, that includes only wearing jeans or track pants on Fridays, only wearing your hair in a ponytail once a week, and of course the infamous rule “On Wednesdays we wear pink.” These rules are very gender stereotypical, and Cady is hesitant to assimilate at first. However, Cady becomes obsessed with being popular, she is conniving and pins friends against one another, starts to wear makeup and tight clothes, and yearns for attention from Aaron Samuels, a senior jock. Cady’s gender portrayal is transformative as she becomes who she originally despised alongside Janis and Damian. She depicts a teenage girl that is easily influenced by popular and dominating
Golding shows how children all on their own, can change their own brains to function the way they choose with no one telling them what to do. He as well explains the impact of less clothing has on society, which causes civilization to diminish from where they lay. Likewise, Cady changes the way she dresses from being fully covered with dignity and respect to exposing body parts and changing her way of thinking. However, in the end, both authors reveal symbolism and setting through teenagers and children. Parents should be most cautious about teenagers because they seem to be the main reason why society corrupts and destroys itself, which leads future generations at risk of becoming even
An anonymous person once said “The most miserable people are those who care only about themselves, understand only their own troubles and see only their own perspective.” In other words if someone is selfish and does not care about other people’s feelings is someone who is usually miserable in their lives, if all they see is themselves and views only their side they are blinded by their character and personality. In the play Othello by Shakespeare the villain Iago suffers from wanting more power which drives him to destruct other people’s lives along with his own. In the movie Mean Girls by Mark Waters Cady Heron suffers from wanting to fit in and be apart of something which makes herself the villain in many parts. Cady Heron and Iago’s character
The film Mean Girls is about a young girl, Cady Heron, born and raised in Africa by her zoologist parents, who were also her homeschool teachers for sixteen years. When Cady moves to the United States, she enrolls in a public school for the first time. Here she realizes that high school students have the same hierarchy as the animals she observed in Africa. The lowest ranking group in this high school hierarchy is the outcasts, who also happen to be Cady’s first friends in the U.S. The highest on the high school food chain are the “plastics”. The “plastics”, are the most popular girls in school. The plastic’s notice Cady’s charming personality and stunning good looks and invite her to join their clique. In order to avenge her first friends,
Cady has always been homeschooled, so she did not really know what it was like to communicate with others and make friends. She thought that her actions are what she should be doing in order to make friends. As Cady gets closer to The Plastics, she starts to develop feelings for Regina’s ex-boyfriend, Aaron Samuels. Later on in the movie Cady has to make a choice whether she wants to be officially part of the group or to continue sabotaging it. Eventually she decides to be part of the group, which disappoints Janis; since Cady basically betrayed her. Cady starts developing into a whole new person; she became a Plastic. Cady illustrates different types of interpersonal communication as she tries to make everything right again in her life. Throughout this movie, the girls show how their relationships consists of: social exchange theory, communication privacy management theory, unproductive conflict, and productive
This film contains some classic examples of the kinds of real life issues adolescents deal with. Issues such as popularity, peer relationships, family/sibling relationships, sex, and struggles with identity are all addressed in this ninety-minute film.
"Cold, shiny, hard, PLASTIC," said by Janice referring to a group of girls in the movie Mean Girls. Mean Girls is about an innocent, home-schooled girl, Cady who moves from Africa to the United States. Cady thinks she knows all about survival of the fittest. But the law of the jungle takes on a whole new meaning when she enters public high school and encounters psychological warfare and unwritten social rules that teen girls deal with today. Cady goes from a great friend of two "outcasts", Janice and Damien to a superficial friend of the "plastics", a group of girls that talks about everyone behind their back and thinks everyone loves them. Adolescent egocentrism and relationships with peers are obviously present throughout the film. I also noticed self worth in relationships, parenting styles, and juvenile delinquency throughout Mean Girls.
AIn the movie, The Grudge (2004), a woman is used to play the four big roles, which are the main character, supporting character, victim who dies early, and the evil creature, which is the dead mother who is now a ghost. The main character, Karen Davis, is an exchange student who works at the same place as one of the supporting characters as a care-worker. Throughout the movie, she learns about the events that brought the ghost into existence, while simultaneously being followed by the ghost. In the end, she attempts to kill the ghost, but it survives and continues to follow her. One of the gender stereotypical characteristics of the main character was her job as a care-worker. Care-workers are people who care for others such as children,
“Fitting in” is a concept that is seen a lot in adolescence. Teenagers will do pretty much anything at times to have friends or appear to be “cool.” That is exactly what happens to Tracy in this film. As the film begins, Tracy is a good, simple girl, and her pureness all changes when she befriends the most popular girl in school, Evie Zamora. Evie is very rebellious. She does not have a strong authority figure in her life (Levy-Hinte, London, & Hardwicke, 2003). The sweet, innocent young Tracy is soon to be completely transformed. Evie is vividly a bad influence on Tracy from the beginning, as seen when she influences Tracy to steal something the first time they hang out together (Levy-Hinte, et al., 2003). Stealing is illegal and considered a minor crime and turns Tracy into a delinquent (Berk, 2011). Tracy’s identity development is heavily influenced by her new friendship with Evie from that moment on. Evie is so popular, but she makes very poor choices and Tracy follows her lead because she wants ...
Man no longer lives and fights to survive but enjoys luxuries. In the Mean Girls movie, the comparison between the students and domination of others by the alphas depict Rousseau’s idea. The alphas consisting of Regina George, Karen Smith, Gretchen Wieners, Aaron Samuels and Cady Heron (joins later) dominate the underdogs including Janis Ian, Damian, Ms. Norbury, and the Asians. As Rousseau stated, comparison gives dominance and happiness, the alphas have a better life and are enjoying themselves more than the others. They also derive pleasure from dominating the others and treating them with contempt. Rousseau considers the invention of property as the beginning of equality, and that property offers a platform for the rich to exploit the poor. Rousseau believes that conflict and despotism would occur as wealth becomes a rule for comparison. The idea of wealth as a comparison factor is evident in Mean Girls movie with Regina representing the upper class as she is rich, famous, and beautiful. Her social status gives her the title of a leader of the “plastics,” and she makes the rules including deciding what to wear and doesn’t take orders from anyone (Mean Girls). Wealth differentiates Gretchen and Regina, and because of her lower social status, she cannot be the leader of the plastics. She has to accept her position yet she despises Regina, thus depicting the role of wealth as a comparison factor in the movie highlighting Rousseau’s idea of wealth as the basis for comparison. Wealth as a differentiator is also evident in Cady, who comes from the middle-class but her exciting experience makes her accepted in the plastics but becomes obsessed with richness and fame that it intoxicates her. The changing status also shows inequality evidenced by wealth as outlined by Rousseau. Wealth status also creates classes among the other students
Girls Like Us is an intimate portrayal concerning four girls who grew up all with different ethnic backgrounds and various forms of parental guidence. Anna Chau is Vietnames with strict parents and good beliefs, Lisa Bronca is a Caucasion Catholic, De'Yonna Moore is African-American with strong goals who lives with her Grandma and Raelene Cox is a young white girl who comes from a broken home with little parental guidence. Girls Like Us shows examples of structural functionism, and conflict theory, as well as symbolic interactionalism. This movie really intersted me because I actually got to see each of these girls grow up. This film also contained implications for the science of sociology.
In the film Mean Girls, teenager Cady Heron was home-schooled in Africa by her zoologist parents. When her family moves to the U.S., Cady finally gets a taste of public school and learns a vital lesson about the cruelty involved in the tightly knit cliques of high school. She eventually finds herself being drug into a group of “the worst people you will ever meet”, The Plastics; and soon realizes how they came to get their name.
Mean Girls is a comedy film aired in 2004 this film captures the influences on lifespan development during adolescence. The main character Cady Heron was home schooled in Africa and now she must transition into high school where she is tested in different areas of her development. Throughout the film she becomes known as the new girl who is trying to figure out her self-identity. Cady integrates herself into a clique of girls known as the Plastics, soon enough Cady understands why they are known for their name. The Plastics run the school by the norms they have created and must always be followed otherwise it will lead into exclusion from the group. In order to be socially accepted social norms determining attitude, behavior, and status must
One of the major conflicts is the intrapersonal conflict Cady has with herself. Cady goes from being home-schooled in Africa to entering the “girl-world” in high school. Throughout the movie, Cady is trying to fit in, become popular and to get the attention of her crush, Aaron Samuels. This causes Cady to ultimately lose herself in the process of becoming Plastic. In the effort to take revenge on Regina for taking Aaron back, Cady loses her own self by attempting to be Regina. This gets Janis to notice Cady’s transformation especially when Cady throws party the same night of Janis’s art show and doesn’t even show up to the art show. Janis came to Cady’s house tell her: “You think that everyone is in love with you, when actually, everyone hates you.” Cady then has to decide whether she wants to become a better person or become someone she’s
To most people the movie Mean Girls is simply a silly teen chick flick and is not good for anything but pure entrainment. Even though Mean Girls is slightly dramatized, high school in reality is perfectly portrayed through this movie. Every high school varies but there is always a domain group of students. The socially powerful are the rich and beautiful girls and everyone else are the loyal subjects to their castle. However, there is a twist in Mean Girls, the message is actually positive. Mean Girls is sending a message that women should not criticize one another to feel empowerment, it is unattractive to men to be mindless, and that White Americans have domains over other races. This movie also implies that nothing wrong with being different from what society accepts.
Today, every one of us is spending more of his leisure time watching TV, listening to the radio or reading newspapers and magazines. The shows on the TV and the articles in the newspapers influence our decision process, shaping our perceptions for the world.