Mean Girls Group Communication Essay

High school can be a tough place for teenagers especially with the many pressures that surround communication. Each and every day, teens communicate on an individual basis to form new relationships, identities, and personalities. These processes are the basis for what sets up the communication process seen in groups. Throughout these ongoing processes of daily communicating, one forms different groups in which they identify and converse with. Essentially these groups can be formed anywhere from sports teams, class projects, social cliques, etc. Moreover, group communication is highly identifiable in high school settings, and is especially prevalent in the popular media film Mean Girls. Mean Girls is a well known “chick flick” that was released

in 2004 by director Mark Waters and written by comedic icon, Tina Fey. Mean Girls is a perfect example of the process of communication and how the stages of group formation and development happen to occur.
The film Mean Girls takes emphasis on the “new girl”, Cady Heron, a previously homeschooled girl who recently moved back to the U.S.

after living in Africa for a majority of her life. However, unlike most teenagers Cady will be starting her first public school expierence entering North Shore High School as a junior! Cady quickly realizes within moments of stepping onto the campus that North Shore High is a lot different from her old life back in Africa.

Groups are a huge trend in the film and this can been seen from the first ten minutes of the film, as Cady is debriefed on all the groups, aka cliques, of the school varying from outcasts, jocks, Asian nerds, plastics, wantabees, band geeks, etc. In all this shows the diverse community of North Shore

High.
The Plastics are the “Hail Mary” of all the groups in the school; it is the one group that every high school student, except Janis and Damien wanted to be apart of.

“The Plastics” are an elite and inclusive group of three girls, Regina George, Karen Smith, and Gretchen Wieners. These three girls are essentially known as the “untouchables” on the social totem pole, as this elite group is very distinguished and hard to gain an invitation of membership. However, on Cady’s first day the plastics showed an interest in the “new girl” and invited her to sit at their table for lunch, which is the golden baton of the elite. Furthermore, as Cady gets more wrapped up in the world that comes with the “plastic life”, Cady sways from her first friends Janis and Damien (the outcasts) and losses sight of the original plan of sabotaging Regina George. As originally, Janis and Damien planned on Cady getting close to The Plastics so she could get the juicy details on their behaviors and gossip and turn everyone at North Shore against Regina, however this didn’t happen!

Mean Girls is a unique example as there are so many different groups one can divulge into and categorize. In all, the movie surrounds one giant group in which can be divided into two smaller subdivisions, also known as subgroups. The main group focuses on Cady, Damien, Regina, Gretchen, and Karen. From there this group can then be divided even further, more specifically into two different subdivisions of groups. The main collection

of the group breaks down into the outcast (Damien, Janis) and the plastics (Regina, Karen, Gretchen), with Cady trading between the two groups.
In terms of defining these groups into specifics, the outcasts, Janis, Damien, and Cady would be defined as a task group. A task group as defined in lecture, is a type of secondary group in which is motivated or moved by working towards a goal or task, hence the name “task group”. The reason why Janis, Damien, and Cady would be defined as a task group is steamed by their impulse of turning North Shore High against Regina George by making the students and faculty realize how mean, manipulative, and straight out conniving she is. In retrospect, this task is fuelled by the want/need of exposing the Burn Book, a book in which conceals secrets, rumors, pictures, and petty gossip. Furthermore, the plastics (Regina, Karen, and Gretchen) would be defined as a reference group. The reason as to why the plastics would be defined as a reference group is because it is the group that everyone in North Shore compares themselves to and aspires to be. Consequently, reference groups are used to “provide benchmarks needed for comparison and evaluation of group and personal characteristics”(Wikipedia).
Overall, the outcast group possessed many characteristics in which defined them as an effective group. Firstly, they always met in areas that were environmentally effective, meaning that environments were well isolated so no one would find out about their plan. However, the response of commitment changed the group dynamic, as not all of the group members contributed equal amounts. Janis and Damien showed great commitment and focus in the group dynamic, while Cady was more in a sense a social loafer to the group progress. In a sense Cady had not been an effective team member and did not use her power of responsibility of being a plastic effectively, which ultimately led to conflict later down the road.
So why are groups so important? Groups are a fundamental way humans meet needs, it is a natural formation for humans, and “groups are a fundamental way” one uses to “identify with others, find love and esteem, and exercise power over others” (Galanes & Adams 5). Not only do groups share a related feature of interdependence, a common shared goal or objective, it is an idea of succeeding or failing as a group effort. In Mean Girls this idea of independence is shared with The Plastics, as they are all reliant on each other to be the top of the social ladder. In terms of the plastics, they maintained a social group function. The plastics relied heavily on strict norms, rules, attitudes, and values; and these norms can be seen throughout the film, such as “On Wednesdays we were pink”. Furthermore, alike the outcasts, the plastics also had a task related agenda, through the use of the burn book. The burn book represents a task related function because it was goal between the plastics to show superiority and power over their fellow classmates.
Following group dynamic and conflict is the idea of leadership and roles. Leadership is actually quite an interesting topic in the film Mean Girls as there is a diverse mix of leadership shown throughout. In the plastics, Regina is defined as an autocratic leader. An autocratic leader as defined by lecture is “an leader that set polices and gives a lot of orders”, they are someone who “wields power in forceful ways” and has “no regard for people”, which is the optimum of Regina George (Hess). Regina George is very much a leader who isn’t really a leader; she only cares for her personal benefit and will take down anyone in her path to stardom and fame. On the other hand, Damien takes the role of leader in the outcast group. Damien in regards to lecture would be defined as a democratic leader. A democratic leader as defined in lecture, is a leader who “facilitates group discussion, gives fair suggestions, and is in touch with the relationships of its members” (Hess). In the film this style of leadership can be seen when he nominated all the outcasts for Spring Fling Queen, he used a democratic style and looked towards the interest of the members of groups.
In conclusion, I think Mean Girls does a fairly well job in describing the roles of small group communication, even if a majority of the communication came out of malice due to gossip. But with that being said it is interesting to see the pathways and flow of communication throughout each group, as each one has a different dynamic and groove. Mean Girls while not really that realistic to high school life in real life, as there isn’t cat fights daily, burn books spreading like wild fire, teachers feeling bullied by a teenage girl, and students being hit by buses, this fictional yet entertaining movie does justice in terms of the communicative phase. One can see the different stages of relationship forming: from Norming, Storming, and so on, the different leadership styles, communicative norms and values between groups, and the different defined traits of the small groups. Moreover, its interesting to see how each group showcases their weakness and strengths and how they overcome challenges through group development and processes.