Mean Girls: A High School Social Experiment

The movie “Mean Girls” is based on a real story in high school social groups. Cady Heron was a new girl in high school. She has been homeschooled in Africa for her whole life, so she wanted to learn how people in school behave and socialize. It was difficult for Cady to adjust in the new school environment. Initially, Cady had difficulties finding a friend in the school. Her first day in school, she eats her meal in the restroom until she meets Janis and Damien. They encourage Cady to be a friend with one of the most popular group at school called the “Plastic”. Every girl in school envy them and with they would be a member of the group. Regina is the head of the group, and she does anything in her power to get what she wishes, and Gretchen and Karen are her followers. Most of the girls at school are obsessed with the idea of joining Regina’s group because they are royalty in the high school. Since Cady is a pretty girl, the Plastic group was threatened by her and wanted her to join them so that they can control her and the boys who pay attention to Cady. Cady joints them and they will succeed to changer her thoughts and actions. Consequently, she starts acting like them and hide her friendship with Janis and Damien who

welcomed her in school at first.
Firstly, one of the concepts from the text book in this movie is self-disclosure, particularly when Regina shared rumors about Janis’s sexuality and ruins their friendship. Then Janis retaliates and seeks revenge. Therefore, she requests Cady to become a member of the Plastic group and collect personal information to ruin the group members. Jani wanted to disfigure Regina’s body by giving her bars to gain weight instead of losing as Regina was expecting. Even though the Plastic was a group, but they were not sharing personal information because of lack of trust and their friendship was not factual.
Secondly, the four girls were gossiping through the phone behind their backs. When Cady told Gretchen and Karen that she has a crush on Regina’s Ex-boyfriend Aaron. They lied about hiding Cady’s secret from Regina, and they disclosed it to Regina. With bad intention, Regina offers Cady an assistance with Aaron situation. She offers that she would speak to Aaron on behalf of her and express Cady’s feeling to him. However, Regina told Aaron negative behavior and lies about Cady so she would win Aaron back.
Thirdly, in order to feel better person, Regina uses harsh language to degrade other student in the school. She was given a negative feedbacks and insulting others by their looks and the way they dress up. Throughout the movie, Regina’s language was abusive to others, and whenever she uses positive language she would not mean it. For instance, when she gives deceiving comment to Cady’s bracelet to make her feel better. Another negative feedback was when she mentioned that Janis cannot attend her party because she is a lesbian.
Fourthly, Regina writes a “Burn Book” that contains rumors and shares it with the whole school.

As a result, this caused aggressive behavior between friends as they accuse each other for disclosing each other’s’ deep secret. Friends were fighting in front of the classroom and show verbal aggression towards each other. They did not effectively communicate or listen to each other to resolve the situation. Finally, the principle and the teachers interfere and solves their problem by suggesting to express their feelings to each other without aggression. There is no doubt that miscommunication or aggression can lead to a significant problem between people, and the only way to avoid it is to listen to each other before jumping into the

conflict.