Mean girls is a 2004 teen comedy film about how girl social cliques in high school can be evil and damaging to the lives of other around them. Cady Heron grew up and was homeschooled all her life in Africa, until she was the age of 16 and her parents moved her to the suburbs of Illinois. This is where she got a taste of what public school was really about: the cruelty and rules of popularity that divide the school into several groups. Unfortunately, Cady stumbles upon the wrong set of friends known as “The Plastics”. However, Cady soon comes to realize that she dipped her foot into the wrong pool. This film presents multiple psychological phenomenons such as narcissism, regression aggression, displacement, self-concept, etc… However, the most prominent psychological principle that is illustrated in the film, is from the reading and PowerPoint, and also has primed the phenomenons listed above is defensive self-esteem (Alisha R. Pollastri, 2010). Self-esteem is the confidence in one’s own abilities. On the other hand, defensive self-esteem is an individual who is affected by external factors such as the evaluations, and opinions by others around them. These external factors can influence one’s self esteem levels. They can influence it by becoming insecure, narcissistic. It also can display displacement and relational …show more content…
aggression. For example, in the very beginning of the film, Regina George, the antagonist of the film, was simpling sitting with her clique and very much in control of her surrounding right until she spotted Cady. She took one look at Cady and was determined to corrupt her. Only reason for that though was because Regina felt threatened by Cady. As shown in an article by Psychology Today, Regina represents type 3 behavior which is her insecurities is what makes her want to stay on the top of the hierarchy tree (Greenberg, 2015). Regina knew that if she didn’t take Cady under her wing, she would most likely lose her spot at the top. Regina knew that she was number one, the most beautiful and popular girl at school, and would do anything to maintain that status. Therefore, she invited Cady to sit with her and her clique: Gretchen and Karen. Regina was well aware that her self-esteem was at risk and hence she seized an opportunity as her defensive mechanism; she became “buddy buddy” with Cady. Another example was when Cady confided in Regina about how she likes Aaron, even though he is Regina’s ex-boyfriend. And Regina said she would talk to Aaron on behalf of Cady, but later comes to bad-mouth her basically and kisses him by the end of the night. Once again, Regina has used a defensive mechanism because she was insecure, had low self-esteem and knew her reputation was on the line. Cady poses as a threat to Regina, claims Aaron belongs to only her and no one can have him besides her. Furthermore, the girls have a burn book, where they gossip about various people and write something hurtful down next to their picture.
These girls do this to make them feel better about themselves and use this as a form of displacement. They redirect their aggression to powerless objects or in this case pictures of fellow classmates (Stein, 2017). They display narcissism as they crave for admiration of themselves as they think they are better than those in the burn book and as they look at themselves in the mirror when in Regina’s room. But again, at the end of the day this is all due to low-self esteem and done in defense of one’s precious
image. Lastly, when Regina finds out that she has been lied and betrayed to all due to the hands and dirty work of Cady, she cannot handle it. Regina is one that has to be in control and now that she isn’t, she prepares to retaliate. This retaliation displays relational aggression. Girls can get super mean when those around them have wronged them especially when it's a “friendship” (Borba, 2016). Regina decides to use the burn book to her advantage. The only girls who were not mentioned in the book were Cady, Gretchen, and Karen, because they played a part in writing a few of the pages in the burn book. But, after being betrayed, Regina added herself to the book as a “fugly slut” to show that she definitely isn’t the one who wrote it. But she didn't stop there; she then went to the principal, and reported that she stumbled upon it in the girl’s bathroom. In addition, she ends up spreading copies of different pages throughout the book all around the school. This caused chaos throughout the school. Eventually, Cady took the fall for the entire burn book, and her high school career socially had gone down the drain. Since Cady took Regina down, Regina returned the favor. Throughout the entire film, self-esteem was always an issue, whether that be Regina, Gretchen, Karen or Cady. At some point, they all had low-self esteem and felt that they were at risk of losing their statuses. A fragile self-esteem can go a long way. It can cause those to have a defensive one, which leads them to aggressive behavior due to their insecurities.
Self-esteem is confidence in one’s own worth or abilities or self-respect. Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston and Jefferson from A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines both struggle with establishing a positive self-esteem or a sense of self-worth. Both characters get so overwhelmed by the supremacy of someone or something around them that they doubt their own power, thus, creating a feeling of doubt for themselves and the voice that they have. In order to gain a sense of high self-esteem, a person must endure points of self-doubt.
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,
Mean Girls tells the story of Cady Heron’s transition from 12 years of home school in Africa to public high school in the United States when her mother gets offered tenure at a nearby college. Upon her arrival, Cady bonds with Janice and Damian who are considered apart of the “out crowd”. Janice and Damian give Cady the scoop on all of the social cues and how to navigate her new territory. When she is invited to join the most popular clique in the school, “The Plastics” Cady is placed in the middle of revenge and is encouraged to invade the lives of the girls to steal their secrets and eventually uproot their lives. Although this movie is primarily focused on revenge (which can be correlated with coercion, the least ideal form of leadership)
Adolescent egocentrism can occur when teenagers think they have an imaginary audience or think people are more concerned with their appearance and behavior than they really are. In the movie Mean Girls, Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, Cady Herron, and Karen Smith are referred to as the "plastics" by their fellow classmates because of their self-absorbed personalities and glamorous looks. They have a book titled "The Burn Book" in which they talk about everyone in the school in a very nasty way. They believe that these people are concerned with how they look and act at all times. Gretchen Wieners said, "I'm sorry that people are so jealous of me...but I can't help it that I'm so popular." In the beginning of the film, Cady has a very humble personality in which her true friends admire. However, as the movie progresses Cady begins to think that everything she does is important to all of he...
Self-esteem involves evaluations of self-worth. People with high self-esteem tend to think well of others and expect to be accepted them.
Mean Girls is about a girl named Cady Heron, who relocates from being homeschooled in Africa to high school in the United States. At first, she is naive to the status hierarchy of cliques that are prevalent in the school. But what turns from innocent sabotage of the school's top-of-the-food-chain clique known as "The Plastics" with the first friends that she met upon arrival to the school, becomes her transformation into their cold, hard, shiny, egocentric world.
As preteens and teens push for increasing independence from their parents, they tend to turn to their peers for guidance, acceptance, and security. For those who are low in self-esteem and confidence, their safety lies in fitting in and having a place to belong. Most people find a group in which they connect with in a healthy way while others make their way in cliques that give them security but at the price of their own values and individuality. The movie Mean Girls portrays how high school female social cliques operate and the effect they can have on girls. I will argue how if one doesn’t have a strong sense of self-identity, the opinions of others will become their identity.
Mean Girls is an example of conformity. In the movie, the main character, Cady, moves from being home schooled in Africa to going school for the first time. During her first week of high school, she meets a group of girls who call themselves the “Plastics”; this group of girls follows a set of rules and if they do not follow them, they are excluded from the group. Cady decides to join the Plastics, by joining the Plastics she has to change her behavior and appearance. The pressure to fit in and have friends in high school f...
Living in a mental hospital for almost two years, Susanna Kaysen wonders why she is there and if she belongs there. Without getting any true answers from her doctors, she struggles to accept her disorder and working to get rid of it. The movie, Girl Interrupted is full of psychological principles I’ve learned throughout the year, which play a role in how Susanna grows as a character. Besides the fact that Susanna has a Borderline Personality Disorder, she is a victim of conformity and self-fulfilling prophecies. These principles are what determine if Susanna is sane or not, and if she will be able to come
In the movie Mean Girls the “plastics” are perceived as rude, girls who cheat on their boy friends, and fake. The word fake is expressed by the lack of realness in the plastics, they might say one thing to a persons face but behind their back it’s a different story. During the story line of the film punishment is presented as Regina George loses her idolization following being hit by a bus. This punishment portrays ethics in the sense of Regina was unkind to her surrounding, cheats on her boyfriend, lies to her peers, disrespectful to her mother. As the story goes on Regina starts to lose friends as they begin to realize the kind of person she really is. This is presented as a source of punishment as well as toward the end of the film Regina gets hit by a bus to conclude her punishment of their wrong doing that portrays ethics. The movie the good girl does portray ethics with the pregnancy and cheating on her husband but the impact the punishment made to Regina in mean girls has a much greater
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
Mean Girls (2004) is a movie that captures the challenging obstacles, excitements, and the letdowns that the adolescents face during high school. Although the movie is greatly exaggerated and does not hold to the true essence of reality, the film portrays the struggles an individual faces during adolescence. The protagonist of the film, Cady Heron, moves into the suburbs after being raised in Africa by her two scientist parents. As Cady is now enrolled into an American high school, she struggles to find her sense of self-identity as she encounters multiple groups of friends and she tries to fit-in by trying to find the status quo of the “American-high-school-way.” The film also emphasizes the development
The movie that I chose to do my analysis on, is Mean Girls because it is my all-time favorite movie. I watched it a million times, it never gets old and plus I know every single line in the movie. The main character Cady, played by Lindsay Lohan, exhibits how to go from being a nerd, popular, hated and rehabilitated all in one school year. It’s hilarious movie about high school but, it also covers many interpersonal concepts that we learned in class like: verbal communication, conflict and relationship dynamics. Before I provide my analysis, I’ll present my brief summary on the movie Mean Girls.
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.