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The effects of peer pressure
Essay about mean girls the movie
The effects of peer pressure
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The film, Mean Girls, is about a teenage girl named Cady Heron. She was educated in Africa by her scientist parents. When her family moves to the suburbs of Illinois, Cady finally gets to experience public school and gets an understanding on the cruel, tacit laws of popularity, that divide her fellow students into tightly knit cliques. She unwittingly finds herself in the good graces of an elite group of cool students called "The Plastics," but Cady soon realizes how her shallow group of new friends, Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, and Karen Smith, earned this nickname. I will discuss how Radical Feminist Theory, Queer Theory, and Anti-Racist Theory, are used to criticize the movie. First, Radical Feminist Theory aims to understand the nature …show more content…
We tend to change our perceptions of ourselves to conform to the social norms. Even the “prettiest” girls experience self-esteem issues. In Mean Girls, Cady befriends a group of materialistic, judgmental girls who are called “The Plastics.” “The Plastics” are meant to drive for perfection. They are obsessed with their self-image, especially, the group’s leader, Regina George who always says, “I have to lose three pounds” (Mean Girls). Their body image gives the girls power, the skinnier and hotter they are, the more they can judge others who are not like them. Radical Feminist Theory criticizes the notion of beauty image. There is no one type of beauty, but this movie shows that one body size, one skin color, and one type of fashion, is beautiful. For example, all of “The Plastics” are skinny, lighter skin/white, and have long, straight hair. When Cady goes to Regina’s house with “The Plastics”, she finds out that even the prettiest girls find things wrong with their bodies. The girls are obviously beautiful, but while standing in front of a mirror, they criticize their bodies. Regina thinks her pores are huge, Gretchen thinks she has a weird hairline, and Karen thinks her nail beds suck. Sheltered Cady says, “I thought there was only fat and skinny, but apparently there are a lot of things that can be wrong with your body” (Mean Girls). Teenagers, usually, focus on the tiniest things to try to make themselves
In the article “Beating Anorexia and Ganing Feminism,” Marni Grossman shares her experiance of how she overcame her struggle with anorexia through understanding the feminist movement. Marni objectafies the ways in which society’s expectations and ideas of what it means to have “beauty” is having and negitaive impact. I had a very similar experiance to Marni, in fact the first time I hated my apperance was in the seventh grade. I have olive skin and bold brows, features which i was often complamented on, yet hated. Shawn and Lee argue that “there is no fixed idea of beauty”, suggesting how social ideals from society differs depending on the culture (183). I remember A male student was bullying all the females in the class by Inscribing Gender
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,
In our modern world, sociology has a tremendous impact on our culture, mainly through the processes and decisions we make everyday. For movies and television shows especially, sociological references are incorporated throughout the storyline. A movie which includes many sociological examples is Mean Girls. Mean Girls is a movie based on the life of home-schooled teenage girl, Cady Heron, who moves to the United States from Africa and is placed in a public school for the first time. Cady finds herself in many uncomfortable scenarios and has to deal with the trials and tribulations pertaining to everyday high school issues. Her experiences involve interacting with high school cliques, such as ‘the plastics’, weird high school teachers, relationships,
...s a classic that shows just how nasty adolescent girls can be under typical circumstances. Nearly every character at one point shows adolescent egocentrism. There are numerous lifespan concepts covered throughout the movie. Cady Herron is a perfect example of how tough high school can be for an adolescent girl going through multiple changes. She goes through a lot more than the typical adolescent girl. However, I think she shows how staying true to yourself is important when going through high school. The "plastics" do a great job of displaying different relationships with peers. They have strong relationships with each other, but struggle to form these relationships with anyone outside of their group. All in all, Mean Girls does a great job of displaying parenting styles, egocentrism, relationships with peers, self worth in relationships, and juvenile delinquency.
To begin, social media has created unrealistic standards for young people, especially females. Being bombarded by pictures of females wearing bikinis or minimal clothing that exemplifies their “perfect” bodies, squatting an unimaginable amount of weight at a gym while being gawked at by the opposite sex or of supermodels posing with some of life’s most desirable things has created a standard that many young people feel they need to live up to. If this standard isn’t reached, then it is assumed that they themselves are not living up to the norms or the “standards” and then therefore, they are not beautiful. The article Culture, Beauty and Therapeutic Alliance discusses the way in which females are bombarded with media messages star...
In the movie, 16 year old Cady Heron was the daughter of zoologist parents. They had been on a 12 year research trip in Africa before returning to the states so Cady was homeschooled most of all her life. While attending public school for the first time, Cady is swept away by who she thought she was to the new person she had become. A “plastic” is what she had become. The Plastics were the most popular girls in school, but also the messiest and most insecure. Downing others to make themselves feel better was what The Plastics lived for. It took for chaos, confusion, and betrayal for them to get to the gist of who they really are as individuals. The adolescence period in one’s life is a very tough and exciting time. A teen is constantly going through changes daily; physically, mentally and emotionally. Those with a strong sense of self make a smooth transition during this period, while others still looking for a sense of belonging seem to struggle. During the middle school years, they begin to develop more interpersonal relationships and peer acceptance be...
The movie 'Mean Girls' is about a girl Cady who was homeschooled until the age of 16. Then she entered high school and met plastics (a group of mean teenage girls). She started becoming like them to fit in and gain acceptance by others. Then she realized her mistake and that people don’t like her so she apologized to people she has hurt. In this paper, I will demonstrate how tactical impression management, situated identity, and peers as the agent of socialization apply to various scenes in the movie. Tactical impression management; The control of information by using conscious, goal-directed activities to influence impressions is called tactical impression management. (DeLamater, Myers, & Collet, 2015). People want others to like them, fear
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.
In a world where many are led to believe that they fall short of what society depicts as “perfect”, it is still true that everyone is beautiful in their own way. There are even more demands on girls now a days than there has ever been before. Some may think they need to fit in, so they become someone they are not or they begin to act like a totally different person. “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy, illustrates society’s high and unrealistic expectations on the physical appearance of women, while failing to see that a woman’s self-esteem is at risk of being diminished.
The Social Conflict Mean Girls: A Sociological Perspective Social Conflict sees society as a stadium of disparity that creates clash and social
Gender inequality is a matter that deals with unequal treatment which revolves around feminism and intersectionality, both of which focus on analyzing gender disparity. The movie ‘Mean Girls’ highlights the notions that constructs female antagonism as deviant. Mean Girls was a high budget teen comedy film, written by Tina Fey, released in 2004. It has been known to be relished thoroughly by the adult set as well as its apparent target audience, teens. The movie centers on a protagonist Cady, who has been homeschooled in Africa all her life and is completely new to the social structure of high school. She moves to Chicago, Illinois, where she first sets foot on the ground of North Shore High School. Two students, Damian and Janis ally with her, but when the Plastics, the most popular girls in the school, contend for her attention, she is sent in as an infiltrator by Janis to scout the Plastics and weaken Queen Bee Regina George’s unkind supremacy. As Cady gradually tries to undertake her objective, she winds up becoming a Mean Girl herself, brushing off her friends, and continuing her life under the influence of the plastic lifestyle. Considering that the movie is female dominant and plunges into issues like resentment, envy and body image ideals, many people acknowledge Mean Girls as a feminist movie.
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
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.
In American culture today, society's view of beauty is controlled by Hollywood, where celebrities are constantly in the lime-light. The media watches Hollywood's every move, and is quick to ridicule “A-listers” whenever they dare to gain a few pounds or to let an uncontrollable pimple show. The media has created a grossly distorted mental image of what should be considered beautiful, and with almost every junior high and high school-age girl reading and viewing this message, the idea has been instilled in them as well. This view of beauty is causing many teenage girls to become obsessed with a highly problematic and unattainable goal of perfection.