"Mean Girls" is a 2004 teen comedy film written and directed by Tina Fey. It has now gained cult classic status. Cady Heron, a young girl who was homeschooled in Africa and is now navigating the perilous social environment of an American high school for the first time, is the main character of the film. As Cady enters high school, she is exposed to a number of cliques, the most well-known of which being "The Plastics," a group of popular girls under the cunning leadership of Regina George. Cady experiences the highs and lows of high school drama, the social order, and personal development as she becomes embroiled with The Plastics. Despite taking a lighthearted and enjoyable approach, "Mean Girls" upholds a number of stereotypes regarding gender, socioeconomic class, and teenage behavior. …show more content…
Stereotypes that most stand out include the portrayal of "The Plastics." Queen Bee, Regina George, is presented as the quintessential cruel girl—beautiful, affluent, and merciless. Gretchen Wieners and Karen Smith, her sidekicks, are likewise stereotyped: Karen is the archetypal "dumb blonde," lending comedic relief with her lack of intelligence, while Gretchen is the insecure gossip, anxious for Regina's praise. The relationships between these characters, which are inflated representations of real-life personalities frequently encountered in high school settings, support the notion that deceptive behavior and surface-level traits are prerequisites for
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,
Her character and personality is a prime example of perfectionism. In the movie, she secures the title of “queen bee” within her group of friends. Regina controlled her friends on what to believe, what to say, and even what to wear. Showing no signs of sympathy, Regina refused to allow anyone below her standards of ideal into her small group of friends. Quickly, she mastered superiority making not only her friends feel inferior but also other peers. Annoyed at Regina’s manipulating, controlling, and self-centered ways, Regina’s group of friends turn their back to her. In the end, Regina loses her friends and becomes hated as a result of her perfectionism. Regina’s perfectionism leads to her social
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
...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.
The movie main character is Cady Heron who is a homeschooled girl. Her and her family lived in Africa for 15 years. They return back to the states and place Cady into a public school for the first time. Cady meets her classmates and finds a few good friends the introduce her to a group of girls called the Plastics. She ends up joining the plastics with the motive of bring them down because her new friend don’t like them very much and thought it would be funny. However, she eventually gets assimilated into the group of three unkind girls and starts to be just like them.
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,
When I watched this movie it was easy for me to see that the Plastics greatly affected how Cady and others at the school acted, talked, and dressed. In one scene Regina George, the ultimate mean girl and leader of the Plastics, returned to the locker room to find that her tank top had been cut in two places. She shrugged her shoulders and put it on, knowing
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
The film being analysed is the Breakfast Club, directed by John Hughes. Trapped in Saturday detention are 5 stereotyped teens. Claire, the princess, Andrew, the jock, John, the criminal, Brian, the brain, and Allison, the basket case. At 7 am, they had nothing to say, but by 4 pm; they had uncovered everything to each other. The students bond together when faced with the their principal, and realise that they have more in common than they think, including a hatred for adult society. They begin to see each other as equal people and even though they were stereotyped they would always be The Breakfast Club. The Breakfast Club highlights a variety of pressures that are placed upon teenagers through out high school. One of the most challenging aspects of screenwriting is creating characters that an audience can identify with, relate to, and be entertained by.
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
First, Cady is assumed to be black by her teacher when she mistaken her for an African-American girl on the first day of class and by Karen who is intrigued by her nationality “So if you are from Africa why are you white?”. Second, the name of her native country is ignored because Africa is often portrayed as one big rural country with jungle animals. As stated before, these statements are intently not directly offensive because they are addressed to white girl but this doesn’t make them less racist. On another hand, one of the high school’s clique is the “unfriendly black hotties”, this categorization entails that they are all as popular as the Plastics but are unfriendly because of their ‘un-whiteness’- even though Regina, Gretchen, Karen and Cady are as mean if not meaner. Asians are also targeted in this movie, as cool or nerds. It’s obvious that they are Vietnamese but are still labeled Asians following the “us vs. them” strategy. The representation of race in this film implies the primary rule to be popular which is to be white or else the person is considered less valuable.
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.