Film Project:Mean Girls

Mean Girls, a 2004 film written by Tina Fey and Rosalind Wiseman, is a film overflowing with modern girl culture. The film tackles the issues of girls and family, sexuality, friendships, and school. The film documents 16 year old Cady Heron’s pilgrimage out of Africa and home schooling and into the modern and cruel world of American teenage girls and “The Plastics.” The Plastics are a group of gossiping, glamorous popularity queens who consume themselves with primping, shopping, and making everyone feel inferior to them. New to the school, Cady is befriended by the “Art Freaks” and delves into the clique of The Plastics accidentally where she serves as a spy for the Art Freaks. Soon enough Cady is in over her head both the audience and Cady find it difficult to understand where the Plastic ends and the real Cady begins. The film climaxes with the Plastics’ queen bee dethroned and Cady being revealed. As the film draws to an end Cady must evaluate just how Plastic she is and reconcile her persona with the family and friends she has hurt on her way to the top of the social pyramid.

Cady Heron is a perfect example of what many girls experience in their lives and specifically in high school. When Cady enters school she is like a “Martian” when compared to the other students. She is not up to date with the popular music or trends. She spends time with her parents and enjoys them, unlike the other girls, specifically Regina George (The Queen Plastic), who is constantly berating her mother. By the end of the movie Cady is lying to her parents and violating their trust by having parties in their absence.

Another very crucial part of Cady’s socialization in high school is her relationship to her academic progress. When she enters school, Cady is in 12th grade Caluclus and truly gifted yet, after meeting a cute boy in class, she is failing. She often feigns confusion in an attempt to talk to the boy and ask him to tutor her. The strange thing is, Cady continues doing poorly and even opts out of the math league all in an effort to not appear nerdy or too intelligent. We previously discussed a similar practice employed by many girls, especially in middle school, where they feel doing poorly is cool or where they simply stop achieving their previous level of success.

Body image is another theme addressed in the film. Cady is surprised when the girls were critiquing their bodies. She even goes on to say, I thought there was only skinny and fat. But now I know there’s much more to criticize about your body. Cady, unexposed to the vanity of the other girls doesn’t understand the obsession with looks, yet by the end of the movie she herself is constantly primping and glossing her lips. The most disturbing thing was how accepted unhealthy eating was to the kids in the movie. There’s are even designated lunch tables for the girls who eat their feelings and the girls who eat nothing, a group of about 5 girls sharing one diet coke. The film obviously sought to satire eating disorders yet it offered no real solution to the issues of body image and eating disorders.

Most importantly, Mean Girls highlights the extents to which Cady and the other girls go through to reach popularity. The worshipped Plastics are the center of everyone’s universe. One girl even says, “Once Regina George punched me in the face. And it was awesome!” I was completely taken aback during this scene. How can one think it’s awesome to be punched in the face?! The bottom line is that these Plastics are so exalted. All these girls know everything about the Plastics and the Plastics do not even know they exist! Girls, as we’ve learned, usually end up in cliques consisting of a few intimate friends yet in our readings there was consistently the theme of wanting to be popular despite the ramifications that come with it.