Film Review- Mean Girls
The movie “Mean Girls” contained a lot of references to what has been discussed in our class. It has the tales of all different girls and their experiences in a stereotypical high school setting. The film contains scenarios dealing with the trials and tribulations of relationships, new and changing friendships, and finding one’s self. The character of focus is Cady Heron, played by Lindsay Lohan. Cady is starting a new high school with a blank slate of a reputation. Her experience mimics what a typical girl at a high school may go through in her life. I think that her life at this high school – complete with a complex artwork drawn by one of Cady’s new friends at school of the stereotypical lunch tables in their cafeteria- is generally a good representation of what a girl can experience in high school. Many of our readings – especially in Red- had to do with experiences of girls in high schools similar to the themes of this film- rejection, backstabbing, friendship, and influence of others.
Cady starts off meeting two friends, who are extremely opposed to the “Plastics,” who are the popular girls in school. She goes undercover to sabotage and research the three girls, only to find her genuinely associated with the Plastics as the movie continues. This shows what I think is one of the main themes in the film- influence during girlhood, a concept about experiences that girls go through while they grow up. Cady was easily influenced by the so-called glitz and glamour of the “Plastics,” and this influence led her to slowly go against her morals and ethics that she had started with before meeting these girls. This reminded me of some of what was discussed in our course. The girls in Red seemed to have overcome influences by others and gave off an independent vibe. In Mean Girls¸we watched Cady be easily sucked in to the ways of the popular clique, or the mean girls, in high school all the while learning that their life is not as glamorous as it seems.
Many of the stereotypes and occurrences in this movie about high school were generally exaggerated. In one scene, the gym teacher during a sex education class handed out the students condoms as he lectured, “Don’t have sex because you will get pregnant, and die.” This reminded me of The Purity Myth and what we discussed in our course about what girls and society are taught about sex. Some sex ed high school programs teach students that sex is “bad,” which is what this scene repeated in a stereotypical manner. This shows an influence on students from the school staff in which the students trust what the staff says about sex education, therefore contributing to the purity myth believed in society today. The manner of the leader of the Plastic’s mother – trying to be hip with her daughter and her friends and saying that she would rather them drink alcoholic drinks inside the house under her watch mimics reality of the life of high school girls. The mother is influenced by the so-called glamorous life of her daughter and her “popular” friends and basically lives vicariously through her daughter and her group.
In this film, Cady experiences backstabbing – done by herself to others as well as being done to her. Dangerous three-way calls and the suggestion of a weight loss bar that actually causes weight gain are just some of the tactics that went back and forth within the “Plastics.” This film exaggerates actual schemes, but it realistically shows just how easily a girl can be influenced, and then changed by that influenced, in a short period of time in her girlhood. Cady allowed the “Plastics” to influence her while losing sight of the things that mattered to her most. This film projected a somewhat real-life portrayal of what a girl presented in a new situation in a critical period of her life might encounter.
Cady starts off meeting two friends, who are extremely opposed to the “Plastics,” who are the popular girls in school. She goes undercover to sabotage and research the three girls, only to find her genuinely associated with the Plastics as the movie continues. This shows what I think is one of the main themes in the film- influence during girlhood, a concept about experiences that girls go through while they grow up. Cady was easily influenced by the so-called glitz and glamour of the “Plastics,” and this influence led her to slowly go against her morals and ethics that she had started with before meeting these girls. This reminded me of some of what was discussed in our course. The girls in Red seemed to have overcome influences by others and gave off an independent vibe. In Mean Girls¸we watched Cady be easily sucked in to the ways of the popular clique, or the mean girls, in high school all the while learning that their life is not as glamorous as it seems.
Many of the stereotypes and occurrences in this movie about high school were generally exaggerated. In one scene, the gym teacher during a sex education class handed out the students condoms as he lectured, “Don’t have sex because you will get pregnant, and die.” This reminded me of The Purity Myth and what we discussed in our course about what girls and society are taught about sex. Some sex ed high school programs teach students that sex is “bad,” which is what this scene repeated in a stereotypical manner. This shows an influence on students from the school staff in which the students trust what the staff says about sex education, therefore contributing to the purity myth believed in society today. The manner of the leader of the Plastic’s mother – trying to be hip with her daughter and her friends and saying that she would rather them drink alcoholic drinks inside the house under her watch mimics reality of the life of high school girls. The mother is influenced by the so-called glamorous life of her daughter and her “popular” friends and basically lives vicariously through her daughter and her group.
In this film, Cady experiences backstabbing – done by herself to others as well as being done to her. Dangerous three-way calls and the suggestion of a weight loss bar that actually causes weight gain are just some of the tactics that went back and forth within the “Plastics.” This film exaggerates actual schemes, but it realistically shows just how easily a girl can be influenced, and then changed by that influenced, in a short period of time in her girlhood. Cady allowed the “Plastics” to influence her while losing sight of the things that mattered to her most. This film projected a somewhat real-life portrayal of what a girl presented in a new situation in a critical period of her life might encounter.
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