Mean Girls Culture

During the opening scenes of the movie Cady’s dad is shown handing her a brown paper sack lunch and telling her that there is a dollar inside so that she will be able to buy milk during lunch, he then tells her that she can ask “one of the big kids” where to buy the milk at. This sounds more like a dad talking to his kindergartner on the first day of school, not a sixteen year old on her first day of high school. This is showing the relationship between Cady and her parents. You always see that even though they are not directly controlling her they are still babying her, which is a part of balancing freedom and control (Santrock 395). A big part of adolescent develop is their need to become independent and their aversion to authority figures because of the mind set that are always right and they know best because they are now growing up. One thing that parents have to strive to achieve is the balance of supporting the child’s newfound independence and their desire to still have control over what is best for their child. Another time that you see Cady’s relationship with her parents is when she asks if she can stay home one weekend without them because they have tickets to a show but she wants to go to Janis’ art show. They protest telling her that she always comes, but then change their minds because they think she is responsible enough to stay home by

In the movie Cady had to learn new social norms. Every time she did something with out permission she would get yelled at. For instance when Cady went to the bathroom the teacher told her she couldn’t go without permission and when she asked the

Stereotypically, men and women have very different roles in the eyes of society. Gender roles and stereotypes have a history in religious, political, legal and economic systems. In reality, men and women are more alike than most people assume. Throughout the world there are struggles with identity, power, and violence occurring everyday between both men and women. The film Mean Girls, directed by Mark Walters, follows a young girl, Cady’s, transition from being home schooled to public high school. Cady enters the school’s group of mean girls, otherwise known as “the plastics”, which consists of Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, and Karen Smith. Throughout the film each character struggles with their true identity.

"Mean Girls", based on the book "Queen Bees and Wannabes" written by Rosalind Wiseman, was produced by Paramount Pictures in 2004. (Walters 2004, Wiseman 2002) The leading star, 15 year-old Cady Heron (Lindsey Lohan), recently moved to the suburbs of Illinois after being home schooled in Africa by her zoologist parents. During her first day of public high school, Cady befriends two teenager outcasts, Janice Ian (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese). They supply Cady with a map of North Shore High School in order to educate her to the 21 different cliques within the school. Even more, warning Cady to stay away from the "worst people you will ever meet", The Plastics. Which was comprised of three girls: Gretchen Wieners, a girl who's rich because her father invented toaster strudel; Karen Smith, the "dumbest girl you will ever meet"; and Regina George, "queen bee" the unofficial leader and the meanest one. The Plastics take an interest in Cady and invite her to join them, Cady is very unsure of this. She discusses this with Janice and Damian and they convince

Besides the personality structure, Freud also dealt with the conscious and unconscious of the mind. The conscious takes into consideration the mind’s current awareness while the unconscious is the impulses, wishes, and memories that have an effect on our thoughts and behavior without our knowledge of it. Cady ends up behaving in a way that she cannot believe simply due to the fact that she does whatever she can in order to fit in and belong. Her unconscious is driving her inappropriate behaviors, such as lying and underage drinking, so that she can be part of the popular crowd at her school. She later reflects upon her experiences that school year and realizes what she did was inconsiderate and wrong.

The movie Mean Girls shows examples of many social-psychological principals. Three of the major social-psychological principals depicted in Mean Girls are prejudice, discrimination, and conformity. According to Social Psychology and Human Nature textbook, written by Baumeister and Bushman, prejudice is a negative feeling toward an individual bases solely on his or her membership in a particular group. Discrimination is unequal treatment of different people based on the groups or categories to which they belong. Lastly, conformity is defined as getting along with the crowd.

The story begins when Cady meets two friends, Janis and Damien, who show Cady the ways of high school. This is a very normal way in reality and most would not think much of it. Unconsciously, Freud would say, that there is some sort of motive behind this behavior and that there is no possible way that there doing it just to be nice. But as the story goes on we do find out that Janis used to be best friends with Regina (queen bee of “the plastics”) and that their friendship ended due to Regina spreading a rumor that Janis was a lesbian. When Cady is asked by Regina to hang out she is very hesitant to do so and tells Janis what is happening. Janis gets overly excited and instantly her id, the pleasure seeking principle, of her behavior jumps into play causing her to completely ignore

Mean Girls is about a girl named Cady who joins an elite social group at her new school known as the Plastics. While socializing with the Plastics, Cady develops a new, mean girl, personality and ends up sabotaging the group’s leader, Regina, and becomes the new leader of the Plastics. Regina retaliates by spreading the burn book, a book the Plastics filled with insults and gossip about other students, around the school leading to a riot and Cady takes the blame. Cady realizes that her new personality is wrong and apologizes to the school, makes amends with her old friends, and forms a truce with Plastics who disband and become regular students (Mean Girls, 2004).

Commonly referred to as a classic by millennials, Mean Girls, directed by Mark Waters in 2004, allows an interesting critique of racism when viewed through a sociological lens. The story follows Cady Herron, a normal teenager- except for the fact that she grew up in Africa, homeschooled by her scientist parents- as she is forced to integrate into the public-school system in Illinois. Never having been in an institution like a public school, Cady quickly learns what not to do and who to hang out with. Through trial and error, Cady assimilates and becomes a ‘normal’ American teenager who is part of the ‘popular’ crowd, befriending “The Plastics”; Karen Smith, Gretchen Wieners, and their leader, Regina George. The story of Mean Girls is not as superficial as it seems. This film illustrates the perils of not only teenage life, but current life in America, and accurately depicts the struggles that minorities face. Looking at this movie through Functionalist theory, the racial aggressions present are part of a larger institution of the public school system; insinuating that the micro and macro-aggressions directed towards minorities are part of developing the future generation and teaching them to perpetuate racial inequality in America, allowing white people to remain the majority race and to reap the benefits that come with it. The complexity of the movie lies within an interesting discourse that examines the effects and functions behind the racist

The teen comedy Mean Girls, directed by Mark Waters, welcomes the protagonist (Cady Heron) into the stereotypical high school setting after being raised in Africa for all of her educational path. Cady, never being in a public-school setting, comes across the Plastics: Regina George (unspoken leader), Gretchen Wieners (gossip queen), and Karen Smith (the stupid, clueless one), who are at the top of the social pyramid. Befriended by the girls, Cady is left to decide whether or not she belongs in this clique or if her place exists in a different one. The use of satirist and comedic scenes throughout the film show the different sexist lenses and stereotypes that women are viewed with.

The film that I chose to do was the movie Mean Girls. This movie is filled with many funny characters and an amusing plot, but even though this movie has earned the crown of being the official “chick flick” it has a lot of psychological concepts that people really do not realize. However, when you really think about it, the movie has a lot to relate with when it comes to teenagers going into a new school because every teen that enters high school goes though the emotional and social stages of development. In this paper we will be looking at parts of the movie that focus on Cady and her stages of development as she goes through high school and deals with the Plastics, and then the Plastics themselves as well as certain aspects and things that revolve around them throughout the movie.

This will be an introduction to a few of the functions of education and how they relate to the experiences of Cady Heron in the movie “Mean Girls”.

The movie “mean girls” is about a sixteen-year old homeschooled girl named Cady Heron who lived in Africa for the last 12 years of her life. After 12 years she returns to the United States and is now going to High school. Attending public school for the first time in her life. The homeschooled girl entered girl world that is full of lies, drama, gossip, boys and rules. She started hanging out with the “Plastics” and become friends with. The movie showed many example of conflict management styles, it reflects on the American culture values and beliefs, and power style.

The need to create an identity for oneself is a strong human desire with an intensity that is equaled only by the craving to become part of a community. With such strong yearnings for individuality as well as a sense of attachment within a group, the most familiar consequence is conflicting emotions that are all too easily persuaded. The 2004 film Mean Girls exhibits various examples of identification and social influence as well as the level of persuasion they hold over the decision making process of the main character, Cady. After arriving at a new school, Cady is immediately accepted by two unpopular students, but then attempts to become noticed by the most popular group of girls, The Plastics. Once Cady is accepted by The Plastics, her moral compass, belief systems, and actions change in order to more closely reflect those around her and solidify her status

Cady is the 16-year-old self-taught little girl of zoologist guardians. They have come back to the United States in the wake of dwelling in Africa for a long time for their exploration. Her first companions in the school, Janis and Damien help her to conform with the school environment. She is cautioned to stay away from the school's most well known gathering, the Plastics, the gathering with Regina George as the pioneer, Gretchen and Karen. The Plastics appreciate Cady, welcoming her to sit with them at lunch and run shopping with them after school. After understanding that Cady has been acknowledged into the Plastics, Janis hatches an arrangement to get exact retribution on Regina, utilizing Cady to invade the Plastics.