“On Wednesdays we wear pink”, is a famous quote by Gretchen Wieners from the movie Mean Girls. While this may seem like a cheesy high school tradition, authors Erich Fromm and Ian Parker would suggest that an act of authority was taken by the Plastics and obeyed by new girl, Cady Heron. . While both authors agree that authority was obeyed, Parker claims that people only obey to comply with the demands of their authority figures and what conditions surround them; while Fromm claims that people must disobey in order to be individualistic and create a new haven of obedience. Ian Parker, author of “Obedience”, would describe Cady feeling the need to obey orders because of her new high school surrounding as well as well as her being an “ordinary” …show more content…
Ian Parker believes that Cady felt the need the obey Regina George because her fear of what the outcome might have been if she didn’t obey. Ian Parker mentions the Holocaust and how the Nazi crimes “had been committed by people obeying orders…” and can be thought of as “ordinary” people (97). He claims the Holocaust crimes were only carried out since the Nazis only feared what the outcome would’ve been if they were to not obey. Parker would describe Cady’s obedience towards a Regina a result of Cady’s internal fear of what Regina may do to her if she were to not obey. Erich Fromm claims that people must disobey in order to be more individualistic. Fromm would explain Cady going behind her first highschool friend, Janis’, back through the story of Adam and Eve. Fromm describes Adam and Eve as a mythological story in which Adam and Eve lived in harmony with nature but decided to branch off and “cut the umbilical cord” in order to become more independent (124). So according to Fromm, Cady went behind Janis’ back because of her desire to loosen ties with Janis and become more individualistic. While these authors stem their claims from different pastimes, they both include real world examples to further analyze …show more content…
The Burn Book had previously been created by The Plastics and it consisted of cruel comments towards high school peers. After Regina found out Cady was only friends with her to to ruin her life, Regina went behind Cady and The Plastics’ back and released the book for the school to see. Fromm and Parker explain this sequence of events because of their individual claims towards obedience. Parker mentions that Stanley Milgram expected his test subjects to not comply with the demands of authority but was shocked when he found out the majority of his test subjects complied with little interjection (96). So while Regina thought she had Cady wrapped around her finger Cady was really going behind her back and trying to ruin her life. This was not anticipated by Regina and resulted in unexpected outcomes that in turn ruined the “friendship” they had. Fromm says “...obedience might very well, as I have said, cause the end of human history” (124). While the Burn Book did not end human history, it created an overdue amount of chaos throughout the school and ended the friendship between Cady and Regina. In total, both Fromm and Parker would agree that unexpected outcomes are a result of people complying with the orders of authority figures.
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
After reading over the description of our film analysis paper, the movie "Mean Girls" that was produced in 2004, came into my mind because this movie contains several sociological themes. Although the film is over a decade old, most high school students seem to be able to relate to this film today since it shows us examples of sociological conflicts such as social conflict theory, social class, and sexuality.
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).
Regina George’s friend group is comprised of Karen and Gretchen. Their friendship is difficult at times. They share secrets among each other, for example the burn book is a secret between the girls. When Cady is included into the friend group she is then entrusted with the group’s secrets. This group of “Plastics” are friends by choice and always ask for each other’s
As Cady gets to know the plastics they begin to introduce her to The Burn Book. This book is a perfect example of prejudice and discrimination. Prejudice is hostile or negative feelings about people based on their membership in a certain group. Discrimination is behavior directed against persons because of their membership in a particular group. The Burn Book was a book that singled out anyone in their school whether it was fellow students or even faculty members, and would basically list things that were wrong with that person. For example, they stated in the book that one of their newly divorced female teachers was selling drugs on the side and that certain girls were fat and ugly. Some examples would also stereotype because of a part of sports team or group those students were part of. For example, the students that were part of a more man like sports team such as lacrosse or field hockey was considered “lesbians” or “dykes”.
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
As Janis is telling Cady about the different cliques at their school, she ponders "How do I begin to explain Regina George?" This is followed by comments and opinions by different students ': "Regina George is flawless" "She has two Fendi purses and a silver Lexus". The fact that the second comment made about her describes the products that she owns says a lot about our consumer culture and recognition of brands, and the way we look up to people. Mean Girls emphasises that Regina is "fabulous, but she 's evil" - despite her attractiveness and the respect she is given, her behaviour and personality leave much to be desired. Even though she is downright nasty and universally hated, people still want to be like
Finally, throughout the novel Bradbury presents a conflict between ignorance and understanding. The general society is being numbed into believing that knowledge makes people disagree with each other and unhappy. To prevent people from reading and gaining knowledge, the firemen burn all books. By committing these actions, they are promoting sameness and ignorance, to supposedly maintain happiness among society. Captain Beatty explains the history of firemen to Montag, speaking of their society’s view of equality. “We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal . . . A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man’s mind.” (Bradbury, page 58) Captain Beatty is hinting that books encourage people to question authority and think about why things are done the way they are
Cady is used to living in a society, or a group of people that share the same beliefs and values as her, where adults trusted her, and she had the freedom to do almost anything she wanted. When she switched from homeschool to public high school, she was met with a new set of norms, or the behaviors that are expected by teachers and peers. Cady could not go to the restroom whenever she want; she
Similar to the stereotype of physical appearance connected to identity, appearance is also connected to power among the girls in Mean Girls. Because of the role appearance plays in one’s identity and power, Regina George in Mean Girls pays close attention to her appearance. While watching Regina and her friends attend their P.E. class, Janis and Damian explain Regina George to Cady.
“Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings” is a famous quote said by Heinrich Heine, which relates to the concept of book burning, seen in the novel Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury uses his unique literary style to write the novel Fahrenheit 451; where he brings his readers to a future American Society which consists of censorship, book burning, and completely oblivious families. The novel’s protagonist, Guy Montag, is one of the many firemen who takes pride in starting fires rather than putting them out, until he encounters a seventeen-year-old girl named Clarisse McClellan. As the novel progresses, the reader is able to notice what Clarisse’s values are in the novel, how her innocence and
They throw the books down the stairs, pile them up, and pour kerosene everywhere. Not only were they willing to burn the books, but the woman as well, and the government doesn't care because they set the rules, and they think the ends justify the means. The means being burning everyone and everything, and the ends being that there are no books left, so they think it’s okay to have unjust control. Another example is on page 117, they make Montag burn his own house down and then tell him he’s under arrest. All of that just for owning some books? That’s ridiculous, cruel, and overly controlling. Page 33, another example, Montag asks Beatty “I-I've been thinking. About the fire last week. About the man whose library we fixed. What happened to him?” Beatty then says “They took him screaming off to the asylum,” this really is a good example of oppression, a man owned books, so they sent him to the mental ward of a hospital, and sometimes they send them to jail. It shows how the government has cruel treatment just because they are in control, and that’s how some things are today. At school, for a small scale example, we aren't allowed to use our phones between classes, it wouldn't hurt anything if we were allowed to, it wouldn't make it easier to cheat, or break any other rules, yet we aren't allowed to do it just because they say so, and the government, which has way more power, can, and does, do things just like this except on a much larger scale.
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.
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 political cartoon I created covers the topic of conformity and the feminist movement in the mid to late twentieth century. Depicted in the cartoon, I have included a teenage girl arriving at school, as well as a student body attempting to enter the school. While creating this, the use of grays surrounding the student body was meant to be significant because it represents the dullness of conformity and lack of individuality. The girl, however, is colored in and is depicted wearing a pink dress, a small detail that was still thought out due to the fact that pink is seen as a feminine color.