Leadership Of Cady Heron In 'Mean Girls'

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

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

The scene that best represents this idea is where the Plastics are at the Old Orchard Mall when they see that Jason and Taylor hanging out. This is when Regina steps up for her cliques and decides to hurt Taylor’s reputation for hanging out with Jason because Jason should only be with Plastics. So, she could keep the status and power of Plastics. Following that event, the Plastics and Cady go over at Regina’s house where Cady meets Regina’s abnormal mother. They go to Regina’s room and this is when the Plastics judge their bodies while looking at themselves in the mirror and Cady seems to be shocked by the number of flaws they point out in their selves. At this point, the camera shows the social distance between Cady and the Plastics separating Cady from the Plastics as Cady finds it hard to believe that perfect girls like the Plastics can find flaws in them.

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

She knew nothing of the cruelties of the high school world. During one scene in the movie, Cady’s teacher almost loses her job because of a lie that Cady spreads about the teacher dealing drugs.

The culture, or characteristics that are within a group, at Northshore High School, where Cady starts attending, is based on material items of social status and popularity at the beginning of the film. The language the girls use towards one another is rude and meant to bring each other down. By the end, the culture has changed to more nonmaterial items, such as accepting people for who they are, and the girls address one another positively through compliments and smiles. This culture, along with other ideas, is something that Cady has to learn as it is different from what she experienced in Africa.

What they didn’t see coming was that Cady would conform and actually become a plastic. Its clear to see that Cady’s personal behavior and morals values start to go down hill when she sees Regina kiss Aaron Samuels, the boy she has a crush on. After feeling devastated and heart broken, Cady decides to get revenge on Regina with the help of Janice and Damian. They accomplish this by giving her face cream that is actually foot cream, feeding her Kalteen bars that actually make you gain weight instead of loose weight, and ultimately get Regina’s friends to turn their backs on her after a nasty three-way call. Regina was then over ruled and kicked out of The Plastics leaving an opening for new Queen Bee Cady. Regina George now furious about loosing her leadership plans revenge against Cady by writing a burn about her self in her own “Burn Book.” The Burn Book is a book that Regina and her friends created to write multiple insulting comments about people from their school. Regina then makes photocopies of the pages from the Burn Book, including the one about her self, and throws them around the school for everyone to

“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”

Starting with the easiest to loom, judgment is used from beginning to end, being the base of the picture. The first to befriend Cady at her new school are Janis and Damien, the "unique art freaks", as others describe. They kindly show her around, and inform her of what is cool and what isn't. The Lunchroom is the most important, in that being where you sit is your social status, or your clique – they have the nerds, Asian nerds, jocks, varsity jocks, burn-outs, girls who eat their feelings, girls who eat nothing, sexually active band geeks, the Plastics, art freaks, and more. Just by reading the names of the different cliques, you can see emphases toward judgment and criticism that was used. If you are not in a certain clique, then you are not liked by or spoken to by that clique. Janis informs all of this to Cady the same day that the gorgeous Plastics, consisting of Regina- the Bratty Queen Bee- and the two princesses Gretchen and Karen, confront Cady and is asked by them to join them for lunch, because she is really pretty. Cady says that eating lunch with them is like leaving the real world and entering girl world, for example she is given a set of rules like only wearing jeans once a week, your hair can only be put back once a week, every Wednesday you have to wear pink, and so on. After lunch, when reunited with Janis and Damien, Janis insists that Cady keeps hanging

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

The last psychological perspective of psychology to compare “Mean Girls” to is the behaviorist approach. This approach emphasizes the importance of environmental and situational determinants of behavior. Simply because of the new environment that Cady is thrust into her entire behavior is changed. She acts completely unlike her normal self, adapting and becoming an expert at backstabbing and manipulating. Through her manipulation she learns to control everyone around her, because according to this theory people and situations influence each other

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”.

In life you will always have to faced many decisions that may impact your entire life. That is the case of Cady Heron, the main character of the movie “Mean Girls.'' Cady is influenced by Janis to destroy Regina George, the most popular girl in school. In order to destroy Regina, Cady and Janis make a plan on how to destroy Regina George. The three things on how Cady and Janis are going to destroy Regina are by having Regina boyfriend Aaron Samuels breakup with her then make Regina lose her hot body, and finally destroy her friendship with the plastics.

Norbury asks the entire senior class to raise their hand if they have ever been victimized by Regina George and nearly every single hand was raised. She does whatever she wants and thinks that everyone admires her. This is mostly because of the way her mom acts towards her and her friends. Regina's mom tries to be one of the teenage girls and gossip along with the "plastics." She even allows her daughter to drink underage. Regina's mom also allows the younger daughter to watch nudity on the television. Her care free, laid back parenting style plays a huge roll on how Regina acts towards her peers. In addition, Cady's parents are very strict. The first sign of this is in the beginning when they are very concerned with sending her to a public high school. After being exposed to the "plastics" and how they act, Cady begins to drink and participate in illegal activity nearly every weekend. Cady finds her wrong doings as an escape from her parents. This is because her parents are too strict and are constantly nagging her. Their uptight, strict parenting style is what leads to Cady doing unacceptable activities.

The desire of wanting to belong, Cady immediately begins to fail to resist peer pressure when she meets Janis Ian, an artsy, on her second day of school. Janis is a representation of a complete opposite of the female gender stereotypes displayed in the society. She has pale skin along with choppy died-black hair and wears very dark and heavy make-up, which makes her look like a goth. Janis also wears torn baggy clothing, which demonstrates her in a more masculine way than feminine. We see Janis as a shameless and an outspoken person, and referred to as one of the “art freaks” by The Plastics. However, Janis has no desire to fit in with in with The Plastics, more so she mentions them as “the worst people you will ever meet.” Janis as accepted all the mockeries she receives from the other students at school due to her rejection of popular ideas of how the ‘ideal’ girl should look and act. When she is giving Cady a tour of the school, a popular jock taunts at Janis, “Nice wig, Janis, what’s it made of?” Without any hesitation, Janis says, “Your mom’s chest hair!” Being said this, you can see that Janis is portrayed as being a strong and independent female character, despite the fact that she goes against the female gender roles. The film takes a positive step towards displaying the stereotype that female characters are also allowed to be strong and independent. Janis is a very talented art student who maintains a part-time job, while being a full-time student, and ends up in a