Mean Girls Essay

In the 1960s, people were focused on the civil rights movement, the Vietnam war, and the hippie movement in general. Unfortunately, there was a subject that was not focused on and looked over by society, mental illness. In the 1960s, mental illness was in the era of deinstitutionalization, this lead to the release of thousands of people in mental health facilities being let lose, to defend themselves against the world and their own self. Even though this movement was trying to push people out of these facilities, they still had inpatient who lived within the institution, for example a Susanna Kaysen. Susanna Kaysen, an author who published her memoir in 1993, called Girl Interrupted, which gave readers a view into the mental health system

In understanding conformity, Bartleby the Scrivener warns of the risks of being too non conformist while Mean Girls chronicles the risks of too much conformity. In Mean Girls, Cady Heron conforms to a group of malicious friends known as the plastics. When first meeting with them she does not intend to become actual friends with them, but then she is lured by the reputation she will

For instance, right off the bat Cady mentions how it is like leaving the world, her reality, and entering a whole new world, now known as girl world. Girl world to her is a new reality and one she will have to adapt to. Cady gets herself into a culture that has many rules and strict requirements in order to stay in that group and fit in. Some rules are that she cannot wear a tank top more than two days in a row, she can only wear her hair in a ponytail once a week, and on Fridays she can only wear jeans or track pants. These are the new norms and requirements that Cady will have to acclimate herself to in order to fit in and be accepted. If she does break any of these rules she will not be able to sit with them at lunch, which is a rule for every member of the group. Breaking a rule in this culture means being kicked out of the group and being rejected to another group, such as the art freaks. Cady has to not only make sure she is following these norms, but has to be aware and consider the rest of the group when making decisions, such as taking a vote when asking someone to eat lunch with

In the movie “Mean Girls”, released in 2004, followed through the life of a girl named Cady, played by Lindsay Lohan. Cady faced a new chapter in her life when she attended in a high school for the first time. Where the “Plastics” rule the school and infested it with drama, the group runs by four teenage girls, Regina, the leader, Gretchen, the pretty princess, Karen, the dummy girl, and later on Cady joined the group as "a pretender". This movie truly shows what a teenage life at a drama infested high school looks like when teenagers that are not familiar with the American ways in socialize with other people and how to survive the potentially threatening lifestyle that could affect a person mental.

> Directed by Garry Marshall, Pretty Woman is a romantic comedy and a modernized Cinderella. The story involves the evolution of the relationship between the two protagonists, Vivian (Julia Roberts) and Edward Lewis (Richard Gere). In the film how a business arrangement between a business magnate and a prostitute quickly becomes a genuine loving relationship. In addition to their complex business relationship, Edward’s lawyer Phil (Jason Alexander) is one of many obstacles to the desired “fairy tale ending.” Edward and Vivian are two broken individuals. Vivian is prostitute who is dealing with the vicissitudes of life and Edward is a divorced man who recently broke up with his girlfriend. Vivian and Edward bring out the

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

Based on Rosalind Wiseman's non-fiction book, Queen Bees and Wannabes, the 2004 movie, Mean Girls, was directed by Mark Waters and the screenplay was written by Tina Fey. Through the use of cinematography and music, the viewers were able to experience the real high school society. Mean Girls is about a sixteen-year-old homeschooled girl and her first-time experience at a public high school. Through his movie, Walters portrays the damaging effects of female social cliques on every student in high school.

Identity was a common theme among the two short stories and Mean Girls as, Cady Heron slowly changed her attitude as the film progressed due to being identified as a “Plastic”, Andy was refused help even though he was stabbed because he identified as a Royal and Mary Maloney assumed the identity of a caring wife after just killing her husband. Firstly, Cady Heron at the begin of the movie was shown to be innocent and clueless as she has homeschooled in Africa her whole life but, as soon as she was accepted by Regina George to become a “Plastic” she drastically changed her attitude towards her peers. Cady gets confronted by Janis a close friend of hers and one of the main reasons she became a plastic, where she is infuriated because Cady had

It all began when Cady’s mom accepted a professorship at Northwestern University. For Cady, it meant that she was leaving Africa to move to the suburbs of Illinois. Also, she was no longer going to be homeschooled; instead she was going to attend Evanston High School. On the first day of school, she was stressed because in each of her

Through Cady’s subjective narration, the audience is able to experience how Cady transformed from a sheltered, homeschooled girl into a girl in the world of mainstream schooling. This helped to shape the subject of egocentrism throughout the film by showing how often times the pressure to fit in causes one to become vain. For example when the film begins, the audience hears how Cady is confused in the “world” of public school. She does not understand the social norms or how there is a sort of “hierarchy of classes” within the school due to the different levels of popularity. As the film progresses and she tries to fit in with the popular group of girls, the plastics, the audience notices how she begins to become self-absorbed. Cady tells the audience that she could feel herself getting more and more annoying and that she knew that the things that she was doing, such as ditching her friends and family for the plastics, were wrong but

Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) is a 16-year-old homeschooled daughter of zoologist parents (Ana Gasteyer and Neil Flynn). They have returned to the United States after a 12-year research trip in Africa, settling in Evanston, Illinois and having Cady attend a public school for the first time. New classmates Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damien (Daniel Franzese) warn Cady to avoid the school's most exclusive clique, the Plastics, who are led by queen bee Regina George (Rachel McAdams). The Plastics take an interest in Cady, however, and start to invite her to sit with them at lunch. Seeing that Cady is slowly becoming one of The Plastics, Janis hatches a plan of revenge against Regina, using Cady as the infiltrator.

The period of adolescence is crucial in the development of identity and social integration, and for many teens can be very trying. From the moment children begin attending programs such as daycare and elementary schooling, they are transferred from an environment that no longer exclusively contains their parents, to one where they are integrated with other children who are similar in age; also known as peers. In the United States, adolescents spend twice the amount of time within peer groups from a day to day basis than with their parents (Dijkstra & Veenstra 2011). The socialization that occurs within these peer groups plays a large role in influencing the behaviors of adolescents during this developmental period; whether reinforcing positive behaviors such as academic achievement or encouraging questionable behavior and delinquency. The importance of peer groups in contemporary society is accurately represented in the 2004 movie Mean Girls, adapted from self-help book The Queen Bee’s and Wannabees, depicting the life of a young adolescent who struggles to prove herself worthy of being accepted by the dominant social group. Whether it is deciding on identifying with the ‘Brains’ or choosing to imitate the ‘Cheerleaders’ in hopes of obtaining status, overall adolescent behavior is greatly influenced by their peer groups.

The main group that will be focused on in this paper is adolescent girls. The inspiration behind this is the fact that teen girl behavior is so fascinating that it gets made into movies. There have been many movies in history and in recent years that focus and accurately portray the sometimes-catty behavior of adolescent girls. One movie in particular that comes to mind when looking at adolescent girls is ‘Mean Girls’. The movie ‘Mean Girls’ shows bullying, specifically relation aggression between girls.

At the age of four I was absolutely positive that in the future my career was to be the real world Kim Possible. Yet, the next year something in me clicked; my mind had been set on becoming a singer, and ever since that moment twelve years ago it has been my path. I had convinced myself that I would stand on a stage, and every time I opened my mouth the notes would just flow out; gliding gracefully through the air, dancing to the music among one another, descending upon the audience in powerful crescendos. However, as I aged, my confidence in this vision would begin to sway.

Thank you all for being here for Carmen & Zach´s special day. I can't speak for Zach but Carmen has been waiting for this day her whole life. Carmen has been not-so patiently waiting ever since Zach swept her off her feet freshman year in high school. Zach and Carmen met at one of our very first ¨freshman party¨, she instantly fell in love. He wasn't quite on the same page as Carmen so she did everything she could to grab his attention. She danced all night, stole a spot next to him at the bonfire, and even chased after him just simply to get a picture with him. She did anything she could to be with him, she would come to his games hoping to stand out in the group of his fans and try to get a chance to talk in a long school day. Ever since